Fine Home Improvements LLC

I have done many projects around my house myself. I thought that by finally hiring a "pro" I would get less stress and a better finished product than I could have done myself. This was far from the truth. I cannot take the time off from work to take him to small claims court so I am considering this a lesson learned. Be warned: The project still is not completed. As of July 29th, Fred has said he is going on vacation for 4 weeks and will not be able to fix the issues with his work until almost September. I asked him if he could send anyone else since we are going to be putting our house on the market soon but he still hasn't responded. 1. I repeatedly asked Fred to put tarps down because we have hardwood floors and they were making a mess. They never did. Fred also left the demo trash at my house for me to try to get rid of. In my area we have 1 large trash can that is picked up 1x a week, so this was a pain. 2. He brought in a very sketchy guy to do the electrical work who was also incompetent. The electrician wired the two light fixtures to each other instead of to the house wiring. Additionally he cut a hole in the wall to put a second receptacle in instead of having a switch and GFI in a 2 gang box as asked. The guy was supposed to be done shortly after I got home from work but didn't leave until almost 8 PM (with the lights non-functioning). Fred complained to me several times how much he had to pay the electrician as well as the second one that had to fix the first's issues. 3. I had to tell Fred not to join the bathroom and dryer exhaust in to one duct. I was surprised that he didn't seem to be aware that those two things shouldn't be joined together. 4. Fred spackled the walls a bit, but did not sand them. Well, he did after I asked him to, but he didn't do a good job as you can still see all spackled areas. Additionally where the dryer electric was moved the original hole is now larger than the blank plate. Fred didn't even try to half heartedly make it look better with spackle. Just left it. 5. Fred wanted to re-use all the old door trim, but the doors he ordered were smaller than the original, so trim didn't cover the rough paint line and damaged drywall from the demo. I had to hire a painter to come in and spackle all the way around Fred's sub-par work. 6. The french doors he installed were crooked. They were flush to each other at the top, but at the bottom one door stuck out about 5/8 more than the other. One door also could not be opened fully because the length was not cut correctly and it caught on the hardwood floors. 6. The tile is a mess. First, he never removed the original trim in the laundry room, he just tiled up to it. He also never leveled the floor, used the wrong trowel, and didn't adequately back-butter the tiles, so most of the tiles have voids under them and sound hollow. The grout cracked and came up where the one tile is loose and flexes. Fred and his son came out to fix the french doors and tile. The doors were fixed OK although the knobs weren't evenly mounted still, but the tile still is not fixed. They tried to inject something under it to stabilize it, but it still flexes and won't hold grout without cracking. Fred is ignoring my texts and saying he will be on vacation for a month before he can address it. I have had to pay other contractors to come and address his shoddy craftsmanship. 7. Due to miscommunication, I overpaid $40. He said to just leave it, and he would come back to re-grout that small area he tried to stabilize (originally I said I would do it since it was so small). Well since he won't come out at all that's another lesson learned.

They were prompt. They had a flexible schedule. The price was fair.