The Tub Doctor

Warning, this is long. My wife and I hired Mike for a kitchen/partial bathroom/front entry way remodel after getting bids from a couple different companies. I will start off by saying we are not high maintenance people but do expect a certain level of professionalism. We are not here to nitpick but I find it necessary to let other people know our story so it doesn’t happen to them. And maybe in hopes that Mike will take our comments seriously and learn some things from this. - First, love the granite counter tops in the kitchen and main bathroom, however, the granite in the other bathroom is different and chipped, we made it clear I wanted all the same counter tops throughout. - Love the kitchen sink. - The travertine tile flooring looks amazing and was recommended to me by Mike and there were some concerns about it cracking and he assured us not to worry. Well, we have had over 30 cracked tiles, most of which have been switched out but still continue to crack. Adding to that, there were some tiles that clearly did not go with the lot. For an example, one tan color travertine in the middle of gray ones, they did fix that though. - Kitchen – we did basically a whole gut of the kitchen and a lot of details were missed. * Starting with the ceiling they put new drywall in because they took out a drop ceiling and installed canned lighting. You can see the seams in the drywall and does not look professional. Mike mentioned while doing it that he was not a drywall guy and I offered to get a drywall guy onsite if needed and he said no, should have been a clue for us to not move forward with him. * We were moving the spot of the island and Mike said I had a while to figure out exactly where I needed it as they were not going to set the island cabinets yet. However, they laid the tile and pulled the electrical cord through in the wrong location. Nothing was even discussed with us about it and we discovered this once it was too late. However, hind sight would have made me have them change it back when I first noticed. But now we don’t have an electrical outlet in our island which is code. * Another layout error was an outlet that could have been moved over a couple inches but now it’s almost behind the stove and hard to plug anything in. * Not even sure where to begin with the cabinets, they are such a mess. First the base of cabinets are disgustingly dirty, I feel at the very least they should have been wiped down. Also, the edges of the base of cabinets are frayed as if he did not cut them correctly. The wood cabinets doors are a disaster, a lot of them the wrong size and don’t close properly. Also, some of them have a very different texture than the others (Mike claims it’s because the other ones had dust, but that isn’t the case). We are still missing cabinet doors above the microwave which baffles me because Mike had about two months to give the measurements to the cabinet guys and after switching out multiple cabinets doors, still doesn’t have them right, you either have correct measurements or you don’t. One of the cabinet hinges are stripped. Screws were put in to some of the cabinets too far and now there is caulk over it making it look very unprofessional. After looking at the cabinet box around the fridge because I felt it was uneven, I finally took out a measuring tape and sure enough there is a 3/4 inch different between the top and bottom. * They put in a new window which looks great, however, the trim around the right side of the window/cabinet is horrible. There is a bunch of caulk all the way down and just looks sloppy. * Dishwasher was put back in and is uneven and not attached. My wife mentioned this to Mike and he insisted it was correct. It is definitely not. - Living room – we have a step down living room about 6 inches or so and we needed to replace the trim around it. There is a part of the edge that needs to support some of the tile, which should have been discovered from the beginning before doing the floor but a little too late for that. They put melamine trim underneath with caulk between the trim and the tile so the tile has no support. That night we even found cracks and parts that “chipped” off, very unprofessional. - Main Bathroom – the flooring, lighting above mirror, vanity were updated. Granite counter top looks amazing, flooring and vanity are good. One major thing is the hole where they changed the lighting over the vanity and did not patch it, but, easy fix. - Master bath – flooring looks great, light above mirror looks great. As mentioned above, granite is different and chipped. The drawers in the vanity are a mess, they screwed the faces of drawers in too far and then caulked it, really sloppy. There was a big chunk of the inside of a drawer that broke off and they caulked it back on, it looks horrible. The trim around the floor is uneven and needs to be redone. The tile that was laid lacked a proper transition between the tile and carpet, poor planning. - They left huge messes when they would leave for a couple days (weeks) and not clean up at all. Walking up to our front door is a long walkway of stone pavers and then trek deck up to door, they clearly broke a bag of grout and carried it up to the house spilling it and then not cleaning it up. Now after having weather and it not coming off after pressure washing, I have a big mess to clean up after they said they would take care of it. - There have been delays with counter tops and because of those “unforeseen delays” Mike offered to paint for us (us pay for paint) if we helped. While we expect to see a mess and touch ups, we don’t expect it to be a disaster and unprofessional. Mike had so much over spray everywhere that I have put in at least 4 hours in cleaning up the over spray. He sprayed over light switches and places that weren’t supposed to be sprayed. - We sent Mike a list of things we felt needed to be completed before his next trip and he agreed that he would look at those items and fix them, well only a few of them were fixed. - Mike contacted me before his “last” trip (ended up being about a day and a half later than expected) and clearly stated that he would not leave until everything is finished. So that last afternoon they were there we brought up a couple issues with the cabinets doors, Mike said he was going to Fed Ex the cabinet doors that we needed which implied to us he felt he was finished. He said he would talk to his cabinet guy and let us know when the other cabinets would be finished and left in a hurry without even going over anything with us. The next couple days were discoveries of things that were promised to be finished but were not. Added issues were found. My wife let Mike know of these issues and he said he wasn’t finished. He also said in response to some of the issues “unfortunately I have helpers and sometimes they leave something that I’m unaware of it,” quote on quote. This leads me to ask, why would you not look over everything? Why would you hire helpers that you don’t trust or have pride in their work? Since then, he said he needed to hear back from the cabinet/countertop guy, after two weeks of hearing nothing we reached out to Mike again asking for an itemized invoice and he said he would be in touch when he hears back from the cabinets/countertop guys and have not heard anything back, it's been over a month. - We have been more than patient with expectations not being met and even explained to Mike what we expected and he understood. This was supposed to be a total of 3 weeks and everything would be finished. I know there are delays to be expected but we are now in the 3rd MONTH and actually have not heard any update in over 4 weeks. Although my wife and I know very little about the construction business, we do know quite a bit about business ethics. Whether or not you are doing a low end or high-end work, details and pride of work matter. Keeping your customer informed matters.

