Esox Remodeling

DO NOT hire Rhothmen Erickson and Esox Remodeling unless you want substandard work that is never actually completed. I needed someone to install the tile on the floor and shower of the bathroom I was remodeling and found out about this company by looking for providers on Craig's List that performed tile work. At first Rothman was very responsive and available to start when I needed him. The price seemed fair and when I called he got glowing references. Don't believe them! While initially he was very responsive and showed up on time, once he began the job that changed quickly. One day he was supposed to be there at 9am. We had plans and were just waiting for him to come so we could leave to meet out of town family. Once he was a half hour late I tried to call him, and several times after that. He never did answer his phone or respond to the messages I left, but came waltzing in at 2pm as if it were no big deal. We completely missed seeing the visiting family, on top of which we have 2 small children and 2pm is nap time, so of course he shows up to make a lot of noise right next to their bedrooms. When I challenged him about it, he said there was an emergency with his dog. This is just one example of his complete lack of professionalism and respect. His work is also completely subpar. The tile isn't straight. The corners look horrible. He didn't line anything up properly. He used chipped tiles, even though I had several boxes of extra and made it very clear that I wanted him to sort through and only use good pieces. He wasted tons of sheets of very expensive mosaic tile, I assume because he was too lazy to make the remainders on the sheet work. He cut the marble baseboard incorrectly so there is over an inch gap between it and the door casing. These are all things I saw after he left. Before he left when he was "finished" I pointed out several issues. 1. He left an entire piece near the tub unfinished, just exposed plywood, I think because he didn't know how to tile it. He told me to just paint it. I said that was unacceptable and he needed to tile it. 2. I also pointed out you can see the plywood at the threshold going into the room because the transition piece wasn't placed properly. 3. He was supposed to replace the wood casing around the door, but "forgot" his finishing gun. (It was only when I went to do it myself, that I discovered he had cut the marble baseboard incorrectly so there is over an inch gap between the baseboard and the casing.) 4. There were screws sticking over an inch into my linen closet from where he installed the du-rock, which would of course catch and rip my linens. (When I called this to his attention, he banged a few of them down, but it turns out left most of them exactly as they had been, so I got to cut those off too.) Based on these 4 remaining issues, I said I would pay him $750 of the $850, paying the remainder when he completed the additional work. He insisted on being paid in full, complaining that he had done the work and I had no reason not to trust him to come back. He insisted he would come by one day the next week and fix the remaining issues, but needed to be paid now. Like an idiot, I gave in and paid him in full (my mistake). For the next 2 weeks I attempted to contact him through phone and email and never heard back from him. It has now been 2 months. He will not respond to phone calls or messages. I now have to hire someone else to complete was he was paid to do. Even more annoying, I am irritated every day I use that bathroom because I see all the places he messed up that I now have to live with for decades. Save yourself the aggravation and stay away from this "contractor." His craftsmanship and attention to detail are completely subpar and his level of professionalism is laughable. I wish someone had posted a review before I mad the colossal mistake of hiring him.

We used Esox remodeling for installation of our kitchen tile backsplash. We found out about his company by looking for providers on Craig's List that performed tile work. First, I will give the positive feedback which convinced us to go with Esox Remodeling: 1) He has good hours of availability. 2) He was initially very responsive to phone calls. Now for the drawbacks: 1) After Rhothmen from Esox Remodeling left we attempted to install our outlet covers and realized there were notable gaps between the edge of the outlet cover and the backsplash on 3 of our 6 outlet covers. One of the gaps was up to 1/4" wide. We had to search for and purchase all new over-sized outlet covers to solve the problem - which were $5-$6 a piece. 2) Also when attempting to install the outlet covers we were unable to screw in 3 of the 6 outlet covers because the back splash tile blocked the screw hole for the outlet cover. We had to purchase a tile drill bit for $8.00 and drill into the tile ourselves to get the outlet covers installed. 3) There were two spots where the grout wasn't filled in completely - so there were holes in the grout in those spots. We had to touch-up the grout ourselves. 4) There is an area where the backsplash meets our window molding that is very uneven and you can see ridges from where the tile is covered by grout/caulk. 5) Rhothmen stated he would come back to fix the area to the left of the window at a later date. We paid him in full (which was our mistake). After we noticed the other issues with the outlet covers and grout, we attempted to contact him through phone and email and never heard back from him, until we stated we were going to provide a review on Angie's List. He then responded and said he would try to stop back out. However, when trying to setup the time for him to stop back out, he was again unresponsive to our multiple attempts to contact him. Overall, our major complaints are the attention to detail and poor professionalism based on his lack of responsiveness to resolve these issues.