Bobay Flooring

We had a full remodeling job for on our small (5? x 8?) bathroom. Bobay worked short work days (approximately 6 ½ hours each day)/day). They called us, one day, and said they had decided to take the day off? in the middle of the project. When the returned the job got pushed back a couple of hours because we had to call an electrician in to extend some wiring. The electrician came right over and got it done. Bobay then charged us an extra $200 because he said he had to come in an "extra" day. When we reminded him he had taken a day off, he recanted that and said it was for all the extra work he had to do. Each evening, we found new areas that needed to be patched or repainted. They scraped and gouged walls and just left them that way. One day, Bobay told his son/assistant to stop cleaning up areas where residual glue was showing on the tile trim. The grout job was awful. We had to point out areas where the grout had not filled in the gaps between the tiles. The tiles are not all flush and some one was cut shorter than others on the wall of the shower. I pointed it out to him and Bobay said I wouldn?t even notice it after the grout was in. Instead of cutting a new piece of tile that would match the others beside it (we had plenty of extra tile), he used the short one in the wall, anyway. Additionally, there are tiles on the floor that stick up higher than the others. After he said the job was finished and he left, we found a 2" hole in the bedroom wall that was on the other side of the bathroom wall. We found approximately six smaller areas on the bedroom wall that had been damaged. They had punctured the bedroom wall, leaving small holes and areas where the plaster had been broken off. Thankfully, they were kind enough to go into that bedroom to pull down the shelves while they were wrecking the walls. The items from the shelf had been placed on the futon and a counter-top. A specialty frame that had a fragile, glass-sculpture on the front, was placed fragile side down. The contractor seemed in a big hurry to finish and that was reflected in his quality of work. We thought, for the amount of money we were charged, that we had hired a dependable, professional. We were mistaken. The job was over-priced for the quality of work we received. Now, I have to hire a plastics contractor to repair the damage that Bobay left behind. Beware: a local tile shop lists him as one of their contractors. Don?t be fooled by their recommendation.

Bobay tile was located on Craigslist. He was called and promptly showed up. We had purchased our tile previously from a dealer via the internet, and needed someone to remove linoleum and install a new sub-floor, lay the 18" square porcelain tile, and grout. Bobay was the highest of 3 quotes we had obtained, but he was available (should have been our first clue). He professed what a "professional" he was, and told us that any further items needed he could obtain at "cost" with his connections with the local suppliers. The first day he showed up with his wife and they worked together until about 3 o'clock (this was their daily work schedule). We removed all the appliances and put them back so installed would not have to. First problem was the underlayment...screws were not "flush", so we would re-screw them every evening in order to allow the tile to be laid evenly. When tile were glued in place he used the plastic pieces to establish even grout lines, however, little attention was given to how "level" the tiles were set; job was acceptable, but not as nice as we had expected. Next problem was the grout. We discussed the options. Bobay wanted to used traditional sanded grout, but we wanted the new "Quartz-Loc" product . Bobay told us it was more work and that he was not in favor of using it. He agreed to use the product and advised us that he would purchase it for us. Bobay purchased it and charged us $1050 for 3 containers ( I could have had the product drop shipped to my home for $450, when I asked him about the cost he became very angry and accused us of "nickel-diming" him on the job and admitted he marked it up because of the "extra" work involved with using this type of grout). Against our better judgement we allowed him to continue with the job. Grout was not given the time and care a professional would have given it. It was bad. Joints were not filled evenly, and it appeared that he did not work the material into the joints (time will tell). We ended up with a very unprofessional job which took much longer than necessary, paid a professional price, and owe it all to Bobay Tile.