Bath Relax

Make sure you cover the details

I met Rick Hanson the owner of BathRelax at the columbus home and garden show in 2012. I discussed a bathroom remodel with him at that show and he offered to come give me a quote and at that time he gave me a sealed envelope to keep, with instructions not to open it until I see the quote. If I choose to use their services then we will open the envelope and whatever discount is in the envelope will come straight off the bottom line of the quote. In April of 2012 Rick came to our house with a quote and I agreed to the terms of his contract. At that time I went to the cabinet and retrieved my unopened envelope with the discount coupon. I opened it in front of Rick at that time and it was a discount of 500.00$. Rick stated that he already gave me a bigger discount than that and that discount didn't matter. It did raise a concern in me but I liked his price and project completion time of a few weeks, I paid him 50% down at that time around 16,000$ with the balance due at completion, this was April 2012. At that time Rick was to purchase materials for the project I.e. tub, cabinets, counter top, etc. he wanted to purchase everything for this project prior to starting so he could be out within 3-4 weeks. My wife picked several items with Rick within a few days of signing the contract. We still had flooring material and some plumbing fixtures to pick. Life got busy and several months past with a few calls back and forth to stay in touch throughout that time. Rick stated he had the tub in his warehouse and would hold on to it until project start. After very little contact for several months, finally in Nov. 2012 we had a window of opportunity to complete the project, so we contacted Rick Hanson and made the final flooring, lighting, plumbing picks. At that time Rick stated he had ordered the wrong cabinets for the job, and would order the new ones, he would use those for the next home show. Finally on Jan 28 2013 the project started.
Original scope of work included:
Install new bath tub, Install new shower, new cabinets, new flooring, new counter tops, can lighting, expand master closet, install pocket door to master closet, inspect interior wall for possible structure problem due to cracking on wall.
I was introduced to the subcontractor George Helm ( Great Guy and meticulous worker)
Within the first couple days we determined that the wall in the master closet could not be moved like Rick originally thought, so I determined that we would not proceed with that portion of the job to include the pocket door install.
In addition the inspection on the cracked wall resulted in a structural engineer getting involved to inspect the problem (this was acceptable to me) the job was halted for several days while Rick consulted the Engineer. This is where the project went South.
Rick came to me with 2 quotes: one quote for an additional 13,000$ for BathRelax to repair the structure problem, but quote 2 was if I chose to not use BathRelax to do the repair, there was additional charges of roughly 4500$ for completely arbitrary charges. I asked Rick to explain the 2nd quote and he stated costs associated with items that were associated with the original scope of work. Things like taking down drywall, moving drain lines, water lines, pulling up sub floor. The contract said install tub and install shower, these items are associated with installation. Even if they were not 4500.00 is outrageous to charge for this. Rick used this opportunity to make up for the fact that he was gonna lose money on this job because he made stupid, costly, mistakes, like order the wrong cabinets, Twice!
In addition Rick told me to get a second quote for the structure repair from another company (he named) that does basement repairs, he assured me their quote would be similar. After researching the basement company he referred, it turns out he is an owner of that company as well. In addition to all this Rick had the Guts to ask me for a 10,000$ draw based solely on the quote (no work performed) After reviewing the repair with the engineer who made the repair suggestions for Rick, he stated that the repair he recommended should at the most cost 2000$. I told Rick I needed to explore my options, the next day Rick called and stated he was going to pull his crew from my home until the job was done. My original home contractor came in and made the repairs in 3 days. I had to wait 7 more days until ricks crew came back. When they returned Rick goes into alarmist mode once again when he spotted moisture on one exterior wall in the bathroom. Being the opportunistic man he is, he immediately decided to explain to my wife that the whole house could have moisture problems, and in order to be sure he would have to inspect all the exterior walls to check for moisture. What a joke!
I told Ken, the supervisor on the job (the guy that kept me from firing Bath Relax) that I no longer wanted Rick in my house for the remainder of the project. Rick honored this request. The project went smoothly after Ken ran the show, unfortunately we were 3 months into this project. Ken approached me with financial concerns, stating they could not pay his sub contractors payroll. I agreed to pay their bills with the understanding that I was not a bank and I would deduct that amount plus an additional 3% From the bottom line. I also required lien waivers from all contractors. Ken honored this request, although I did pay the sub once more and payed the granite contractor under the same terms. Ken approached me close to completion with a final payment, which had been whittled away from all the payments, plus the BS additional 4500$ charges from the additional quote discussed earlier. I refused to pay the 4500$ again and I held back 1000$ from the final payment because there was still details unfinished I.e. drain pull missing, ceiling needed patched and painted. I wanted them to finish so I left a 1000$ carrot dangling.
Later that day, I received a call from an irate Rick Hanson who literally went on a nonstop 4 minute long monologue describing how I took advantage of him, how he was losing money on this job, how I was a bad person, blah blah and so on. I asked if I could speak
And he stated that he would cash my check and he would look forward to never doing business with me or my friends ever again.
I told him I had payed everything he quoted and I still owed him 1000$ and he said I don't care you keep it. So I did.
FYI after reviewing my project notes I realized they installed the wrong tile in the shower. Oh well, I can only pay attention to so much.
In conclusion: I would recommend this company only if George Helm, and Ken are still working their. They seemed to be getting things back on track for bath relax, toward the end of my project. Heck they had three months after all.

The whole process took months longer than they initially said it would take, and there were internal problems in the company, resulting in lost paper work, and lost orders, but it got done and it was done well.