The Tile Guys

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They quoted us on some bathroom renovations as well as the kitchen backsplash.  I clearly confirmed the kitchen only.  Two workers arrived on Wednesday AM prepared to demo the bathroom floors.  They had not brought a wet saw and could not do the kitchen.  
Upon discussion with the workers, I learned there had been a miscommunication.  The owner was called and showed up to discuss.  We decided they would start the following day.  The main worker was very professional and efficient.  A second worker was elderly and did not do much more than make tile cuts (and most of those the main worker seemed to be redoing).  
The owner became angry with me because I had purchased a trim size that would not work with an uncut edge of the subway tile.  I had emailed him a list of everything I bought for the job ahead of time.  But he informed me it had been my responsibility to know the size to buy.  I had purchased what the tile store recommended.  And, well, he was here Wednesday and that might have been the time for him to inspect the materials.  He apparently drove all over town and finally located the size needed.  As it turns out, he only needed 1 strip of it because the size I bought was fine for the cut tile at the other locations.
The tile looked good as they finished up on Thursday.  They came back Friday AM to grout.  The main worker did most of the grouting.  At some point during the day, the owner called him to rush him to another job and he became agitated and rushed.  When he left, I did pay them in full, not realizing that there would be issues.  As the grout dried, holes began appearing all over the grout.  The grout around the sink area was soft and never dried at all.  I was very concerned being that I had paid them already.  I was very distraught.  I called and the owner assured me they would be there sometime Monday to fix the issues.  This was around 5PM on Friday.
Because my husband was agitated about the payment already having been made, I contacted the bank Sunday to see if the check had been deposited.  It hadn't, so I put a stop payment on the check.  I then sent the owner an email explaining that when they arrived Monday, I would pay half, and then pay the other half after the grout had dried.  
They did show on Monday AM and finished the work to my satisfaction, or as close as we could get considering that the grout hadn't actually fully dried.  The worker stayed around until the grout had dried enough to show any holes.  He admitted to me that the reason we'd had the issue to begin with was because the boss had called him to rush him to the other job, so that he was not as careful as he would normally be on Friday.  He told me that generally, he would have done more wiping down of he tile and checked the grout for holes.
While the workers were there Monday, the owner called me and demanded that I pay in full before they left.  He told me that because I had put a stop payment on the check, he had been unable to pay his workers on Friday and they were about to quit.  I mentioned that his cashflow problems were not my problem, and that he in fact could have cashed my check Friday and paid his guys at that time, but he stuck to his story.  This seemed like a very unprofessional thing for him to tell me, especially considering I knew he was lying, or at the least, exaggerating.  He also insinuated that he had lost time and money on the job due to the Wednesday issue.  I am not sure how much more clear I could have been than signing the quote, circling the kitchen, crossing out the bathroom, and titling every communication with "kitchen backslash" but I guess it must have been my fault.
I did end up paying them in full on Monday because I was alone in the house with the worker and he would not leave until I paid him.  I did at first try to get the owner to meet me somewhere so that he could return my original check to me but he refused.  He said he would mail it back to me, but he never did.  To this day, I feel uncomfortable that he has my check in his possession, although he claims to have burned it.
One other thing to mention.  Having dealt with other tile installers, and done a lot of research, it was my understanding that you would never grout under the bottom row of tile (where a wall meets a counter or floor).  The reason for this is that as your house settles, or goes through humidity changes, that row of grout will almost always crack.  I asked them about this on that Thursday.  He did not understand my question (which was were they going to caulk at the counter INSTEAD of grout) and told me there would be no caulking done by him.  Ok, fine.  Then, on Friday, the workers did grout at the counter.  I started noticing the cracks in the grout at the countertop about 8 weeks later.  Luckily, we had caulked (over the grout) in all the wet areas, so if that grout is also cracked I can't see it.  I just want to mention again that they were the experts and should have KNOWN that you do not grout at a plane change for this very reason.  Another contractor told me that is Tile 101.  I guess I should have gone with that contractor.
I contacted the owner about this issue and basically was told I could mix the grout and dip my finger in it and work additional grout into the cracks.  I responded back asking for the ratio of grout to water and received no response.
In summary, I feel disappointed in my experience with this contractor.  I felt very comfortable with him when he did the site visit and quote.  In fact, I went with this contractor over 2 others who were lower just because he was so personable.  The finished product does look good, aside from the cracks.  I would never use this contractor again or recommend him to anyone.  In all fairness, I have to admit that I deal with contractors on a daily basis in my work, so I have high expectations.  I do not, however, think that expecting the contractor to know what work they were to perform, or expecting him to produce a quality product and then stand by that product, is too much.

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Larry and Jacob were excellent. The end result was more than I anticipated. Beautiful.

