Crossroads

I had a kitchen remodel with extra door entrance enclosed in adjoining room, ceilings scraped in 2 adjoining rooms as well as the kitchen; all 3 rooms painted; recessed lighting put in kitchen and adjoining room.

Project was completed in the 5 weeks as promised. In general, they did fine, but there are now some problems. I had substantial problems with the painters anyway, with them missing areas or not preparing walls or ceiling before painting. While the supervisor was very knowledgeable about painting, he did not do the actual painting and was frequently not there to supervise. They were called back several times. In the end, he seemed quite perturbed, but so was I. Still there are areas, particularly where the new kitchen wall was put in and there was no prior paint, where white areas are showing suggesting no second coat, or a poor coat. After having someone visit who does kitchens, it was stated that the bottom of the cabinets should have been caulked and trim put around it. I had questioned this, being new to having a kitchen renovated, and was told it was okay as it was. Particularly, I asked about the area under the cabinets going into the living room around the island, where there is a space below the wood and a large space between the cabinet and the trim from the adjoining wall which should have been filled in and smoothed out.

My biggest problem now is the edges of the tile where it meets the adjoining rooms. The tile itself is not broken, but the grout is broken from the tile being laid on uneven or unleveled surface going from the tile to the wooden floor, and then in another area from the tile into a carpeted room. Immediately when the tile was layed, it began to sink and the grout would separate. Before their last payment, we asked them to re-do this, which they did, however they put it the same way it was before. It looks really bad. I called Chris a few weeks after the project was completed (project was completed in May...I called the end of June), to ask if he would come and look at this problem and fix it. I was told he was busy right now and he'd have to see when he could fit it in. Today is August 18th and I just placed a call again to Chris. At this point, I'm a bit steamed because I've gotten no return call. I made it a point to wait to give him time to schedule it in. His first response was that it had not been that long since I called. Yes, it has. Notably upset about his resistance to talk and denial that it has been at least 5 weeks since the last call, I told him that many small things had popped up as problems in the kitchen, but that this is the one thing I would like to get fixed. At this point, I told him I was ready to start writing letters if it did not get repaired. "Don't threaten me" he said. Very professional. I told him I felt like he played on my ignorance at times, with some of the details that were always left out. At this point, he lost it, refused to repair my tile, and told me to write the letters.

This is just a poor handling of a customer. He should back his product and his company's work. Meanwhile, I'm stuck with lopsided entrances to both rooms going into the kitchen. Poor workmanship on the tile; poor response to a customer.