Professional Home Improvements

Mr. Darr stated in the contract that the work would be done in 5-7 days; 16 days into the project and it was not complete. All appliances were removed on October 6th and were supposed to be reinstalled no later than Oct 11 or 12. Took several more days before frig & dishwasher were put back in, stove did not get installed until Oct 22. Mr. Darr said the floor tile and the backsplash were more involved than he originally thought and this caused the delay. It was Mr. Darr's lack of experience with these particular types of tile that caused the delay. He should have stated in the beginning that this type of tile work was outside the scope of his expertise. On the 1st day that Mr. Darr began installing the backsplash, I had to contact him that evening to let him know that he had installed the wrong color tile in the focal area behind the stove. He had to remove this tile and redo it with the correct color. When he installed the focal area behind the sink, he used the wrong size tile; this had to be removed and redone correctly. When installing the correct tile, I had to ask that he realign two separate rows of tile because he was not spacing them correctly (he was lining up the tiles in several areas as opposed to staggering them as they should be). There are several accent tiles, medallions, strips, etc., included in the backsplash - these have a gold finish to them. After installing the backsplash Mr. Darr grouted over ALL of the tile. The accents tiles are not to be grouted over, they are to be taped off and protected. As a result the tiles are ruined; the gold finish has been removed from most of the accent tiles. I consulted with the tile shop before contacting Mr. Darr about this issue. In short they said the tiles would have to be cut out and replaced. When I informed Mr. Darr that he would have to purchase new tile and replace the damaged ones, he refused to do so. He placed the blame on the tile shop, stating they should have told him not to grout the tile. As the home improvement professional, Mr. Darr should educate himself on the products he is using before beginning the work and not try to blame the supplier. Mr. Darr left us with a ruined backsplash and an unfinished job. We certainly will not pay him the balance of the contract, as we now have had to hire another contractor to repair the damage done and complete the job. In addition to the above, Mr. Darr did not space the tile correctly in order to maximize the # of accents that should have been used. The "frame" around the focal area behind the stove is crooked - the only way to fix that is to remove and reinstall the tile. Mr. Darr installed base molding, some of which is not completely secured, and he damaged one piece when bringing the stove into the kitchen. Some tiles that he installed have tips broken off of them and in these areas he placed small rectangular pieces of tile - looks terrible. When installing the switch plate covers that are made of stone to match the tile (he only did 2 of 6) he cracked one in half, even after I warned him that the tile shop said not to tighten them down but to use silicone as the adhesive to hold them in place. The area of our backyard where Mr. Darr did his cutting work was not cleaned up, which resulted in our dog getting a hold of a drywall screw. After refusing to finish the job, Mr. Darr blocked my email address from his email account - a juvenile and unprofessional act. All in all this was a terrible experience, certainly not what we expected from a so-called professional. I would not recommend this company to anyone. The $3000.00 mentioned above is only what was paid to Mr. Darr; this does not include the cost of tiles, cabinets, appliances, etc.