I would like to start by saying that unfortunately Zach did not honor the contract and did not complete the work on our bathroom.
We hired Zach to remodel our bathroom April 2021 on the recommendation of my colleague Tamy. The week he started, we ran into an issue with the plumbing shut offs in our building not being marked, and since he discovered there was no local shut offs in the bathroom, we would need to hire a plumber. To be fair, he was clear from the get go that this might be a possibility, and we were prepared for that. When he called us to let us know a plumber was going to be needed, it was Tuesday around 5pm, and he said he would need someone out by the next day at 8am and that he had a friend of his who could do it. When we asked what the quote was, he told us $1200, which seemed really expensive to us. We asked if he could give us time to get some other quotes, and he seemed very adamant that he had to have someone in first thing in the morning - we ultimately found another plumber who came out in the afternoon the next day for $700 (the first plumber we contacted canceled unexpectedly). Though we felt bad about the delay and apologized several times, Zach seemed very annoyed by this, and mentioned multiple times that this was going to cause him another 1-1.5 day delay (although he himself then was unable to come in two days due to childcare issues, which we totally were understanding of).
When we got back the following week, Zach had left the large mirror in the living room (safety hazard as we have a walking one year old) - we had to ask him a few times to remove this (while we waited we had to store it in our room). From the demo, there was damage on the wall outside of the bathroom and on the wall in our daughter's room (which is adjacent to the bathroom) - dry wall had broken off (see pictures). When we asked about this to see if this is something he could help us fix, his response was that it wasn't his fault, that the construction of our condo was poor.
We noticed that the toilet was missing (he was supposed to reinstall this after the demo) - when we asked about where the toilet was, he informed us it cracked (again, he said not his fault but that our bathroom was poorly constructed). He had known it had cracked for a week and had said nothing, and then asked we have a new one purchased within the next couple of days. He did not spackle or sand any of the holes in the bathroom walls before he painted (painting 101), and when we brought this up he didn't fix this. When Zach couldn't find the mounting plate for the light fixture, he asked us to look for it. We told him that when we had left for our trip we had left all of the supplies together out in the living room, and asked if it was possible he may have misplaced when we were gone. Zach was adamant that he did not misplace anything, and proceeded to tell us that "this is exactly why I tell all of my clients to leave everything in the box". He in fact had never asked us to do that, but we tried not to argue with him; he seemed much more interested in being defensive than solving any problems that arose along the way. Per the contract, Zach was supposed to supply receipts and we would either be reimbursed or pay him what was remaining based on totals spent ($2000 paid to him upfront). I asked for these receipts several times, and though he said multiple times that he was going to send them, we still have not received anything from him.
There are probably another 7-8 examples like those above, but the biggest issue was that Zach left part of the wall next to the shower incomplete, along with part of the trim and had told us he would finish this when he came back to install the faucet/handles (these were on back order until July). I let him know Wednesday July 28th that everything arrived, and asked when he thought he might be able to come back to finish. He didn't respond until the following Monday (Aug 2), and said he should have time that week. My husband then texted him Saturday (Aug 7) when we hadn't heard from him to ask him if he could let us know when he thought he'd be able to come. He responded Mon Aug 9 and said either Tuesday (8th) or Wednesday (9th). He reached out on the 8th and said that he ran into some issues, but would be over on Wednesday. At 4pm Wednesday we asked if he was still coming, no response. I finally texted him the following morning and expressed our frustration at the lack of communication, and asked if he would either let us know if he'd be able to come by the end of the following week, or if we wanted us to hire someone else to complete everything. He never responded (it is now Aug 19).
Zach does not seem to have the maturity or professionalism to run his own business or to effectively work with customers. Unless you think you have a very simple job (in a home that is perfectly constructed with no potential unforeseen issues), I would not hire Zach. read more