Bill Bierly

He kept increasing end price as job went on. He did not replace old facet and temperature dial. We have paid and had to have three different individuals fix Bill's mistakes which were very costly to fix. We had to have one individual take off and and put shower door back on. We had to pay someone else to replace base boards in bathroom since the shower doors were put on incorrectly, water got behind walls and caused our base boards to rot. We had to have new contractor dig up all of the tile bill installed on floor of shower and three lowest rows of tile on shower walls. He also had to redo entire drain system that Bill created and installed which was leaking. The shame was that Bill did a good job of applying the tile. The shower looked beautiful. It was just not functional and contained many huge mistakes. He was prompt. We would not recommend Bill.

Initially, it went well. Bill was prompt, and seemed to be very meticulous. Indeed, Bill's unfailingly polite assistant told me repeatedly that Bill was "the best," and a "perfectionist." When Bill first arrived on the the job, he discovered that the shower stall walls were not plumb and square. Bill insisted that the General Contractor needed to come back and fix them. So, the cement board was removed, the walls made plumb, and new cement board installed. This resulted in a scheduling setback. But, insisting upon this correction is to Bill's credit--without it, the tile would have looked crooked. Bill was also very amenable to discussing details of the tile layout with us, and he asked questions whenever issues came up about the specific tile layout. However, during the work, he frequently grumbled about scheduling delays which had inconvenienced him. For example, on a day that another subcontractor came and interrupted Bill's work, Bill made his displeasure clear. Schedule delays were not my fault, and I felt that Bill's complaints to me were unprofessional. On the other hand, he seemed to be mostly very nice. As I say, he was very accommodating about discussing tile layout questions with us, and he even gave our young son a baseball as a gift. Unfortunately, the relationship with him was soon to deteriorate dramatically. As the job progessed, we learned that there was problem getting the 2" x 2" tiles we'd ordered for the shower floor. With that knowledge, Bill mentioned to me that he could readily cut larger 12" x 12" floor tiles into pieces. He said this would be simple matter, but he did not have enough 12" x 12" tiles. We later learned that the 2" x 2" tiles were still on the slow boat from China, and that they simply would not arrive in time to complete our job on schedule. So, I asked the GC about the possibility of getting additional 12 x 12 tiles to cut up. The GC in turn asked Bill about this and it was my understanding that Bill agreed to it. I understand that Bill even told the GC how many additional 12 x 12 tile they'd need to buy. At no time did my GC mention anything to me about additional costs. The morning that Bill arrived to install the shower floor tiles I mentioned, by way of thanks, his effort to cut up the tiles. I was trying to be courteous and acknowledge his work. In response, Bill first told me that he had not known he was going to have to cut the tile. He claimed that he showed up at the GC's shop expecting to pick up 2" x 2" tile, but was surprised to learn he had to cut down 12" x 12" tiles. This did not jive with what I had heard from the GC. Then, Bill angrily demanded to know who was going to pay him for all the extra work and time he spent cutting tile. I told him that was between him and my GC. He then further told me, in a very rude and surly manner, that he must be paid for his time, that is was not "his house," and he was not doing it for free. He also badmouthed both the tile supplier (whom my wife and I had chosen based upon both their selection and their helpfulness to us) and one of our GC's employees. This was at 7:30 AM, I essentially had just woken up, and this angry subcontractor was confronting me in my own home! In light of Bill's former generally nice demeanor, I was really taken aback. The rest of the day Bill was surly and uncommunicative. As he was leaving the house upon completion of the job, I asked to have a word with him, and tried to reiterate that if there was any extra billing, then it had to come to me through the GC. (I am generally very supportive of the idea that people should be paid for their time, but our contract with the GC included tiling, and Bill was a subcontractor with whom we had no direct contract.) I wanted Bill to understand that he had put me in an uncomfortable position by improperly asking me about payment and give him the chance to make amends. Instead, BIll took the opportunity to very rudely try to lay blame one of the GC's employees (a person who had been very helpful to us throughout the job). In an extremely unprofessional way, Bill extensively badmouthed this employee. He further let me know how much my job had ruined his schedule (again, not my fault). He also told me that the GC had told him to ask me about the additional billings. In a subsequent conversation, my GC (whom I trust) denied that this was the case. Bill Bierly's work was very good but his attitude was complettely out of line. He had no business angrily confronting me to ask for additional payment, and the fact that he badmouthed a trusted employee of the GC who had given him the work was absolutely appalling. In retrospect, I think that Bill was simply trying to intimidate me into directly paying him extra. Good though his work may be, his attitude and behavior mean that I would not use him again.

He was very good at what he did. He did the job very well. He didn't do any damage; he cleaned up after himself well. He was very knowledgeable. There was a tile design that he had to put into the backsplash that my wife had developed. He made some improvements to the design. He knew what he was doing. His assistant characterized him as a perfectionist, and he was.