My first interaction with Andre was very positive, he seemed very knowledgeable and asked questions about the age and history of the home. He also said he only did one project at a time, and didn't start the next one until the previous was complete to our satisfaction. This feeling did not last very long once we had paid the deposit for the renovation.
The original scheduled start date was in November. In October we received an email that it was delayed until February. Actual work didn't start until mid March. We agreed at the start of the project that if he needed to stay late if he was going to waste material (like grout or cement). What happened instead was he showed up most days between 10am-1pm and stayed 6-10 hours. Halfway through the project I clarified that I only wanted him in the house between 9-6 and the extra leeway was only for special circumstances. He came on time one day and returned to arriving between 10-1 after that.
When demolition started, we was surprised that the walls of the 1930's home were not drywall, and had not heard of rocklathe that the walls were actually made of. He was also surprised the tub was made of cast iron. Both of which he charged more for above the quote price and added 1 week on the 2 week project.
Once the bathroom was almost done, I had messaged him to confirm I was able to use the tub which he had tested. Once it drained, I noticed the ceiling below the tub was leaking, the original pipe was held together with epoxy and had come loose from the renovation. Another added cost, and I had to replace my own ceiling, he wanted to charge more and he was behind on the next job.
He also moved the bathroom light switch to inside the bathroom, which was also not tested (it turned off all lights upstairs). The light switch move was a line item in the quote and paid for, but when I told him about it he would not entertain fixing the issue. In the end I will need to change this myself, even through I have paid for it and is a line item on the "add-on" quote.
Other short nitpicks:
- He did not install a shower curtain rod (not specifically called out in the job, but I had assumed that would be included)
- Tiles not all flush with the wall, some sticking out
- Did not get the tub we wanted, apparently it was out of stock on back order (we paid him the deposit 1 year before the work started)
- Shower head was not installed well, o-ring was crushed and was leaking. Luckily I was going to replace with a different head so it was an easy fix
The frustrating part is the bathroom itself is well done. If the Andrei and Jessica had just given an accurate quote from the beginning and did the work they said they would it would be a 9-10 star review. They are both very personable and very good hard working people. In the end, I would have been better off with a different company who quoted higher but had explicitly called out the complexity of working on an older home and likely wouldn't have had the surprise cost.
