David Carvalho

I made initial contact with David on the recommendation of a friend that had worked with him. After David emailed me some photos of tile work he had done in other homes and apartments, I made arrangements to meet with him while I was going to be in Honolulu for two weeks, to renovate a studio apartment. After I cleaned out the apartment, the main jobs initially were to tile the floors and tub/shower surround, replace the kitchen counters, and install a new toilet, sink, garbage disposal, and two-burner cooktop. I picked out the tile and ordered the cooktop and other items. At our initial meeting, David recommended that the tub surround be kept and simply cleaned and re-caulked at the joints, since I planned to eventually sell the apartment after renting it out for a year or two. I agreed, since he explained that new owners would likely want to renovate the bathroom to their own tastes anyway. It took me a week to clean out the apartment of the previous owner's things, then David and Keala got right to work. They moved the remaining furniture out to the lanai, and then stripped the old carpet and tile the first day. David offered to pick up the tile and material that I had ordered. The next several days, they installed the EasyMat underlayment, and then the tile in the living areas. They removed and took away the old toilet as the last part of the interior tile job. When they finished the inside grouting and installed the new toilet, they moved furniture from the lanai back into the living room, painted the lanai floor with waterproofing compound, and then installed the lanai tile. I had to leave the island when they were finishing the inside and working on the lanai. David emailed photos of work in progress. He agreed to meet the contractor who was going to install quartz countertops in the kitchen, and make sure measurements for the new sink and cooktop were correct. The old two-burner cooktop had been removed long ago and the hole it left just covered with a glued-on cutting board (the previous occupant used a portable cooktop). With the new induction cooktop, David found that the lazy susan under the counter would have to be removed. He did that work, and also removed the old kitchen sink and garbage disposal. The corroded drain pipe from the garbage disposal broke and crumbled as he was removing it. I ordered a new sink, faucet, and garbage disposal, and David agreed to pick them up. The faucet was shipped directly to him. The new quartz counters were ready to be installed about two weeks after the previous work was done, and David agreed to meet the installers and check that everything went OK. After the installers removed the old counters, they did a basic vacuum of the dust and debris, but David reported that a lot of dust was left throughout the apartment. After the counters were installed, David installed the new sink, faucet, garbage disposal, and cooktop. He also put in an electrical plug on the dedicated power box under the counter, for the cooktop. I decided to get a professional cleaning of the whole apartment done with another company. David and Keala did a great job on the tile, and it was extremely helpful that David was also able to do the plumbing and electrical work for the new kitchen fixtures. Since I was not able to be at the apartment for the full process, I was greatly relieved that David made sure that the counter replacement was completed properly.