KAP Construction

We first met with Russell on 2/20/2010 to get an estimate on a complete bathroom remodeling project. This included gutting of the old bathroom down to the studs and replacing all the fixtures including tub, toilet, vanity and sinktop. He gave us a bid that seemed very reasonable and we decided to have him do the work. Even after we told Russ that we wanted him to do the job it was very hard to get him back to sign a formal contract and give us a start date. This should have been our first clue that he this was not going to be a good experience. We signed the contract and gave him the first deposit on 3/27/2010. He didn't start the job until 4/29/2010, a week later than he told us he would start. He also required us to buy the materials for the project that included the ceramic tile, tub, toilet, sinktop, vanity, linen closet, all hardware for the plumbing, medicine cabinet and light fixture. The problems started when he installed the mixing valve for the tub/shower and did something wrong. The master bathroom on the other side of the one he was working on had the hot and cold water mixed all the time. We couldn't get just hot or just cold water from the day he installed the mixing valve. It took him three days to figure out what was wrong after trying to blame it on everything but the botched mixing valve. This should have been hint number two that he wasn't a skilled contractor. The real problems started when he began the painting and tile work. The tile was poorly installed with some very obvious crooked tiles in the shower area. The grouting work was very poor with many areas that got little or no grout in the tile spaces. The worst area is the floor tile where is meets the tub. He has put in this very ugly piece of corner plastic material where the floor tile and the tub meet. When we asked him what it was he told us that he had to do that because the floor was not level. When we asked him why he didn't make it level-as we assumed a good contractor would do-he said that "leveling is not in the contract and that would cost more money". Russ had a long discussion with us about where to put the towel racks with measurements and exact locations. When he did the installation he put them in a different spot-so the door hits the towel rack when it opens. Russ said he did this to "kill two birds with one stone" so the rack acts as a door stop. This was AFTER he knew we didn't want that to happen. The worse part is when we began to complain about his work he originally agreed to fix the problems but the day before he was suppose to show up he sent us an email stating that he wouldn't be back to fix the problems and that he was "readusting" the contract. He still had more work to do in addition to the bathroom remodel but just abandon the job. We would not recommend this guy for ANY work. I can't believe that he can stay in business if this is the kind of work that he does.