Very well. I was impressed.

Great! Fair price and good looking work.

The tech arrived early and did a fine job. The tub now looks bright white and shiny instead of dull and chipped. You can't even tell where the chip marks were. I love that the caulk lines are clean and crisp. There was a little bit of overspray on the showerhead, curtain rod and tile that I called about. The woman I spoke with said someone would call back and come out and fix it. I haven't heard back yet. I ought to call again. Maybe because of all the fumes and smells coming from the refinish the tech didn't think it would matter, but I would have preferred he would not have vaped in my home. The discount shown on Angies List was honored.

Great. They cleaned it up really well and put down a nice layer of fresh coating. The edges are starting to chip where I masked the new tub off to paint the wall. Not the provider's fault, but I do recommend free hand painting the edge, rather than blue painters tape.

Took Clint 3 hours and it looks like a brand new tub and the look and feel is more like porcelain rather than fiberglass.  He arrived exactly on time and did a great job of cleaning up. 

I have had several people look at the tub and they can't  believe it is the original 1929 model.  I have another old tub at a different house and I will definitely be calling Tub Doctor again.  I used the discount offer from Angie's list.

Went well, the company was easy to get a hold of, get a quote and they scheduled a tech to come out and do the job the same week. Tech showed up on time, did a good job refinishing the tub surround and cleaned up nicely after himself.

Totally love the new look of my bathrooms. The wood looking tile really stands out and has updated the look of the house. We also painted the walls in the bathrooms and common area with a color that was recommended by the Tub Doctor. It really helped make the tile and new white doors really look good. I'm so pleased with the quality of work that was performed by the employees and owner of the Tub Doctor. We were so pleased with the results of this job that we asked for a quote for another job at our cabin which we plan to follow up on.
Highly recommend using the Tub Doctor for tile work and bathroom resurfacing and refinishing.

