Charlie Cammarata

Working with Charle Cammarata to perform home remodelling is definitely taking a high risk. He does talk a good story during the sales process, however it is clear he does not have the skills and proper resources to pull off remodelling your house. If you do decide to go with him, you risk having a poorly completed remodelling effort that you will more than likely have to engage with another party to correct large and small issues (unbudgeted) and/or risk loosing value on your house. Let me share the horror story my wife and I went through with Charlie. We found Charlie through a local network and invited him to bid on remodelling our master bedroom and bath. He assured us he understood how to manage issues, if anything went wrong he would spend as much time and money to correct it, and he even offered a life time warranty. He also asked for 50% up front and 50% after completion. We did provide 50% upfront, but as the project progressed he changed his mind and needed to get paid on a weekly basis. This should have been a sign. We took everything down to the studs. Charlie chose a technique to secure the sub floor for the hardwood that he had never used before, nor anyone else in the industry, and for good reason to find out. He chose to use OSB as the sub floor and nailed the sub floor to the concrete using the 22 caliber nail gun. Then he nailed the hardwood to the sub floor. Within one month, the sub floor was separating from the concrete and basically the entire floor was floated in some cased a half of an inch. As you walked on one side of the room, the other side bounced to the wave effect. We invited Charlie over many times to have it corrected; he claimed it was water coming up thru the concrete. There was a moisture barrier of roofing tar applied thick below the OSB (per his approach), and therefore we do not believe it is moisture. I eventually had to pay other floor experts to write an opinion. All contractors, and two official reports, stated the nailing of the OSB to the concrete was the problem and they had never seen anyone take the approach Charlie had taken. As stated before, for good reason. They all stated the nails would separate from the concrete and the proper approach is to glue screeds down for this very reason. Charlie denied it was his fault. I pressed him to show me a standard or procedure based on his technique; he said there was not one. I further asked him if he had executed this application in the past, he finally admitted this was his first time he had implemented this approach and blamed the Lumber Liquidators for providing bad advice. I eventually had to threaten taking him to court as he continued to blame moisture as the issue regardless of the expert reports and lack of any standard of how he applied the floor. I even relented and only asked for 75% of the floor costs back, but he stated he could not provide $3500 back to us due to lack of funds. In fact, his last Email said he would take his chances in court. I haven?t even mentioned the poor finishes he did with regards to painting, shower floor, sheetrock, and trim. So whatever you do, please do not work with this individual. He is dishonest, his work is sloppy, and when he does not know what to do, he appears to make it up. When you call him on it, he chooses not to honor his agreements. Though he provided a lifetime warranty, he did not honor this and my family is stuck with a floor that has devalued our house. Charlie's contact information is: Mobile: 913-207-3283 Email: c.cammarata@yahoo.com