JD Smith

Hire at your own risk. JD was not punctual. He would confirm start time at 9am and an hour later, we would have to call him to see where he was. JD was a poor communicator. He did not return phone calls promptly. His VM box was often full. When he did call back, he told us he was been busy working on other jobs. JD is not honest. He underbid the bathroom tile job so he could get it. We met JD from our neighbors one block over. We paid him to build us a fence and put an awning over our existing percola. As he was finishing this job, we asked if he had tiling experience. He said yes, this was not a problem, this was going to be a basic job. He asked what my budget was, and I said 500 including materials. He said he could do it for 300 cash. We were wary because he bid on our neighbors bathroom and they told us that their contractor busted JD for saying he could do some things when he really couldn't. But I was like, give him a chance, how could he screw up on basic home depot tiles that already came in a sheet? Tiling area for the bathroom was small. 5x5' only. JD estimate the job to take 2 days. One day to demo and lay down tiles. 2nd day to grout and seal. Demo and new floor took 2 days on it self. Halfway through, he left to work on another job because he had "fitted us in". He would not confirm a time when he would come back to finish and said he would ?call?. When he did come back, he had trouble cutting the tile with his saw. JD laid down the tiles that did not need to be cut. Put a towel over it and said he would come back and grout. He came back to cut the tiles for the perimeter and it cracked. I pointed it out and he agreed to come back with a new blade. Second time, still did not work. He said he could fix the jagged tiles by the threshold by covering it with a new threshold. To get this threshold to fit, he cut into the hardwood floor in an attempt to fit the lip in. It did not work. JD was frustrated. Said he had to leave to work on another job. Would not confirm when he would be back. Phone calls to him were left unanswered. Several weeks went by. When he called, he said he had been working on a bigger job. We now have numerous cracked tiles, places where tiles have not been grouted. There are holes in our hardwood floor. The threshold is thrashed. It has now been about 3 months since he started the job. Keep in mind that we only have 1 bathroom. JD?s VM box was full and there was no way to get a hold of him. Desperate. I called Doug Sinclair, a licensed contractor/tile designer come over and assess our damages. He confirmed JD had done the entire job incorrectly. We called JD to confirm that we got a second opinion. He said he would make good to us since he respected Doug. Instead, he came over and got into a yelling match over saying we were too picky. All I wanted was the tile to be straight. He said he would try and re-do them again, get new tiles, get them cut by a contractor. He disappeared.3 weeks went by and after numerous calls, JD admitted he couldn't find anyone to cut the tiles. Someone on venicemom's yahoo group posted in Feb 2013 of this year that he did some work on their heater and stole from their home. You can go and do a search to see it. I vouched for him then but I learned my lesson. Never again. He is not of integrity. His work is mediocre and his attitude is p*** poor. We've lived in our house for 12 years, and have done lots of re-modeling to it and have never met anyone like this. Piece of work! 2 weeks ago, JD came over and ADMITTED to messing up the job. Agreed to give us back $ minus materials. We were ready to call it a day, get the $260 back and save up to have Doug do it right. JD said he was going to have it last Friday. He didn?t show. We called him. After 4 straight days of calls, he called back. He said changed his mind about the refund. My husband called him. They settled on $200 for materials only. JD said he is going to have it for us Friday July 5th, but it did not happen. Now we are still out materials and labor for this job.

He saved us about $2,000 as compared to an estimate provided by another company the day before. He also does other general contracting work and is a great handyman.