Custom Ventures

First a disclaimer/clarification: this company was selected as a sub contractor through a kitchen remodel company because the tile person they normally use was unable to do the job. I don't know if that impacts who they send out or the amount effort they put into the job but I wanted to be up front that Custom Ventures was not selected directly by us. This company came out to lay 13x13 tile in my small galley kitchen. When they removed the baseboards to thinset and tile they broke several in half. During the removal process they put a gouge completely through the drywall from the pry bar they were using (~1.5 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall hole). I had a large patch of blanket flowers in the middle of my backyard, they dumped their excess thinset in the middle of the bed, about 3 medium shovels full of it. Coated and killed the plants it fell on and hardened into a rock (as thinset does). So I will need to pull the whole bed since there are 3 large sections coated on the plants. They left what I believe was grout powder (it was different than the thinset in color) on my drive way near the shed in a large pile which stained my driveway as well. The tile work itself was fair, except they didn't split the difference between two tiles when it came to the wall. Meaning, I have a 2x13 row of tile along the wall instead of them dividing the distance between tiles on each opposite wall. It isn't the end of the world but if they had done some basic math while laying it out it would have been significantly better. There was a decent smear of grout wiped on the toe kick of one of my cabinets as well, which you don't really see but why not just wipe it up as your laying the tile in the first place? This last one is a minor gripe but just to add to the laundry list, they threw cigarette butts all over the driveway and porch. There had to have been close to 10 cigarette butts littered around. In closing, I don't know their pricing since they were subbed out from my kitchen remodel company. I do however know I would never recommend this company to anyone. I do not appreciate the lack of professionalism from this company.

Over all Ryan did great work. But in the end he took $550.00 and did not do the work. He just took the money and never got back to us. We paid almost $4,000.00 and were more then happy with his work. I was prepared to and did recommend his work. I waited quite a long time to post this report. It is not a good feeling to attack someone's reputation and I do not take this lightly. Earlier I rated his overall work as an "A" (and I truely believed this). At this time all I can up with is an "F". To get my money back I am forced to go to small clams court and soil his reputation even more. The people who recommended him and the suppliers he worked with, gave him nothing but high praise. I do not know what happened, but I can not just do nothing. In conclusion do not give a contractor money for work before the job is done and make check payments directly to supplier for materials if possible.

They came in about 8am on Monday, started working and have completed most of the work by Thursday. We need to install the shower door next Monday after the tile has settled.