R & J's Home Improvement

Payed contractor 1/3 down to "hold my spot" on 11/3/10. He didn't start until January when I paid him the 2nd 1/3 to begin, total $2400. After a couple of weeks of part time work, he decided for me that his work would only be part time. I had several "re-do's' on the tile project because the work was so poor and finally terminated his work on 3/15 when he was only giving my project 10-15 hours a week, the work was becomming poorer and I discovered that my credit card was being used to purchase his tools and supplies that a contractor should have (solder, spacers for tile etc.) I was also paying for additional materials to correct his misatkes. Though I approved the purchases via phone w/home depot, his purchases were excessive (bag of 25 parts when a few were needed for example), he even charged tile cutting tools and kept everything left over. This contractor didn't have so much as an electrical cap for wiring, I had to buy it all, several hunderd dollars. The tile on the shower floor was uneven after correcting the surface twice, it was very "wavy". I did not have the choice of anything besides 2" tile because he said he couldn't get the slope right with anything else. Several tiles on the wall had to be reset as well as the soap dish. I had another contrator (licenced and bonded) come out and the estimate to demo everthing (nothing that R & J did can be saved) and the remodel is $7000. Many substandard issues were found including bad plumbing and the shower wall tile was put directly on sheetrock, no water proof materials were used. I'm out $5300 with R & J between supplies and labor costs. I was told when I tried to fire him earlier in the project that there would be no refunds so I let him continue to work until the time and quality became more than I could handle. I'm also told that it's illegal to perform plumbing at the level he attempted without a licence. I advanced this contractor some money and was asked to pay cash for the 2nd portion of my payments, which I did to help him out. He still has $1200 of my coworkers money that she put down on her remodel and cancelled with Raymond after she saw the quality of my remodel back in January. I have all payment reciepts, documentation, and photos.

There were a few flaws that I wasn't too happy with that I told him about. It's okay because I can deal with it. I put some molding on the wainscoat and he put some dents in that with his nail gun. I think the pressure of the gun did it.