Mike & Co

The devil is in the details they say. Background: Our lower level family was damaged when our 13 yr old water heater went. The result was a partial flooding of our basement, damaging flooring areas of the family room, laundry room and bathroom. Square footage of the damage was the entire bathroom, laundry room and about a third of the family room. The damaged laminate flooring was removed by ServPro (water damage eradication company) per approval of our insurance co. The original flooring, including the laundry and bath, was laminate ("Uniclic" by Steps Flooring, similar to "Pergo"). To make things interesting, the prior homeowners had glued the toilet to the laminate flooring to secure it because they had purchased a 12" rough toilet for a plumbed 10" rough clearance. This in the cellar so a concrete floor was below. The former owners even cut into the sheetrock and wall studs to allow the toilet to literally sit into the wall 2". So we took this opportunity to repair the flooring and toilet situation at the same time. Identifying contractor: We knew we wouldn't be able to get Home Depot or a local flooring vendor to do this job (flooring, toilet, replumbing, etc.) so decided to stick with a general contractor. This is where our contractor search began after settling with the insurance. Mike Pace (DBA, Mike & Co) was local and recommended by 2 of my neighbors. He came one night for almost 2 hrs and went over a variety of options, scope of work, etc. He agreed to email the quote, which arrived a couple of days later. Initial Quote Process: Poor. Mike's initial quote via email was not formatted at all. It was 1 single big long paragraph. There was no clear breakdown of charges and estimates of materials was vague. It appeared as though a 12 year old had typed it (this should have been a big red flag but we chose to let it slide). Because I couldn't read it, I took the email, reformatted it into a Microsoft Excel sheet and tried to break it down as best I could to understand it and emailed it back to him to confirm we were understanding the scope of work correctly (in an Excel sheet and Adobe PDF document). In 2010, with the invention of the computer having been around for many years, I thought I'd get a real professional quote like others I had received, but that wasn't the case. It was very hard to decipher. Net result, very poor quoting process. Written Quote Process: Poor. The next day he dropped off his hand written quote (again, looking like a 12 year old had written it) which included all materials and labor and verbally estimated completion at 5 days. The quote included the written disclosure of "All work to be performed in a workman like manor and in accordance with standard practices" and therein lies the problem. Who dictates "standard practices"? In hindsite, this is a general clause that favors the contractors and doesn't do a homeowner any good because who defines "standard practices" or "workman like"? Homeowner beware. The written quote: included the following scope (simplified): - Remove old toilet, replace with owner supplied new one or put back. - Repair either concrete floor and relocation of waterline plumbing (by a licensed plumber), or move wall back 2" depending upon findings when toilet and wall were removed. In either case, new wall behind toilet to be covered in T&G knotty pine. - Replace laminate floor in family room and laundry room - Installation of new tile in bathroom. Tile and grout can be picked out by owner, etc. - Replace 2 upstairs hallway doors with 6 panel masonite, handles and hinges and retrim - Replace 1 bathroom door with 6 panel masonite, handles and hinges Original quote = $3582 Licensure Information: Good. He did provide upon asking, his state license numbers, comp and liability insurance information. We verified those on various Massachusetts.gov websites and no complaints were found. While we were not initially impressed by the quote process or his mannerisms, we also knew he came highly recommended and our job scope was peculiar. So we decided to move forward despite the poor quoting process. Work Initiation: Poor. Mike arrived in February, granted it was cold outside, but we do have a garage and he immediately insisted he had to setup his "work area" inside our family room and that was how he has done it for 30 years. That was a shock, afterall, other contactors had no problem (even in the cold winter) doing their cutting and masonry work, etc. in our garage so this was a surprise. Though I eventually dropped the issue because of his persistence and ensurance of proper cleanup, in the end, the basement was a disaster and it took my wife and I 2 days to clean up all the saw dust in the windows, curtains and air ducts, etc. The house was a filthy disaster day in and day out as well as upon completion. Work begins: Fair. Inacurate estimates in materials led to delays. Mike ordered the laminate flooring from a supplier that I (the customer) found. Turns out he didn't order enough. And he didn't order any edge or corner rounds for finish trim work. Mike had to make multiple trips to the supplier and fortunately we had enough left over pieces from the former owner to complete the job. Its alarming when a contractor struggles to calculate basic square footage and the homeowner has to identify and correct the mistakes. Work Staffing/Resources: Poor. During his work he had 2 different young helpers. Each with little to no experience with much of anything, so he ended up doing the work. As a result, it took longer to do than if he had trained help. Additionally on 3 days, his help left early due to other obligations. This left Mike with no help and resulted in the job taking 2.5 days to complete the work as well as myself having to pitch in and help when it was needed. Not terrible, but noticeable. Mike even left on 2 consecutive Fridays at 2pm to "go snowmobiling" . This, after starting his workday at 9am and taking 1 hour for lunch. Floor/Toilet Excavaction: Fair: This work proceeded smoothly. It was decided that we would move the toilet rather than the wall. This made sense, and a licensed plumber secured by Mike came to move the underground plumbing and that work was performed very well. The plumber was CHARLES A. CASHIN (BOXFORD, MA Master Plumber Ma License 10677) and he did a great job. However, it was very irritating that Mike set unreasonable expectations of the additional plumber cost - Initally the first visit was supposed to be $75 and it turned out to be $130. Second time plumber came to finish the job and place the toilet, again Mike indicated it would be $75 and it turned out to be $150. This was unacceptable and broke the trust. Also, Charlie never did send me a reciept upon asking. It figures, typical contractors. A funny, but serious note, neither the contractor nor plumber recognized the aparent out of place heavy copper line running adjacent to the toilet PVC underground. Both commented maybe it was an old radiant heat line.. The thing is, myself and my brother-in-law, who does water and sewer, immediately recognized it in 2 seconds as my house water main. Could you imagine? Scary if anything happened there. Bathroom wall work: Excellent. The new wall behind the toilet was installed and the new baseboards in the bathroom were installed (tricky corners and crooked walls), in preparation for tile. Tile Work Begins: Poor: This is when the "sh*t" hit the fan so to speak. We immediately went to Home Depot and per Mike's recommendations, chose 2" tiles for the bath floor because it was uneven and the walls were not straight. My wife wanted 1' tiles but as he indicated, those wouldn't work well in a small bath with both uneven and irregular surfaces and walls. We chose a beautiful Italian marble in those pre-set 12" sections (netting on back for easy lay). We were both skeptical regarding the smaller tile. Professionalism Breaks Down: Very Poor: Mike began the tiling process, including cutting the tile with a wet saw in our family room. Very unprofessional and very unreasonable. And it created a terrible mess. The tile looked ok i