R.G.Collins Home Improvements

I hired Reggie Collins to update my master suite. The floor salesman recommended him. I had purchased the flooring and tile, but I could see that there were many loose ends that needed to be addressed - the remodel would take lots more than just flooring and tile. Reggie came to my house and boasted about his skills and capabilities. He told me that he was certified in all skill areas - electrical, painting, repairs, tile, you name it - he had to be certified to work in California. Reggie was a great talker, and, really, a very creative guy with some really good ideas. I liked him. I hired him. Reggie promised a lot of things in those first meetings. He promised great care with covering all of my belongings to protect them from the dust. He promised a very detailed multi-paged quote with each individual piece of the job outlined with all costs line-itemed. He promised skilled labor teams with whom he worked, trusted and were experienced. I told him I didn't want day laborers picked up off the street in the morning. He laughed at such a thought. I didn't get a detailed quote. Just a two page overview with 5 broad categories and pricing for each. That was my first red flag, but I stupidly didn't push it. I thought I could trust him, and that it was coming. The demolition started on February 20th. NOTHING was covered. They didn't wear masks or have any ventilation. It was awful. I had to ask him to cover things. He threw some tarps over some stuf in the bedroomf. I suggested they wear masks. They didn't. He ended up with a lung infection. The clothes in the master closet were blanketed with thick construction dust. Then the crews came for electrical and tile installation. Then the real nightmare began. The tile job was complex, with niches(Reggie's idea), the ceiling of the shower to be tiled (Reggie's idea), the wall with glass tile accents, and tile around the existing Jacuzzi tub. This crew couldn't speak English, Reggie was nowhere to be found, and they were completely incapable of doing anything other than laying flat tile on the floor. In the closet, they couldn't even do that right. There were gaps under the baseboard, the niches were horrifying, the ceiling bowed, lights were crooked.... need I say more. They assured me that they could do "what I wanted." (NOTE: NOT what was right, simply what I wanted. They took NO responsibility for their crappy work. They all blamed ME for not accepting their crap.) I allowed them to rip it out and try again. NO SUPERVISION AGAIN. CRAPPY WORK AGAIN. That was the last straw. I wanted them out of my house. Reggie had to find someone else. He over paid them and was running out of money. We interviewed multiple tile installers. Most were busy. Most cost more than Reggie had left to pay them. This dragged on for several months. Meanwhile, the electricians that he hired had problems. They installed two fans in the master suite and didn't know how to set the switches so that the fans could run independently. They also couldn't figure out how to set the remote for the new fan in the bathroom area. They put too many lights on one circuit and Reggie had to hire new electricians to come in and fix that problem. By this time. MONTHS had gone by, and now Reggie had no money left to pay the painters, so he decided that he would do the painting himself. There were lots of holes in the sheetrock from electrical work that needed repair. Reggie assured me that he could do it. He tried. It looked like a preschooler had come at the wall with goo and smeared it around and painted over it. It really looked AWFUL. I insisted that he hire real painters. He did, and the finished painting is beautiful. (We used JLF Painting, btw.) Then, the finishing details had to be done. The bamboo wall needed to be put back up. I paid Reggie to do it. He tried twice, and couldn't get the bamboo vertical. He'd get halfway done, and it would be leaning at an angle. I finally told him to forget it. My husband and I did it. It is beautiful AND vertical! Reggie promised me that he would clean everything before turning over the job. When I returned from our three week summer vacation the job was supposed to be done. The room was absolutely FILTHY. He hung lights without cleaning them first... not to mention after. I had to clean the floor three times to get all the construction dirt off. My husband caulked the floor in the closet to hide the spaces. It looks real nice now. The shower had not been caulked. The tub was caulked with the wrong color caulk. I had to hire the tile installer to come back and do it. (We finally settled on Terry Washington, Terry's Tile and Remodeling, and he was WONDERFUL.) The job took 6 months to complete. It was not a pleasant experience. I had to oversee everything. I might as well have been the general myself. In fact, when I do my kitchen remodel, I AM going to be my own general contractor. I've learned that nobody looks out for my interests like me. I will give Reggie credit for fixing most of the big things that were wrong and needed fixing. If I stood my ground and insisted, he would fix the problem. The problem was that he didn't seem to really know what he was doing AND he doesn't seem to care or be interested in quality details. He didn't hire skilled people, and he didn't oversee their work. He didn't fix problems unless I pointed them out. When I did point them out, he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about. He didn't ASK me what I wanted before he barged in and did things. He didn't collaborate with me. He didn't look out for me. He didn't make sure the work done was quality work. He made lots of promises that he didn't/couldn't keep. There were so many details about what went wrong that I could write pages. These are just the highlights. I won't be hiring Reggie again.