I never want to write a bad review, but I've tried a bunch of different ways to resolve this with Juan, and to quote one of his own workers "the floor is not level". I initially chalked this up to a communication issue with Juan, but after showing the job to a couple general contractor friends, and having his own guy tell me that the reason the baseboards weren't sitting on the floor properly was because they weren't level, I'm not fairly certain that the job was done poorly because of choices Juan made. I've has a few bad contractor run ins, and though this one started on the right foot, and Juan has been respectful and patient throughout, the end result was not good.
Juan and his team installed bamboo floors in a small room that I'm converting to an office. They were efficient and friendly. I explained that I wanted to level the subfloor, as it was obvious that there were some issues.
Juan measured, checked it with a laser level, and agreed. We agreed he would use self-leveling concrete to get the worst spots raised, and then cork to feather things out. The contract he said made it clear that he would be using concrete and cork.
Juan and his team arrived early the next day, and when I came down, I noticed that no concrete had been poured and his team was busy glueing cork down. The difference in height from one side of the room to the other was about 1/2"-3/4"; too much to level with cork alone from what I understand. I asked Juan why they weren't pouring concrete, and he insisted that this would "save me money" and would be fine. I told him that it wasn't what we discussed, but he kept telling me that the cork would work to level the room.
I called Juan that night and explained that I wasn't happy about him not using the concrete. He kept saying it would save me money, but he ignored that it would also save him a lot of money and time, and that it wasn't what the contract said or what we had discussed. I told him that if he wasn't going to pour concrete, he would need to update the contract and revise the pricing to reflect that. After a bunch of back and forth he agreed.
Later that night, he sent a revised contract, for $200 less than the original, but no concrete. I wasn't happy, as $200 to pour concrete seems low, but I wanted to get the work done so that I could get my office setup.
Juan and his team finished the job the next day, and when I came down to check things out, there were spots where the base boards didn't lay flat on the new wood floor. These dips were exactly where the original concrete had been lower, and would have presumably been fixed by pouring concrete. The floor was also pretty bouncy; when you step on the floor near the base boards, you can see it dip 1/8" or more.
There was an issue with one of the walls being wavy (the concrete at the bottom of the wall had not been properly covered or smoothed). Juan showed it to me and explained that I could float the wall after. He put the baseboard up, and though it looked bad, with some serious gaps between it and the wall, I expected I'd be able to float the wall once he was done. That night, the baseboard began to bow out, and eventually there was a 1/4" gap between it and the wall. It looked awful and with the bowing, I had to take the entire baseboard off and have Juan and his team re-install it. While the board was off, I floated the wall and made sure the waves were gone.
Which brings us to today...I called Juan early in the week to see if he could come by to install the new board. He told me he could come Friday or Saturday. Saturday morning rolled around, and I called Juan when I didn't hear from him, and he told me he couldn't make it until next week. I expressed that it wasn't very professional to commit to a day and then not show up, he felt like I was being pushy, suffice to say, it wasn't a very pleasant call for either of us. Fortunately, Juan was able to get a couple guys over today to get the board up. I appreciate his effort there, but, when they put the new baseboard up, I noticed some gaps between it and the new floors. When I asked his guy why the board didn't sit properly on the floor he replied "the floor isn't level".
I almost lost it. The whole point was to level the floor and put the new flooring in. For a small job, the room is only about 150sqft, this was way too frustrating.
To his credit, Juan has been respectful in all of our interactions, but it's still doesn't make up for the sub-par work. I know he thinks he was saving me money, but my main goal was to get a level, properly installed floor first, not to save money. I appreciate that he was able to make time today to get his team out to finish the job, but I'm unhappy with the end result.
Again, I hate to post a bad review, but if you're like me, you want to hire someone who is going to do the job right and not cut corners when they think you're not paying attention. Sadly, that was my experience. read more