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Mike was great to work with. He ran into a few issues getting things to work with some stubborn slow close hinges, but he worked really hard and promptly to get it right. Would recommend and work with him again.

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The work was done well.  They came quickly to do the estimate and started work within 1 week.  It was completed in a timely manner.  It looks beautiful.  We needed to sell our home and the workmanship made a difference.  We received many compliments on how good the kitchen and bathrooms looked.  I would recommend Mike and his team to anyone who wants a quality job completed in a timely manner.

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They were great. They were on time and reasonably priced. It was really easy to get the services scheduled.

The bathtub looks spectacular--gleaming white and perfect.  The only concern/disappointment with the service is its apparent fragility.  In the past we have put a slip-mat on the bottom of the tub when our toddler takes a bath.  The folks at Tub Doctor tell us we can no longer due this without damaging their finish.  In the past, this has never--in any other context, as an owner or renter--been mentioned as detrimental to the tub's finish.  In this respect, it was a disappointment to learn that the finish is apparently so fragile, and it's not clear to us whether that fragility is unique to the product offered by Tub Doctor (which would make their product less desirable) or whether this is a concern with all bathtubs (which would make the situation more understandable).
Other than this, the bathtub looks great and continues to gleam several months in.  We hope it will last several years.

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They took exceptional care to mask everything and to cover vanity and mirror with plastic sheeting. They vented their equipment through an open window, being careful to cover the rest of the open window around their machine so that little cold from the outside came in. They told me that there would be an door from the product they used, and also that it would linger for 2-3 hours after completion. Door was minimal! My hardwood floor was totally covered by a tarp while they worked. Every item in my bedroom that they had re-located while working was put back into place. All in all I cannot praise them enough for their timeliness, efficiency and superb workmanship. Would I use them again? In a heartbeat!

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They refinished our tub a few months ago.  It looks great and the work is warranteed.  Price was reasonable and service was prompt.

They were able to offer a quote only after a phone conversation. The owner assured us that they would meet all our needs with the provided quote, including addressing some areas that needed re-caulking along the edge of the tub. Then they fit us into their schedule earlier than anticipated. When the technician arrived, my wife walked him through what we needed. The tub was in decent shape, it just needed to be sanded and recoated to fix some dings the previous homeowner tried to cover up. We showed him a section along the edge of the tub where I needed to re-caulk again, then let him proceed. He was very quick and efficient, finishing in only a few hours. However, he only used tape along the tub line, rather than masking off more of the bathroom. He also just painted over the caulking that needed replacement rather than removing or replacing it.
Once everything dried, we noticed that the tape line wasn't straight, so the tub edge had some jagged edges in it. He also didn't coat all the way down the drain, so when the drain was put back in place, there was an ugly crooked circle around it. Finally, there was overspray on many of the fixtures and walls. We really didn't think this was a professional job!
I called the owner with my list of complaints, so he took down the name of the technician and rescheduled time to come look at it and possibly redo the work. They grudgingly came back where we showed them all the issues. The owner agreed that the job wasn't up to spec, so they did it again. This time the entire bathroom was masked off, they removed the caulking so I could address it, they cleaned all the overspray, and everything was completed as anticipated. It looks awesome!
The owner dropped by the next day to remove the masking and look at the work. We were very pleased this time. As he left, he promised that he would drop by the next week with a new drain attachment to complete the project, which was a gracious offer. However, he didn't show up the next week. My wife left messages and texts with him, and we still haven't seen any sign of the tub doctor after a month. I'm still waiting to use this tub, as there isn't a way to stop the water from draining at present.
It's too bad, because they redeemed themselves, but then shot themselves in the foot again by not following through with promises.

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