J F WELDING

Julio is a nice enough man, however, there is a language barrier. I have a general rule, and that is 1) never work with someone who is not licensed and 2) never work with anyone who claims to speak English well enough to do a project. I asked for a welded, unfinished raw steel planter of 12' x 7' installed to match a gate done by the same welder almost a year ago. Instead, he took it upon himself to sandblast the entire thing to make it look patinaed. This is not what I asked for and to my horror, when I looked at the quote, which I admit to signing, it listed sandblasting. What bothers me is the discussion about the sandblasting. He kept insisting that it would look good, and I kept telling him I didn't want it. So, even though i said, several times not to sandblast he either misunderstood or ignored the request, put it on the quote and did it anyway and as a busy homeowner, I gave him the deposit and signed the quote, trusting I had been listened to or understood. Sandblasting aside, it looks like a post-apocalyptic salvage project. The work is no where near the quality of the gate he made. The workmanship is sloppy and unprofessional, hardly good enough to have in the front of your house, let alone the back. The welding is unsightly and certainly not sufficient for a planter of this size. The installation is a nightmare. There is a front slope of about 1 foot from house to street. The so-called planter is sitting on the slope, leveled, but the ground beneath it was not leveled and the front of it sticks up with 8 inches of air along the bottom - W**? I live in a desert. Am I supposed to build up sand around it and hope for the best? Bottom line is this: The language barrier is too great to risk hard-earned dollars. There are other metal fabricators in Palm Springs, licensed and English speaking - and harder working. Save your hard earned cash - and learn from my mistake.