Renovations By Matt Ltd.

We chose Matt based on his excellent (96%) rating here on Homestars. He had also been awarded a Star of the Year for 2018. It is, however, with regret that we are unable to leave as good a rating as others have, and we probably won’t be using Homestars as a reference point in the future. Perhaps this feedback will help Matt find areas to improve his business, or help someone else when choosing a contractor. Most of these items have already been raised with Matt, and shouldn’t come as a surprise to him.

We agreed to do a complete bathroom renovation for in October of this year. Many of the issues I am going to mention, I had a great deal of understanding for at the time, but by the time the reno was completed, we had a leaking shower (fixed by a different plumber), and a toilet that was not functioning properly (fixed by a friend after Matt couldn’t solve the issue). I ran out of patience for some of the “smaller” issues.

Larger issues included:

-The Tiler that Matt used was a nice guy, however he cut all of the tiles in the bathroom, instead of outside. The dust was atrocious, and the act of cutting the tiles damaged the brand new floor that Matt had installed prior to the tiling. The new floor needed to be pulled out, and was replaced at Matt’s expense.
-The Tiler also didn’t seem to know how to install some of the tiles. Matt was not helpful and I had to go to the tile store to ask questions. The folks at the tile store provided advice on how to do the job, which in turn Matt told me to pass the info on to the Tiler. I also had to go out and purchase parts for the Tiler, which Matt reimbursed. If I knew I was going to have to run around for Matt’s crew, I would have managed the project myself.
-We purchased all new fixtures for the bathroom, however we did not have a valve body for the shower (Not being a plumber, I didn’t know I needed to provide one). Matt suggested we use the old one as “It should be fine”. This lead to problems with the shower leaking not even 1 week after the crew left my house. Matt said it was due to shower head. When we removed the shower head, the water was still leaking and Matt came to fix this by replacing the cartridge with a new one. When the problems persisted, Matt said the work was not covered under his warranty as he did not install a new valve body. As it was a weekend, we called a different plumber come in to fix it. The new plumber removed the cartridge, which was not new at all (The discolouration on the cartridge, which had been in place for 5 days, was much more than could/should/have happened in such a time.) Also, there was a glob of silicone on the valve body. The new plumber said that the silicone was used to temporarily block the leak, but was not a long-term fix. We had to pay the new plumber for a weekend call out in order to replace the valve body. We also had to cut through freshly painted drywall in order to complete this. Again, with Matt being the expert plumber, he should have replaced the valve body instead of assuming it should be fine. It wasn’t until after the weekend when Matt said he’d come fix the problem properly, by which time it was done.

Smaller issues included:
-Matt missed a total of 4 days for the job due to personal illness, malfunctioning truck, and his child was unwell. (Matt did offer a reduction in price due to the inconvenience)
-The job went from an estimated 7 days to 20.
-Drop cloths were not used properly by the Tiler who walked over my white carpets repeatedly in his shoes spreading grouting all over the place.
-Matt was not on site much when the Tiler was here, so there was little to no oversite on his work or habits. Much of the Tiler problems could have been prevented if Matt were on site more.
-The Tiler measured his tiles using a red Sharpie on the front of the tiles. In many places he didn’t cut to the red marks exactly, and we have been left with a shower filled with little red marks on “Super White” tiles, including those that were sealed under the clear caulking applied by Matt.
-We had to insist that the vanity, mirror, and vanity lights be lined up/centred with each other. It did not occur to Matt that this should be done from an aesthetic view.

Positive Points:
-Rafael was super clean and tidy. When he saw the state of the damaged floors, and dust generated from the tiler he was not happy. It would have been great to have Rafael on site sooner.
-The Electrician that Matt used (Anthony) was very helpful and thoughtful. Looking back, he asked the most questions to get an understanding of what we needed.
-Matt and his construction/plumbing crew were considerate when on site, and took their shoes off and ensured that the drop cloths were intact.

Upon asking for a warranty, Matt provided a document stating the warranty is for 1 year, but the original handwritten estimate/contract stated a 2 year warranty. Matt has not responded to why there is a difference here. Regardless, unless something major happens, we would not be seeking for him to return to fix anything.

I sincerely hope Matt takes in our feedback, considers how much he had pay out of his own pocket and makes improvements to his business.

While the bathroom is finally in a state that we are happy with, I would not at all recommend this company be used by anyone I know, nor would I use Homestars to select another contractor, which is a shame, because it has not steered me wrong in the past 4 years that I have used it.

I cannot imagine that I am the first and only person that has had this type of experience. I have to assume that people who are disgruntled, do not leave reviews on Homestars.