Response from Nunez Construction and Painting
When your wife called me to take a look at the job and she showed me exactly what you guys wanted done, I called her back and gave her an estimate. You guys called me back to discuss the job and so I went back and you let me know that you only had half of the money that the job would cost and asked what would be able to get done. After discussing it through, we agreed on removing the wood paneling, insulating the walls, and tiling the floor; we were also to do minor electrical work. Lights were not originally a part of the contract because it wasn't in your budget. I asked you how many lights you wanted changed, you specifically told me (3). I told you that it would be my gift to you - if you provided the fixtures, I would have my electrician install them for you at no cost. However, you wanted me to include this in the contract although I was not charging you for it, so I did. When the electrician went over, you also asked him to do some extra electrical work throughout the house. The second time he went back, you told him you had changed your mind and wanted to change all (5) lights instead of (3) so a separate bill was given to you for the additional two lights and additional electrical work. You asked me about leveling the floor and I told you that since the floors were cement and that was the way it was built, in order to properly level the floor, we would have to move the base heating unit. You told me this was also not within your budget so we agreed we were going to raise the floor as much we could without moving anything around. You CANNOT use cement board on cement, it has to be raised with cement so that is what we did. When we removed the wood paneling, the foundation was severely cracked. I called you over to show you and the wind was literally coming through the foundation of the wall. We both then agreed it had to be fixed. You asked me how much it would be and I told you I would be fair and you agreed because you told me it HAD to be done. That job would normally cost about $2000 and I was only charging you $750 for it. After seeing the bill, you told me you had never agreed to it and I reminded you that we had spoken about the details of installing rebars, re-cementing the wall, and waterproofing it. You told me you would have had no problem paying if you had seen the rebars (which you did before we installed them), but once we installed and sealed them in the wall, they are no longer visible. In the contract, it was stipulated that you would get credit for $1500 if you wanted to provide your own tiles. I was going to install porcelain tiles on your floor, but you decided to provide your own which you only paid $650 (and we still credited you the $1500) - have you ever heard the expression "you get what you pay for"? Those were not my tiles, we only installed them for you. The unevenness of the tiles is due to the quality, not the installation. We were very aware of the fact that you were doing your own remodeling work on the 2nd floor. We made sure to remove any of our debris as we always do at every job site and we pride ourselves in quality work, honesty, and cleanliness. P.S. If you would never hire us again, why would you ask for an estimate for painting the exterior of the house?