Nice kid and seemed to do pretty well. It looked good when he finised, but caulking came out after just a few showers again. Biggest problem was how he cleaned up....not good. He took the old caulk and dumped it down the toliet. To say the least, caulk turns like cement so when you flush is clogged up entire toliet and ruined it. Couldn't flush after first flush.

Everything was very professional and well done.
Ped took time to make sure we received exactly what we asked for

Laying out the tile so that the wall matched the counter was excellent.

Ped was very professional and work was completed on time, on budget and looks GREAT. I would not hesitate recommending him and/or hiring him again.

They were here on time. They finished on time. They did an excellent job. I would recommend them.

Although arrived a little late, Ped came out to provide estimate and perform work on short notice after I explained another company had cancelled two days before work was scheduled and wouldn't reschedule a new/firm appointment in a reasonable timeframe, which was very considerate. Ped was fine with discussing the design I had in mind, and explained why he believed some things would or wouldn't work, then worked to put together the tub enclosure. I provided some assistance by doing some cutting and installation of the tile, and all of the clean up, caulking, and sealing the tiles. I had purchased the shelves, towel bar, and grout, but was asked to purchase a larger bag of a different grout, of course for more cost, but there was more than half of a bag left over, so the orginal amount would have been sufficient to complete the job, not that much of an additional expense, but with multiple projects the pennies add up. Ped and his helper were very friendly, but seemed to be more concerned with time than anything else and could work on professionalism, like supplying their own drop cloth, mounting supplies/tape, and mixing grout outside (not in the main area of the house) when the weather permits. Seemed to want to cut corners and time rather than tile, and I ended up with larger grout lines than I wanted, asked for 1/8", was told that a little bigger would be better for the ceramic tile I was using and went with the pro's opinion, but would like to have had 1/4" grout lines, not the 3/8" grout lines I ended up with, but acceptable. Ped came out and reinstalled the corner shelves, at no additional cost, after they both had fallen off the wall one of the shelves had to be replaced because it broke) about an hour after initially mounted, the tape he used intially was painter's tape that I had on hand. For the second installation of the shelves, he used basic masking tape that I was able to find around my house, whcih worked but he may want to consider carrying the proper mounting materials for shelf installation rather than relying on the clients resources or specify in detail all supplies the client needs to provide for the job or restock the van between jobs to ensure all tools etc are available for each job. The job started and ended as scheduled, and no problems throughout, might use them again in the future.

Everything with them was just fine. They weren't great, but they weren't bad.

It was a very good experience. They worked really hard. They in fact got it done in two days and worked day and night to get it done. The price was good.

Initial contact with the owner was pleasant and he was punctual to all appointments. Very friendly and is very educated about the tile field. Purchased our tiles at the contractor rate to lower our cost. We forgot to pick a grout color and he even worked with the tile store to pick one for us. The end result looks wonderful but the cleanup was a little sloppy. Found some of the grout behind the stove and on appliances and floor. Overall, very happy with the result. I was also impressed on how quickly he could get us scheduled and come out to do the job. Many companies were 2-3 months out.

The job went very good.

We had installed the natural slate on a covered porch area, but ran out of time (and energy) to grout. Ped gave me a very thorough explanation of the work that would be done along with my quote. Both crew members who did our job were very pleasant and did a nice, prompt and clean job. Ped called to follow-up with our thoughts on the work. Overall, a very positive experience and I will use them again.

Our experience was mixed. Ped returned calls and kept us informed about scheduling. One installer did not speak english. They were neat when in the house, but dumped buckets in the neighbors yards and dumped leftover adhesive in our garbage cans. They also damaged the wood floors when pulling out the range. We needed a low VOC mastic for health reasons and purchased it through AFM Safecoat. However Ped insisted he needed more than the manufacturer said we needed, and Ped promised that if he needed less mastic, he would do the job for free. He only used half of what we purchased and Ped then backed down from his promise by claiming that the low VOC mastic was no good and terrible to work with, which is not what the installers said. I was home during the work. Our costs were doubled because we bought more than we needed, based on his promises and the mastic is not returnable. We did not receive leftover tiles or see evidence of number of boxes used. The backsplash looks good.

The installed tile looks excellent. We requested that Ped, the owner, do the work, and we are really happy with the outcome. His recommended placement of decorative tiles looks great. The crew was very nice and polite. My only complaint is the clean-up. They do clean-up the job site, but they could have done a better job on the floor (large pieces of tile and dried grout on the floor under the cabinets -- a shop vac to clean up would be recommended before they left). However, I would not hesitate to use them again!

