CERAMIC LIFESTYLES

Initial consultation was very positive and professional. I felt comfortable that we would end up with a very professional tile job. The bathroom job was the first to be done. The old tile was taken down nicely, without damaging the surrounding walls and wallpaper. So far so good. However, it should have been a tip off at this point that they left the job site a bit messy. They did a cursory job of cleaning up, but we still had to clean it up more. After the plumber came and did his thing, they came back and installed the tile. Again, it was nicely done except for one minor detail where there was a fairly large gap that they wanted to just cover with grout (they claimed it was too small to cut a tile for.) However, when we asked them to put a tile there, they were able to do so. So, again, so far so good - while it would have been great if they not tried to take a short-cut with the tile, at least they were responsive in meeting our needs. They then came back to grout the tile area in the bathroom. They did a nice job of applying the grout. However, they left the job with the haze of dried grout left on the tile. We had to use our time to go back and clean all of this off the tile. I would expect a professional job to include all of this so that the homeowner, at the conclusion would just be able to walk in and admire the final result. Finally, it was time for the kitchen backsplash. Part of the job was to create a special design piece for above the stove. They did a nice job of cutting the tiles for this design and centering them, but as they were applying them, I noticed that they were not being applied plumb. I had to bring this to their attention to avoid the focal point of the wall from being permanently out of kilter. Then, after all the tiles were installed and they left, I noticed that on one section of the wall they cut the tiles too short, leaving a half inch gap between the tiles and the adjoining wallpaper. I suppose they thought that the would just fill the gap in with grout, which would have looked awful. Fortunately I found this before the mastic dried, so I was able to just scrape the short tiles off the wall before they became a permanent fixture. They fixed this when they came back to do the grouting. The grouting for the kitchen was the biggest disappointment in terms of workmanship and professionalism. First, they failed to use the adjusters on the electrical boxes to make them level with the tile. Secondly, in some sections they did not do a good job in removing the grout from the tile. Thirdly, they did not use tarps to protect the countertop and floor from spills. Finally, they left with grout on the floors, countertops and cabinets. Very unprofessional. After talking with the tile dealer, we now find out that the tiles need sealing. Guess who is expected to do this? The resulting product does look very nice, but not without a lot of work and oversight on our part.