Don's Tile And Stone

Don Smith was recommended to act as the general contractor on my bathroom remodel. He is a tile setter but there was very little other work to be done (I had my own plumber and electrician) so I agreed. The job started off with him telling me I owed him another $400 for the building permit. Seems he didn't include that in the estimate. The demolition went fine. The plumber and electrician did their rough in work. The problems started with the shower. I told Don the shower had to be 30" wide to meet code. He framed it up at less than that. When the plumbers told him I was correct, he had to reframe the shower. The job went along pretty well for the installation of the toilet and tub (now I had a way to take a bath) but his work habits were not to my liking. He would show up late and work into the evening. I work a regular day job and was not happy about having him here for 3 or 4 hours after I came home. I told him I wanted him to come earlier in the morning and leave when I came home. He did that once then heckled me about it for days. I even had the painter here until 9 PM because Don had him arrive in the early afternoon. I felt I could not eat dinner without feeding the workers who were here. Don could not install the stainless steel tiles on the floating shelf without sharp edges. I bought the tile and showed it to him when he came out to look at the job before he gave me an estimate. He did not indicate that there would be a problem. Don had a stainless trim made for the shelf (at an additional cost of $250) but he did not have the corners rounded. Now I have sharp corners on my shelf that can cut if you bump into them. One of the corners is in a position that you can back into it and cut yourself. Several times Don disappeared for a week at a time. If you called his cell phone (the only number he gives out) you would not get a return call. Many times the voice mailbox was full. The only point of contact is his sister's e-mail. She seldom responded. I began making threats. Then Don would show up when I was not home (he had access to a key) but do nothing. Details were ignored. Don used a nail gun to install the new wood trim but did not fill in the nail holes. There is a saw cut in the wall where the attic access was moved. The bathroom door was moved several inches and he was going to leave a hole in the wall between where the new door is and where the old door was. He did not have finger grips cut into the new doors of the closet. The floating shelf is not level and plumb (it sags in one corner). Two months after the job was "finished" a stone came out of my river rock shower floor. When I called for warranty work, his voice mailbox was full. I finally e-mailed his sister with my complaint. The return e-mail accused me of prying the stone out of the floor! I was further accused of sexual assault and being a stalker!! I threatened to hire another tile setter to replace the stone and stated that I would sue for the cost of the repair. I also complained about the nail holes and the floating shelf. Finally I was told that "Neal" was available to fix the stone and nail holes. Neal is a lovely gentleman in his 80's who replaced the stone leaving an unsightly blob of grout in my shower. He filled the nail holes with a compound that turned pink - my trim is light oak. Now I will have to dig that compound out and replace it with oak wood fill. When I insisted that the floating shelf be made level and plumb, I was told Neal would do it. I e-mailed back that I did not want Neal to do it - his skills are lacking. The sister had Neal call anyway to make an appointment. Lisa Lassiter, Don Smith's sister, is a very nasty person to deal with. I was not going to write a report on this experience, but after dealing with her, I believe Angie's List members deserve to know what happened. A job that should have taken 3 weeks (well, 5 weeks - I was short tile and we had to order more and that took 2 weeks) took 3 months. I am still struggling to get the last of the work done properly. I would not recommend this company to anyone.