Discount Contractors

Very bad!

They did a very professional job. They were very neat and the house looked beautiful when they finished. It was nice enough that when the realtor saw it after it was painted she recommended them to some of her other clients.

I left him a voice mail to stop calling me so we shall see. He has already been fined once before by the TX Attorney General's Office. Update: As you can see by Mr. Carmichael's response, he doesn't get the point. I am on the Texas and National Do Not Call list yet he still called my home on more than one occasion. He should have never called my home in the first place. Maybe it will take a second fine from the TX AG's office before he understands that most people value not being disturbed?

The night after they installed the flooring I was walking on the floor and felt air pockets. I called them and they explained they would go down after I had walked on them. They did not go away, so I called again and they came back and poked holes in the air pockets with a big syringe. The air pockets still did not go away. They came back out a third time and injected glue into the air pockets, but this just made the floor appear lumpy. I don't think they really knew what they were doing. The gentleman explained to me there was nothing else they could do.

It did not go well. I do not think that Sean really wanted the job. He admitted he had to charge more because of the distance -- this fact should be noted on Angie's List. If he advertises that he services Galveston County, he should also advertise that the price will be higher the further away his company is from the job. Also, if he advertises that he provides a discount, he should honor it. His estimate was high and only included labor -- there were two many unknowns for us (cost of granite, sinks, tile, etc.). I told him that we were going to retire soon an we didn't want to go into debt (we planned to pay cash), and I think he may have interpreted that the were not serious about getting the work done (not really sure, just a feeling). Also, we would never hire someone who does not honestly stand behind his advertisements. I did not have a good feeling about Sean and his company. What was interesting to me was that he said I was his first Angie's List customer this year, and he wanted to get more customers from Angie's List. However, he didn't do anything to get a good rating from me, not even a return phone call as he said he would.

The presentation was fine. The guy that came out was professional and he was on time. I am not planning on hiring them.

We began to experience a leak from a seldom used upstairs bathroom and determined that it was the shower stall. We opted to remove and replace the tile in the shower stall, replace the shower base and re-tile the bathroom floor. Due to our travel schedule, it took a few weeks to schedule the work, but once started the job was completed in 3 days. The workmanship is excellent and the house was kept neat and tidy even during the demolition. The work was done through the heart of the January freeze that Houston experienced this year. We also had a leak coming into our kitchen during heavy rains. I had determined that it was due to some poorly fitting siding and sealing of joints. The crew removed the questionable piece of siding, found the damaged area and repaired it. They were also able to repair and repaint the faux finish in the kitchen to exactly match the rest of the walls.

Tom came by at our request to quote the remodeling project. He had several ideas that we had not thought about. We discussed the scope of work. But before starting the project, he came back with Gregorio and did a more detailed project plan. They buy only minimal supplies so I was responsible fr acquiring the tile, plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, etc. The above figure includes materials that I purchased. One disappointment was that they came a week early to start the work. This only caused a small flurry while we vacated the bath and adjoining bedroom. Work went on schedule. There was a small problem with alarm wiring which they quickly remedied. Gregorio was helpful and suggested color choices and other design issues. Work was completed on schedule. Work area was left neat and orderly. There was quite a bit of dust from tile sawing and other work but I suspect this is to be expected. They did try to leave things in good condition. One suggesting for anybody using them is to put any changes or agreements in writing,even small things. Some small things went almost unnoticed until I caught them.

Gregorio and his crew of three showed up at nine am and worked until 6 pm every day. They taped down plastic sheeting to protect the hall floor. Then they removed all of the existing bathroom in one day, including the old tub. In the second day they roughed in all of the new fixtures including extending a short wall that held the shower head and faucet. They rewired a light/exhaust fan that I had purchased. The third and fourth days were spent carefully tiling, painting, texturing and installing the glass basin on the cast marble vanity top. Discount also repaired water damage in a bedroom and repainted ceiling, walls and baseboards. Throughout Gregorio and his crew were polite and always concerned with limiting the impact of construction on the rest of the house. I was very pleased with the professionalism of the work, and, since I chose most of the fixtures and components, I am pleased with the overall look of the new bathroom.

The problem arose with the window order. I was very specific about the window order. I provide 2 addresses in my neighborhood of windows that I liked and 2 addresses of what I did not want. We stood in my front yard and Tom pointed to the houses that would look like the windows he ordered for me. When they arrived, they were exactly what I did not want. I called him before they were installed to tell him that I did not like the way they looked. He told me that they just looked colored because it was evening when I saw them. I believe that Tom was ordering something that he did not know a lot about. Several days later he showed up with printouts from the internet telling me that what I wanted did not exist. He ordered aluminum window with U-Factor 0.57 / Solar Heat Gain Coefficient 0.36 / Visible Transmittance 0.61 / aluminum frames / light green tint. These are really poor energy efficient ratings. I cannot pay for his learning curve. I told him that I did not want to accept these windows since they did not met my specs/what he told me they would be. He wanted to replace the glass with clear glass, but would not tell me the energy efficiency ratings. Then he wanted to put a film on the glass for more money. Again, I told him that if he could not provide the energy ratings for the replacements, then I did not want to take delivery of the windows. The work on my siding was completed on March 14. Tom did not come back and finish the window seals and painting until June 1 (over 11 weeks later). He kept telling me that he had jobs that were paying him and since I was not going to purchase the windows he had to work paying jobs. I fully paid Tom for the siding/painting prior to the completion of the job. It was not until I emailed him that I considered the job abandoned that he finally sent the subcontractors over. Next issue is the pricing. When I told Tom that I wanted to claim the discount he advertised on Angie's list, he told me that he did not put it in the profile section of his company. Per the Angie's list folks, only the business can update their profile section. Currently I have over a $1,300 credit with Discount Contractors. Tom does not want to give me refund, the Angie's discount in his company profile and wants me to pay for the windows, which never met my specs.

Tom is a middleman, that is he has no employees, but has arrangements with lots of craftsmen. He uses phone solicitation to solicit work on your home. He looks it over, gives and estimate, and sends craftsman (and helpers) to your home. The craftsman in my case was Daniel Rojas whose major business is iron work (grills, gates, etc.), he did an excellent job on my load bearing pillars.