Modern Textures, Decorative Concrete Staining

Reuben Haga of Modern Textures, aka Creative Concrete Solutions, didn?t deliver the product he promised, wasn?t on time and wasn?t within budget. Not only that, but he was caught lying throughout the process and instead of trying to rectify problems and find solutions, chose to argue with me instead. I initially told Reuben that I wanted a light brown-gray color to my concrete floor. He told me that there was no brown-gray stain color, and that in order to achieve that color, he would lightly spray a brown stain over the entire raw concrete floor, and the natural gray of the concrete would come through the stain, creating the brown-gray color I was seeking. I saw a sample of his work, and he looked at a commercial site nearby that had the color floor I was looking to achieve. Reuben removed my carpet, linoleum and tile and prepped the floor, then provided a couple of color samples in a closet. The samples were very, very dark. So dark that none of the gray of the concrete showed through. I chose a color based on the samples, but asked that he bring the saturation level down to 25% of what he used in the sample, not only so the overall look wasn?t so dark, but also so the gray of the concrete would show through, like we originally discussed. I wanted the color to be half brown, half gray ? stone-like. The floors took a little while longer than anticipated to prep, so we talked about this for awhile, as to remain on schedule he?d have to get it right the first time. My boyfriend was there too, and we both left feeling confident that everything was on track. I came in the next day to find that instead of spraying a light layer of brown stain over the entire floor, which had been the plan from day 1, Reuben had spray-painted the floor in arcs and splashes with the brown stain instead. It looked like a 10-year old had graffiti?d my floor. And within those areas it was still dark. He alternated between saying that?s what he thought I wanted and saying that he never promised being able to re-create my vision in the first place. I understand communication differences, especially between artists and laymen, but I was a post-production supervisor and producer for 10 years and it was my job to ?translate? artists? vision to technical folks and laymen?s vision to artists. I really don?t know what else I could have said, or how I could have interpreted his reply to my instructions any differently than thinking it was going to come out right on the mark. Once again, he had even gone to a local restaurant and seen a floor I wanted him to match and said he could match it. While keeping a most calm and cool head, I explained what I wanted once again. Reuben essentially told me that the damage had been done, stain does not come out of a concrete floor easily, and besides that, he?d been working h****** my project and missed his wife, who was about to go out of town for a week (btw: his side job was dj-ing till early morning, which he said he did for fun). Reuben kept arguing about my original instructions, and I kept asking how we could move forward, and what my options were. He eventually threw out a couple of options, both of which he made sound very dicey, but didn?t sound very keen on doing the actual work. My boyfriend ended up finishing the job himself! He asked Reuben a few key questions, went out and hired some laborers, rented a sander, and sanded down the floor in order to smooth out the stark edges of the ?graffiti? and tone down the overall color (all on my dime). Reuben did come in a few days later to seal the floor. It turned out okay, but the process was a nightmare.