Updating laundry room and bathroom
Your Buddies Handyman and Repair Service Earlier this year I asked Don from Your Buddies Handyman and Repair Service to come out to my home and give me a quote for some updates I wanted done in my laundry room and upstairs bathroom. I asked Don to start the work by laying down the Allure laminate tile and installing pine baseboards in the laundry room. In the bathroom I wanted some of the grouting around the wall tile re grouted and the old soap dish removed and replaced with a new one. The results were: 1. In the laundry room in some places there were an 1/8” space between the floor and baseboards. See Image 305 2. One place the baseboard was cut too short and I was assured the splice would not show. That was not the case. Image 329 3. As a result of the thicker pine baseboard the joins near the door frame were an inverted V with a considerable space from the door frame to the angled baseboard. Image 289 4. Advised Don in advance that the baseboards would be pine as that is a thicker board. He did not bring the right size miter box and charged me for his time to go out and purchase a new miter box. My expectation would be that a handyman come prepared with the tools needed to do the job. 5. The grouting in the bathroom went on grey instead of white. He had bought a premixed grout not the unmixed that I had looked at in the store and for which I had given him the SKU# and colour, as he requested. I assumed he was familiar with the premixed grout and that is why he bought it. Image 312,313 6. I was also considering having the “pork chop” counter top in the bathroom removed and where the counter top intersected with the tile around the tub, I wanted the tile replaced and the edging on the side of the new tile replaced. Don told me the edging was no longer available. I have since found out that the edging is called schluter and is indeed available. 7. The soap dish was replaced and is fine with the exception of the grey grouting around it. I emailed Don on several occasions asking if the baseboards could be fixed and got no reply. I finally phoned him at which time he said that the floor in the laundry room was uneven and that is why the baseboards had a space. I asked why he did not level the floor if it was uneven before he put the new floor down. He did not have an answer for me but offered to come back to fix the baseboards by hammering them down. I did not see that as a viable option and could cause even more problems than I had now, so I decided to not have him return as I had lost confidence in his ability. After five weeks the grouting on the bathroom wall tile still had not turned white. I have since had the grouting redone (with the unmixed grout) and it is fine. Even though Don seemed knowledgeable, the work he had done for me told a different story.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $523.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- At times Don was very hard to get a hold of and when he said he would get back to me, I tried to be patient and wait but when time was running out, I would have to try to get a hold of him again to firm up the plans.
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- I now ask a handyman what his background is (i.e carpenter, plumber, tiler) and that gives me an idea if they are familiar with the work I want done. I would also ask for pictures and /or references specific to the jobs I want done.