Jesus Was A Carpenter So Am I

Lupe is a smooth talker. Had an architect draw up plans and he still did not follow them. I would not hire them to build a dog house. Oven was not attached and he left a screw driver in there along with paperwork. while cleaning oven smelt plastic melting. yep it did and ruined the oven. The electrician was just as bad. live wires outside could have caught fire. Light switches make no sense. Supplies were ordered short. Beams put in wrong had to be redone. awful experience. I do not recommend. The horror stories below are exactly what we went through. smooth talker - poor contractor. Using religion for wrong reason.

Mar'17, requested total remodel of 10 x 7 master bathroom. Tear down time= 2 days, good. Reframing of new shower pony wall, removing old window, placing new one,bricking, new sheetrock and concrete floor= 4-6 weeks.( No REAL problems yet. Keep in mind, small bathroom.) I chose the tiling, Lupe ordered quantity needed for floor, shower floor, and walls. He did not order enough, so extra week needed for delivery for each new order placed (happened 4 times). Facts: All contractors that were sent show up after 10am and leave early Some contractors brought their families with kids and leave them playing in the front yard all day When expected to show for the day, no shows and no calls. Excuse was, he had personal business he forgot he had to do or was simply going to be on vacation. Electrician made holes in new wall that were not centered properly over the countertop- don't know if he followed the given measurements or made the wrong ones himself. Lupe took all measurements, i believe. This led to 2 more visits by a different electrician to center the holes correctly, since he could not find this tech again. 2nd electrician broke light fixtures and chandelier crystals so another week was added for delivery. Painter/Sheetrocker only had to retrip and fix up what others messed up 4 times. He did a nice patchwork and paintjob, except he only painted half the hinges to the new doors. So some are chrome and others are white still today. Tile/Grout worker- floor and wall looked similar except one was gloss, the other matte. He cut up the tile and placed whatever where ever. Some floor was shiny and matte, the walls were shiny and matte. Complete tear down, reorder, find new tile guy and rebuild= another 4 wks (vanity, cabinets, etc. had to be all removed, and never had more than one contractor show for the day- always had to wait for the next day or two for work to be done by someone else). SHOWER FLOOR- natural stone mosaic. Order placed was short (another week needed for delivery). While waiting for delivery, the remainder was installed. This left a significant crease between what was placed and the new pieces that were added 2 weeks later, including discoloration of grout. And, it wasn't enough pieces either. Another order was placed, another tile tech came to fix and left the same imprint and separation in the mosaic. Another tech came and finally gave it enough character to blend in- wasn't perfect, but i had enough. Grout was still off color but was able to put 3-4 coats of sealant enhancement to even it out. Doors- ordered, picked up and brought over wrong ones and size. Replaced with ones of his choosing Personal Opinion: Lupe(owner) is very charismatic and quite the extrovert. I could sit back with the guy and fish. Work ethic leaves a lot to be desired though. Very aggravating to someone like me who must be a 110% customer relations/service tech for a living. I didn't mind contractors bringing their wives/kids with them, i just felt for them. But I did mind the cutting of tile and lumber in my garage as I now have fine dust on everything. Leftover debris(bricks/concrete) were left in a pile in my backyard but was removed months later by his tech. Cabinets and vanity, marble top, sink and fixtures all came out nice. Complaints of finished product: Tile still has grout smeared along the surfaces as well as pencil measurement markings in color. New wall is not plumb, glass installers (different company) found this but was able to adjust his work. Some tile is not flush or is slightly uneven. And some door hinges are not colored. After having gone through all the debacles, I only wanted them all out of my house. I came close to hiring someone i knew to finish and paying him the remainder of what was owed. The job was amateur at best, and I believe next time i will find my own contractors and work with them one on one, since that's basically what he did. A 10 x 7 restroom finished mid July'17. I had no master bathroom 4-5 months. As someone who was home everyday, there was no excuse about not having access to show. Cost of service does not include material Not judging character, only work. Nice guy, but work ethic.... And he contracted a carpenter to do the woodwork, so I don't understand that in the name either.

The owner, Lupe Mata, came in and said he would make it look great for $1200. I was unaware that all of it was going to be custom this and custom that. He made nor submitted any drawings and stated that he needed to keep his people busy or he would loose some of the by the weekend. He would give me a good price. We went ahead and let him start but when I came in everything was custom which was more than we planned on but for $1200 I didn't think that it was too much. We received a custom laundry hamper with shelving and custom wainscoting. The only complaint is that the contractor used some of the bead board I purchased at my request so that it wouldn't go to waste but he didn't use all of it and instead I have a mix of high end bead board with my low end bead board. The high end came from Bison Lumber unfinished and the low end came from Lowes with a white finish and a slightly different bead pattern than the other. If he would have used all of one board it wouldn't have looked as out of place. I still have several panels of my bead board left over so there was enough to go around. Also, he didn't like the way the previous contractor installed the new door facing and rosettes so he had his carpenter remove then and he did a worse job putting them back in place than the original. Also, we decided to go ahead and replace the flooring. He suggested some flooring and we liked it so he quoted $2800 but we were also talking about painting all of the walls and the all of the new wood he just installed. So we thought it included painting. Well it did not so we found out that the tile he installed he already had leftover from a previous job, which was PAID FOR, and the total footage he installed was approximately 150sq feet. That comes out to $18.66 per square foot. We found the tile at Floor and Decore on sale for $1.99 for the same 16"X16" tile he installed. Once we found out the price didn't include paint he quoted $1800. During this whole ordeal his none of his people show up at a decent time. They would get to my house about 9:30 - 10:00 in the morning and leave before 5pm which made the job go on for a longer time than it needed to. Also his carpenter would have his wife drive him to my house and while he was working she would sit in the truck with their 4 kids all day but one day I drove home and found them running around the truck in the driveway. I have a pool in the backyard and I asked the owner what would happen if they got injured? I would be held responsible. I finally paid him to get rid of him but during this process he stated that he was a part of the ministry at the jail, not sure which one, and his business card says "Jesus was a carpenter and so am I or JWACASAI". This guy was a rip off from the moment he started and he uses religion to get you comfortable with him as he is very charismatic. He gives you a price without a contract promises the world then charges you out the butt for his services. No doubt his carpenter was good but that doesn't excuse the rest of the crap he pulled. If you would like to see pictures of the mess I have plenty to show. You can contact me at gwooten1971@hotmail.com and request them.

We live in the house my husband parents built in 1973. We explained our vision to Lupe and he did exceedingly and above to ensure our wants were met. The house included a small sitting room, dinning room, kitchen, breakfast room and family room all in a square shape. Lupe and his contractors opened up the area and removed walls separating the sitting and living room and dinning room. To make a larger kitchen he utilized the old dinning room and created a big open kitchen by removing the entrance from the kitchen to the dinning room. The old sitting room is now our formal dining room and there are two columns separating the dining room and family room. We love the work they did! I would recommend Lupe and his team for remodeling.

See previous question.

Lupe and his crew did a great job on our master bath remodel. We removed a 72" soaking tub and 3' x 3' walk-in shower and replaced with a 60" soaking tub and 4 1/2' x 4' custom build walk-in shower. Lupe was always there when he said he would be there, his crew was tidy during the construction process and cleaned before they left, and the job was complete in a short timeframe. Lupe is also doing a full kitchen tear out and rebuild and a master bath remodel for my neighbor. In addition, a kitchen rebuild for my neighbor's son. He was able to keep all 3 jobs progressing forward. I would definitely recommend him and his crew.