I hired S & S Tile Installers from Angie’s list in November of last year. They had almost all 5 star ratings (more than 60 as I recall) and a few 1 star ratings so I felt comfortable with my decision. We met with Jorge, the owner, to get an estimate for installation of a tile shower stall, and a tile floor in our bathroom. The shower stall is approximately 3.5’ by 5’, and the bathroom floor is approximately 54sq.ft. At the time of this estimate the shower area walls were stripped to the studs and the bathroom floor was stripped to the subfloor. The toilet and vanity had been removed. We discussed and agreed to the following items which needed to be accomplished: Replace the subfloor around the toilet that had been rotted from water leaks around the flange. (Jorge stated he would charge an additional $200 to replace the section of subfloor. I agreed to pay for this.) Repair/replace two holes in the shower subfloor, one around the shower drain and one where the plumbers removed a drain vent. Secure bathroom subfloor with appropriate screw fasteners. Install Schluter decoupling membrane on bathroom floor in preparation for tiling. Install green board around shower walls including additional studs as necessary. Install Schluter Shower System, which Jorge stated he would provide, to waterproof the shower walls, niche, floor, curb and bench in preparation for tile. Install tile bench on the back wall from the corner to inside the curb. Prepare shower pan threshold, and walls for sliding glass doors. Install tile on shower walls, floor, niche, curb and bench. Install tile on bathroom floor. We were to provide materials for items 3, 4, and 5, as well as all tile and grout for the project. Jorge required $800 up front to purchase materials, $700 on the day he commenced work and the remainder on the day of completion. We provided him the funds according to his schedule. They showed up for work several hours late because they had to procure materials for the job. When they left work that afternoon I checked on their progress. (See the attached a photo.) Rather than replace the rotted section of OSB subfloor they applied a coating of adhesive to the surface of the existing subfloor and chipped/cut off the rotted portion around the drain. This did not correct the large gap in the subfloor around the toilet drain. The next day they showed up several hours late again. I spoke to Jorge about my dissatisfaction with how he failed to install a new subfloor around the toilet drain. I reminded him that we agreed that he would replace that section of subfloor. He responded that he did replace it but one of his employees cut the hole too big. He added that there is nothing wrong with what they did, and the toilet flange would be attached to the tile anyway. (This is not true. A toilet flange should be secured to the subfloor.) During this interaction he became agitated and angry. He proceeded to screw a small piece of scrap wood to the exposed floor joist to partially fill the void in the subfloor. I told him that was not satisfactory and reminded him that we agreed to pay him $200 extra to replace the subfloor. Jorge continued to act quite agitated and started slamming tools around. He said if I didn’t like his work he would leave and I could find someone else to finish it. He already had $1500 of our money and would not refund it. I left the bathroom and went outside to try to decide what to do. If I fired him, I was out $1500. If I kept him, he may not do an acceptable job. His largely good record on Angie’s List contributed to my decision. I thought maybe he was having a bad day. I returned and asked him to come outside to discuss this matter. He was still agitated when we went out on the porch to talk about this. After much back and forth conversation I asked him if he would replace the subfloor if I gave him another $200. He finally seemed to calm down and said he would fix it as I requested. He returned to work. Although this solution cost me more money, I thought it would be worth it if it would get Jorge to settle down and do a good job. As it turns out, it was a mistake to allow him to continue working. Later that day Jorge said he replaced the subfloor as I asked. I checked the floor and it appeared they may have replaced it but I couldn’t tell for sure because they put some white paint or other coating on the repair. Jorge has a short fuse, and is very hostile to any criticism, so I decided to not pursue it any further. They finished their work on November 27. Before he started the job, I told Jorge that the shower bench was to end on the inside edge of the shower threshold so that sliding glass doors could be installed. Instead, he built it almost halfway over the curb. He assured us that the sliding doors would still fit. We hired a glass company to measure and install the sliding glass doors we ordered but they were unable to install them due to the bench taking up the space where the door would slide. We could not change the glass doors because they were already delivered and manufactured to our specifications. We decided to see if the bench could be replaced to have the glass doors fit as we had originally intended. When we began to remove tile from the bench we realized that Jorge’s work was so shoddy that the shower was destined to fail. We also found that the 6” diameter hole in the shower subfloor which opened to the crawlspace had not been repaired. The bench and the shower curb were constructed from 2X4 and cement board, not a Schluter system bench. As we continued to remove tile we noticed a lack of proper waterproofing on the walls of the shower. They did not use the Schluter Shower System we had stipulated before the job began. Instead, they painted the greenboard with what looks like RedGard a much less expensive alternative to the Schluter system. However, they did not apply the RedGard waterproofing membrane according to manufacturer’s instructions. ([*** Link removed ***] As you can see from the photos below, they used greenboard rather than cement board with the RedGard; they failed to waterproof the many deep screw holes in the greenboard; they failed to properly tape and seal all seams and inside corners with fiberglass mesh tape; they applied such a light coat of RedGard that the green color of the wallboard showed through in many areas. The niche was built without any waterproofing at all. The sides of the niche are just thinset adhesive and cement board under the tile. The back was glued to the outside plywood sheathing. Judging by the large gaps of thinset tile adhesive from the teardown, it appears that they only back buttered thinset to part of the back of the 12” X 24” tiles. They did not spread thinset directly on the walls. As a result, each tile had insufficient adhesive holding them in place, especially around the tile edges. (see photos below) We have also noticed that a floor tile in the middle of the bathroom is loose and moves up and down with an audible pop when weight is applied. The grout is also cracked around it. The floor, in spite of minimal use, is failing and needs to be taken up and replaced. This past week I hired an expert tile craftsman to inspect the work done by S & S Tile Installers and estimate the cost of repair. He confirmed that the previous tile installation was so poorly done that it all needs to be replaced. He was incredulous that someone who claims to be a tile installer would do such shoddy workmanship. Both the shower and the floor must be totally removed, and new Schluter Shower system and tile put in its place. Everything that S & S Tile Installers did in our bathroom must be removed and replaced. Link for photos: [*** Link removed ***]