Chuck Shee

It was a nightmare. I purchased the tile ahead of time and had the installer, Mr. Shee, come and examine the tile and the pattern that I wanted as well as the area where it was to be installed - a kitchen backsplash. He told me that he could do the job in two days and gave me a price. His price was a little higher than some estimates but since he told me he had an assistant I was not concerned. He also gave me a start date that was convenient. On the designated morning he arrived he did not have an assistant and told me that no doubt the job would take longer since his assistant was unavailable. He set up his tile saw in my garage though I gave him a choice of outside of the kitchen on the deck or in the garage. He chose the garage though he would have to climb stairs. He also handed me a bill for 3.5 gallons of tile adhesive. My first issue came up when I went online and discovered that he was expecting me to pay for 3x the amount of adhesive than the job would have required given the square footage of the backsplash. Next he started cutting tile and spread gobs of adhesive on the back of the tile before sticking it to the wall. I commented that I thought the adhesive would be spread on the wall with a toothed trowel and he told me it did not have to be done that way. As he set the tiles in place I noticed that some of the tiles were raised above the wall surface higher than others. When questioned he informed me that my tiles were warped and that was why they did not lay flat. Each tile had to be corner cut to accommodate a glass mosaic insert. As he set the tile in place I noticed that the corner peaks did not match from one tile to the next. I also noticed that the porcelain tile and the glass mosaic were not going to be the same finished level. In addition I noticed that the grout lines varied in thickness from approximately 1/8 to 3/8 inches and in some places were not evenly spaced from top to bottom. In fact, in some place he use one tile spacer, in others two or three. He told me that these "minor imperfections" would not be noticed when he grouted the area. As he worked he grumbled that he did not like climbing steps, his hands were cold from cutting the tile, and on several occasions he mumbled "oh, what did I get myself into?" This was not encouraging. He originally told me he could set the entire space in one day and would come back and grout it on a second day. The first day he left after approximately 6 hours and that included an hour lunch break. On day two he returned and worked approximately two hours when he received a call that a family member had to be hospitalized. He left, leaving his tools, the tile and adhesive on my kitchen counter telling me he would call when he knew when he could return. He did call later that day reporting that he had experienced a death in the family and would not be able to return until the following Monday. This was a Tuesday so the equipment would be covering my countertops in the kitchen for almost a week. While he was gone I attempted to clean up so that I could use the kitchen. While doing so I read on the adhesive label that the adhesive was not for use with glass tile. The mosaic tile that was inserted between the porcelain was made of glass. At that point I noticed that the glass tile had sunk in the slots that were cut for it and instead of sitting square in what should have been a square hole, were now sitting in or near the bottom of the hole. In addition, I noticed that the outlet cuts in the tile seemed to be way too large to be covered by a switch plate. When I tried setting the outlet plates over the hole I discovered there was no way for the plate to cover the holes. At this point I was greatly concerned that the tile setting errors were at best unusual and at worst totally incompetent, so I traveled to the store where the tile had been purchased and where I had obtained the phone number for the supposed tile contractor, and asked a few questions. I learned that the tile adhesive he was using was totally inappropriate for the application and had probably been applied incorrectly since the tiles themselves had sunk. He was less than truthful in the answers he had provided for my questions - i.e. the grout lines should be straight and evenly spaced, the mosaic should be on the same surface level as the porcelain, the outlets and switch plates should rest on the surface of the tile, not have gaping holes. In addition they told me that I had purchased premium italian porcelain and it would not be warped. And no doubt the reason why the surface was uneven was because the adhesive had been applied incorrectly. I should also mention at this point that because of the way the adhesive was applied a large quantity of it had oozed out of the tile and glued Mr, Shee's carpenter's level, which he had used to support the tile behind the stove, to the surface of my wall. So now in addition to the horrible applied tile, I had a carpenter's level affixed to the wall. I had a professional designer and a second tile consultant come in to evaluate the job and both commented that everything that had been done would have to be ripped off of the wall, the resulting damage repaired, and the job started over. There was no way to adjust the part that had been set to make it look even remotely decent. The cut tiles were not cut accurately or to a consistent size and the resulting unevenness would not be hidden by grout. Mr. Shee's incompetence destroyed over $300 worth of tile. I suspect the Mr. Shee may well be qualified to lay a block on block tile floor but I have no doubt that this particular job was beyond his capabilities. He seemed to be a very nice person and did not cause problems when I told him that I could not allow him to continue to work on the backsplash. I hated to tell him I thought the work he had done was horrible but there was no way I could allow him to finish. I had been advised by the tile company where the tile was purchased, the interior designer and the new tile contractor that Mr. Shee should not be paid for the work that had been done and would have to be removed and redone. I have lots of pictures just in case he would be inclined to argue the evaluation of his work.