CANNATA CONSTRUCTION INC

This was a horrible experience. We were not living in the house at the time and lived in another state and were not here to monitor the job. Mike Cannata was recommended by an interior decorator and we did visit another job he was doing and had another recommendation. Six months after we initiated the contract, we moved into the house (the work was complete).. We noticed that some of the tiles on the floor were loose. When we reported this to the contractor, he looked at the floor and said it wasn't a major problem. We hired a forensic tile consultant who discovered that more than 100 tiles had popped up. His conclusion was that the surface was not properly prepared before the tile was laid. In addition, one of the expensive door handles he installed was not installed properly and we had to hire someone else to fix it. One of the cupboard's he put in the garage, fell off the wall and all of the contents (china and crystal) were broken. We continued to find other things that were not properly done. We met with the contractor (and the forensic tile consultant) and he offered us the opportunity to replace the tiles that had popped up. These were throughout the entire house so we said that was not acceptable. This went back and forth for months. Eventually he offered us a settlement of $10,000 if we would agree not to sue. We filed against his bond and with the California State Licensing Board (a VERY involved and time consuming process). The bond company settled with us for $12,500 (his entire bond) and he lost his license. We had another contractor (who was very good) pull up the tile, prepare the surface and re install new tile. After having just moved into our home, we had to move out again and take out all of our furniture while the tile was reapplied. In the process we discovered that Mike Canatta did not have the right license to even do this work and that his company had no "employees" but was using contract labor. We also found out that the floor had not been properly prepared during installation and that they had even tiled directly over linoleum without removing it. It was a disaster. We only filed for the floor and not the other problems because his total bond was only $12,500 so we would not be able to recover more unless we took him to court. Recently I went into the California State Llicensing Board Website and discovered he was back in business! Avoid this contractor at all costs.