RWL Painting & Handyman

Before he started the bathroom job, he kept telling me he didn't like epoxy grout. I finally asked him if he wanted to do it or not, because I could get tile men from the tile store who have worked for me before and done good jobs. He said he could do it; he just didn't like it. When the shower was done, I had to take a scraper and scrape the face of each tile because, though you could only see a couple places where grout residue was left, if you ran your hand over the tiles, they were rough to the touch. He was very accommodating at the beginning and during the early jobs. However, I found that his mood deteroirated on the big job and his sarcasm increased. I think his surliness was caused by the fact that the job took longer than he anticipated. He rarely put in a full day here, going to other jobs "because he couldn't start anything else here". On some days that was true but on other days, I thought he could have done something else to keep the job moving. In summary, he did a good job on the small jobs that only took a few hours. The tiles were placed and cut well but the finishing work was not good. I think corners were cut to make up the time. Through the years I've had jobs done in two different houses and never have I had messy workers till this job. I had to touch up walls after floors were laid and again after other work was done. He didn't like the way I painted the bathroom so he touched it up and put paint on the ceiling edge, which I went over. My work may have been a tad short of the wall edge but it looked better than having paint on the ceiling. There are marks on the stairs where I cleaned grout off the carpet and it didn't all come off. It's the same carpet that has the hole I made by not having the lid on tightly. The amount spent, above, is the approximate labor quote for all the jobs he did here. ----------- It's 11/10 and I'm still scraping the slate from my August job, trying to get the grout off. I am not exaggerating when I say that some of the tiles I've gone over as many as 8 times, getting a little off each time. I've used a metal scraper, diluted muriatic acid and just now tried a wire brush. NEVER let this man work in your house. Before the big job, I recommended him to a friend and he installed a counter badly and she will never use him again. It's now 3/2014 and I just got an estimate to tear up the shower and floor so that I can get rid of the shoddy work done by this contractor. I'll be set back $6900 but I won't keep finding other mistakes and will have a quality job when it's done. It sickens me to have to spend it but I cannot stand to use the bathroom since all I see are the mistakes and careless work. The comment I made above about the tiles being placed well is not true; it's one of the discoveries I made in the intervening time. He didn't even install the threshold correctly, making the tile job more difficult. It should have been centered within the door jamb, not sticking into the bathroom. On the ceiling of the shampoo nook, there's a big glob of grout that wasn't wiped off. There was grout left on the inside of the shower curb so that it always looks dirty. The drain plate is sticking up and there's a depression around it where the water won't drain out because he didn't know how to install river stone tile. The bench tiles were cut and placed wrong, leaving at least a 3/8" gap between the seat and wall that is badly grouted. About half the epoxy grout was wiped off, leaving just mortar. So the grout lines are two different colors. Transparent caulk was not used on the shower door installation and there was a gap left, allowing water to leak out. At the end of a grout run on the outside, he didn't bother to wipe off a "rooster tail" glob of grout and that's now frozen in time. The new tile man said that, "He wasn't much for finish work, was he?". He wasn't much for any kind of detail work at all, start, finish or in between. So, I will have this mess torn out and after I spend over $6200 will have a truly beautiful bathroom. Do NOT let him near your home for anything! With luck, this will be done before summer arrives. I can't wait to get the nightmare over, even if it means spending more money. It will be worth the peace of mind.