Jeka's Floor Sanding

We were having our hardwood floors refinished in our rental house. We bid it out to multiple companies and Jeka's came in really low. We had concerns about why and checked out his website and some other research, and it all seemed legit. We signed a contract for the work to be done. His "business partner" Tom came out to do the paperwork and get the down payment (1/2 down). The work was to sand the hardwood floors down and refinish. We were selling the house and needed this work done in a timely fashion, because of other work being done to the house (windows, paint, carpet...). We scheduled a day to come out and start the work. Jeka never showed up. They called and said that another job was taking longer than expected and asked if we could push our job back a few days. I reluctantly agreed, despite having to time the rest of the repairs in the house with this messy project getting done first. They said it would take around 4 days for the project to be complete. This happened a couple more times where Jeka and Tom said that other jobs were pushing ours back. We then asked for our money back and were going to go with someone else, because we needed to stay on a schedule, and it was apparent that they couldn't perform the tasks. Jeka was never to be heard from again! And Tom kept deflecting us to Jeka, who he said had the money, and Tom had nothing to do with money, he just helps out by getting the deals signed. They stole $600 from us and never started the project. We have not heard from them and are disappointed that there are people like this out there. We ended up getting the work done, costing us extra time and money.

On the day he was scheduled to tear out the carpet, he sent an email at 7:30 a.m. stating that he'd come the following day. My husband had already taken the day off work so this was frustrating. Jeka (also known as Jeff Duke) tore out the carpet, but left carpet nails and carpet staples sticking up on the stairs, hallway, bedroom and office. Since we have a puppy as well as a child, this was distressing and we ended up pulling out the ones on the stairs and hallway ourselves since he wasn't coming back to start installing the floors for five days. He said that the project would take a couple of days once he started, but it was 11 days before he was "finished." (He never did the stairs, having independently decided that they were a "separate project" even though the stairs were clearly listed in the contract.) There were only two times when he came when he said he would. Otherwise, he was 1 1/2 to 4 hours late. On Monday, he suddenly demanded payment in full, even though he hadn't started on the stairs and hadn't done any of the finishing work. He became angry and threatened to sue us if we didn't pay him immediately, even though the project wasn't done! When we refused to pay until the work was finished, he agreed to install the quarter rounds, but stated that the stairs were a different project, and he wouldn't start them until he'd been paid for what he'd already done. Also, although the contract stated that he would supply all materials, he kept insisting that we pay for the quarter rounds, that we pay for the rounded board at the top of the steps, and he never did install the promised board between the carpet in our bedroom and the hallway -- it's just the ragged edge of a board! He cut all the quarter rounds straight so that they don't meet at the corners. He then informed us that we owed him $30 more than the contracted price, even though he hadn't done the stairs, which were, again, written into the contract AND the most difficult part of the project. The stain in the bedroom and office is very uneven. Not only are there some big dark splotches in our son's bedrom, but there's a couple inch very light line all the way along the walls where he clearly didn't try to get the stain as saturated, and it's a significantly lighter color than the rest of the room. We'll have to live with the uneven color, but we're paying another contractor to fix the quarter rounds, install a plate between the wood and carpetting, and refinish the stairs, dramatically increasing the cost of the entire project. He gave the lowest bid, but now we're paying someone else more than $1500 to fix his work.