WILLIAM'S TILE & GENERAL

First of all, Wil, Fredo and sometimes Diego are still working on projects at the house, which is a 103 year-old Craftsman in Pasadena, California. For anyone who thinks that a 15% contingency is going to cover the surprise work on a renovation job for a very old mistreated home, think again - plan on a minimum 50% contigency, especially if you plan on doing things right with quality materials. In addition to this lesson, having a good contractor is paramount. I thought that I had one as he previously worked on our prior residence (which is now a rental) and did an excellent job. Unfortunately, he did not do a great job with our historic Craftsman home nor did he really understand what a historic home is all about!
Part of the reason for the poor performance was that he was greedy and tried to pocket as much money as possible by not hiring qualified individuals for each aspect of the project - they did not know how to center a medicine cabinet over a sink and did not know how to frame a straight wall or level a floor. He did sub to a tile guy; however, he did not notice that there were two separate lots of tile boxes, so the floor looked terrible being two different shades. We had to contact the supplier and manufacturer to help straighten out the issue. In the meantime, the general contractor abruptly left (primarily because his one worker quit) and said he left the jobsite and quot;since there was nothing to do at our house.and quot; Really?! Was he looking at the same house as us???
That day was a blessing in disguise. We waited a couple weeks to calm down, then started searching for someone to help. I found Wil's name in the Yellow Pages under Tile. I also found him on Angie's List, but at that time there were no reviews (around May 2014). I contacted Wil via email, and he responded very quickly. He provided us with a reasonable bid to pull up the bad tile job and promised to do his best not to ruin the new tub or wall tile when doing so. He was true to his word; nothing was damaged, which I thought was amazing given the amount of demo that was needed (re: tile and backer board). He then showed us that the bathroom floor was not level. Wil had Fredo level the floor and reinstall the correct tile lot. It looked amazing! Fredo also found a few other problems (compliments of the other contractor), which Wil brought to our attention. Although the additional plumbing fixes increased the original estimate, we were grateful that he showed us the problems and proposed what needed to be corrected. We went ahead with his recommendations.
Following this work, we had the medicine cabinet centered properly over the sink and had the sconces centered on each side of the cabinet. The electric boxes for the outlets were also relocated to be at the same level. Fredo drywalled and re-tiled around the medicine cabinet. It looked as if it had been done right the first time. From there, we branched off into preparing our floors for some new hardwood. Wil and Fredo noticed that the floors were not level and spoke to the hardwood contactor. This contractor did not want to tackle the issue, so Wil and Fredo stepped in and leveled the floors. They also assisted in adding some floor joists to one of the bedrooms where there was a difference of about 2 inches between the highest and lowest part of the floor. This took some time to do right, but the outcome was fantastic. The hardwood is now installed; however, we are waiting for the baseboards to go in. Fredo will help with that once he has time.
Most of the time, we always found some kind of trouble each time we went into another room. This was due to one of three reasons: old/mistreated house, a prior DIY-er owner, and my first bad contractor. I think that Wil felt bad coming to tell us when they spotted a problem. And, I felt bad when I had to tell Wil that I spotted a problem (from the bad contracor). However, it was best to have the option of fixing a problem sooner rather than later. Wil was also responsive to additional fixes. We did run into some termite and support issues in the kitchen, which were found after the floor demo. The issues were fixed before Fredo tiled the kitchen with some 12 x 24 inch tiles. The tiles were not completely straight, so we agreed to increase the grout line rather than return the tiles and select something different. Everything came out very nicely. We were pleased!
The next project was our 36' x 3' deck and railing that had been eaten up with termites. The deck is rebuilt, better supported and looks like the original (as our home is and quot;historicand quot;). Wil recommended using tile on the decking floor to extend the life of the deck. Although it is not quite Craftsman style, we tiled the deck in a random two-tile pattern to be more Arts and Craftsy, and it looks wonderful. In addition, they hand-built steps with handrails so my Mom will have an easier time getting to the courtyard below. The replica looked like the real thing (except without the support and termite issues!)
I could go on about some of the framing that Wil and Fredo fixed; however, my bottom line experience is that Wil meant all my expectations. And, that does not usually happen these days. Something may be OK or satisfactory, but Wil exceeds those expectations. What I like about Wil...outstanding response time, cares about what he is doing and takes pride in his work, is respectful of you, your pets and property, cleans up every night (no pile of trash and empty drink bottles/cans), provides accurate estimates and is honest, has great people working for him who share his values and pride in craftsmanship, and is extremely clear on what the estimate covers and what materials will be purchased.

Will is a true professional: he takes pride in his work, and he does beautiful work! He likes people, and he took time to work with us and made our ideas reality.
He has so much knowledge that, after carefully interviewing us, he wrote up a contract that was incredibly detailed including the type/brand of materials he would use and the steps he would take and the order in which he would perform the steps.
He uses reliable suppliers who gave us fair prices, and he also worked with suppliers we chose. He uses best quality materials.
He gave us advice if we asked for it. For example, when I was having trouble finding the right white color to go with the tile, he picked a color that worked beautifully.
He constantly asked us where we wanted things placed, so that he could get everything exactly right.
He didn't go over our budget.
He made our bathroom his first priority, and he came to work all day, six days a week for three weeks until the work was completed to our satisfaction.