Similar to the experience of Liz C. We too are not happy to be leaving a poor review. We will say Alan is a hard worker. However his business acumen, focus and attention to the details needs work. Had we listened to Liz C's review originally, perhaps it would have spared us the angst, frustration and additional expense not only to fix the damage they caused but also to complete our bathroom remodel.
Early on, the lack of care (poor job done covering/protecting items) & attention to the details was a problem, turning our bathroom remodel into a nightmare. For example:
* tools/supplies on our hardwood floors with no protection underneath, until we asked them to put down some cardboard.
* toilet sitting on our hardwood floors in our closet with water pooling around it. When we called Alan to voice our concern (and let him know we cleaned it up, put plastic down and set the toilet on top) his response was "if we damage the floor, we can tear it up and put tile down"
* Nicks, scratches and chips to the hardwood floor throughout our closet and bedroom floor. Alan commented because our floors were hand scraped, it covers up easily.
* Used our newly installed fantasy brown dolomite waterfall countertop as a "workbench" without covering it which caused numerous scratches all over the surface. They also left tiny paint splatter mist dots all over it.
* Subpar grout work --holes/gaps longer than an inch where there was no grout
* Tile cutting ineptitude - tried to hide cutting mistake by making grout line wider than industry standards
* Scratches and/or cracks all over our shower wall tile. Alan told us these are "fissures" and absolutely not his fault, the tile "happens to have defects". We had two marble restoration companies take a look (and provide quotes to repair/restore) and both have agreed that most of the marks are SCRATCHES or CRACKS and although fissures are natural, if a fissure breaks the plane of the tile that is when water can seep in and may harbor bacteria and contaminants.
* The shower floor tile we selected was a grey and white basket weave. Large sections of the shower floor tile laid was brown and white. Alan told us this was "a natural color variation being a characteristic of the marble tile". We have no experience with tile and listened to his explanation, however, we weren't happy with how it looked. We reached out to Floor & Décor ourselves, long story short, there was a manufacturing issue with the tile and it should have been returned to the store when the color discrepancy was noticed. Alan decided to have Alfredo tear out the bathroom floor tile and redo it WITHOUT RECOVERING ANYTHING IN PLASTIC nor using any sort of method to control the grey dust cement cloud when jackhammering the mortar.
* Alan then tried to bill us an additional $650 for Alfredo redoing the floor. We didn't feel their installing tile without questioning why it wasn't all the same color was our fault, nor did he tell us Alfredo redoing it would be an additional charge, so we offered to split the cost with him and pay $325 to which he had an excuse as to why it was "absolutely not" his fault and said "to think that I'm expected to pay for part of the labor as well is not fair at all"
When discussing our dissatisfaction with Alan (there are more issues but Yelp limits the number of characters), we were told he was provided "horrible materials" (we selected & paid for tile that was 3x the cost of his allowance) and that they "worked tirelessly to get the job done despite this to make sure the finished product would be awesome." Claiming we're the most "discerning customers he's had" and he doesn't think he has the "ability to please us".
Which pretty much sums up our experience with how he handled issues. Excuses, no accountability nor ownership and blaming the owners (we have no experience with tile, nor remodeling and 'trusted' his explanations) who wanted the tile to be the color they selected and feel details matter.
While it's true, from a distance the outcome Alan provided looks beautiful and a huge improvement from how it was originally, sadly, we had to hire additional companies to help us complete the project so up close it looks beautiful too. (12 pictures attached...however due to operator error they all posted twice.) read more