HE DID A GREAT JOB ON THE ACTUAL TILE, AND I HAVE NO PROBLEMS WITH THAT. HE WAS ALSO VERY PUNCTUAL, PROFESSIONAL, NICE AND HIS CLEAN UP WAS GREAT!! HE LEFT THIS PLACE SPOTLESS EVERYDAY! HOWEVER, THE TRANSITION FROM CARPET TO TILE WAS NOT DISCUSSED WITH ME BEFOREHAND, WHICH LEFT ME WITH NOT VERY MANY OPTIONS AFTER HE WAS DONE WITH THE JOB. MAKE SURE YOU DISCUSS THESE DETAILS BEFORE THE JOB STARTS! PREFERS LIMITING HIS WORK TO TILE ONLY. WILL TACKLE OTHER PROJECTS BUT THREATENS TO CHARGE PRICES THAT SEEM VERY HIGH CONSIDERING THE WORK TO BE DONE. ALSO STATES THAT HE IS NOT KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT OTHER TYPES OF FLOORING WORK THAT MAY NEED TO BE DONE.

THE TILE GUYS WERE WONDERFUL! THE BACKSPLASH TURNED OUT BETTER THAN WE HAD EVER IMAGINED. PED AND HIS ASSOCIATE WERE PUNCTUAL, POLITE, AND VERY HELPFUL. WE HAVE HAD SEVERAL PEOPLE THROUGH THE HOUSE AND THEY ARE AMAZED AT THE QUALITY OF THE WORK. OF ALL OF THE CONTRACTORS WE CALLED, PED WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO CONSISTENTLY RETURNED MY CALLS. THE PRICE WAS ALSO ONE OF THE MOST REASONABLE WE WERE GIVEN. MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE QUALITY OF THE WORK AND HOW THE JOB TURNED WAS FABULOUS. I WOULD RECOMMEND THE TILE GUYS TO ANYONE AND WOULD DEFINITELY USE THEIR SERVICES AGAIN IN THE FUTURE!

PED IS A TRUE PROFESSIONAL, VERY ETHICAL AND VERY MOTIVATED TO PLEASE. HE CALLED ME BACK AND EMAILED A QUOTE THE SAME DAY I CONTACTED HIM. HE CALLED SOME OF HIS SUPPLIERS TO MAKE SURE I HAD A GOOD PRICE ON THE TILE I ALREADY PURCHASED. PED DID ALL THE WORK AS HE PROMISED, AND PAID ATTENTION TO EVERY DETAIL. HE STARTED AND COMPLETED THE WORK WITHIN THE TIME FRAME HE PROMISED AND WITHIN THE PRICE RANGE HE QUOTED. WHEN HE FINISHED THE WORK, WE NOTICED THAT MY COUNTERTOPS WERE UNEVEN CAUSING THE TILES TO SLIGHTLY DROP IN ONE AREA. IT WAS NOT REALLY OBVIOUS UNLESS YOU LOOKED CLOSELY. PED CAME BACK WITHIN 24 HOURS AND RIPPED OUT THE SECTION AND REPLACED IT. HE DID NOT HAVE TO DO IT AND HE DIDN'T TRY AND TALK ME OUT OF REDOING THE SECTION. HE WANTED ME TO BE TOTALLY HAPPY WITH HIS WORK. WHEN HE PULLED THE TILE OUT, THE DRYWALL HAD A HOLE IN IT; HE REPLACED THE DRYWALL, ON TOP OF REPAIRING THE TILE. THEY ARE THE BEST OF THE BEST!

THE WORK WAS DONE EXTREMELY WELL AND THEY WERE VERY PROFESSIONAL AND NICE.

VERY GOOD EXPERIENCE AND HARD WORKING PEOPLE.

THEY REALLY TRY TO WORK WITH YOU TO GET WHAT YOU WANT, AND ARE VERY PERSONABLE.

WHEN HE CAME OTHER TIMES THE WORK WAS GOOD. WHEN THEY DID THE TILE TUB SURROUND, I COULDN'T WAIT FOR THEM TO LEAVE. THE PERSON THAT USUALLY DOES THE WORK DID NOT. THE WORKERS DID NOT SPEAK ENGLISH WELL. I EXPLAINED I WANTED THE SAME LOOK AND PUT BACK ORIGINAL. HE SAID IT COULD BE DONE, BUT WAS NOT. THEY TOOK THE FAUCET OFF AND COULDN'T PUT IT BACK ON. THEY RUINED MY TOILET SEAT LID. THEY DID REPLACE THAT. THERE WAS DUST AND DIRT EVERYWHERE BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T COVER ANYTHING. I HAD TO KEEP HAVING THEM COME BACK AND IT WAS NOT A GOOD EXPERIENCE. THE WORKERS WERE UNSUPERVISED. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE USING THIS COMPANY.