I STRONGLY recommend staying away from Clayton and Final Touch!!!
There were mostly minor issues throughout all of the 6 weeks this project lasted (originally told 10 working days). Clayton has a good crew but unfortunately he's the one that ruined my experience with his company. I was willing to and did overlook a lot during the job that I normally would have found issue with (repeated delays, nickel and diming on pricing, paint throughout the house is chipped unlike any remodel I've done on numerous houses before, broken light globe, broken tile, repeated delays with materials, damaged materials) because the team was working so hard and our relationships were so good.
When I selected them to do the work before we started Clayton increased the price at the last minute saying he accidentally quoted with the wrong type of wood. It was a few hundred dollars on a very large bid (21k) so I let it slide. Much later I found the same flooring from the same manufacturer for less than the 'discounted' price he gave me at Nebraska Furniture.
Only a day or so into demo of the existing glue down flooring Clayton let me know that he was surprised by the type of sub floor and needed me to pay to replace it (extra $1200). That would be understandable but there were numerous spots in the living room where the sub floor was fully view-able where cabinetry had been removed and he did look at it on his first and second visit to the home. I agreed to pay the additional cost even though it didn't feel like something a pro should miss and be surprised by.
During demo his full time employees were great and paid attention to the needs of the 4 animals living through the construction noise. They do also use day laborers (hourly workers picked up on a corner in Arlington) that I did find coming into my bedroom before work began in that area of the house. One also broke tile on my fireplace but he was fired and that tile was repaired.
At the start of the job I repeatedly told Clayton that the only reason I was doing the job was to level out the upstairs floor that experienced settling with prior foundation work. I understood it couldn't be fully level but we agreed and he was confident he could make it totally flat (no high or low spots). They got pretty close but he wasn't able to smooth out a ridge in one area. I finally gave up and let the slight slope remain but for the price it shouldn't be there.
Installation of the floors was done by two subcontractors except for the staircases which Clayton did himself with either a day laborer or new employee as he was training him while they worked. The subcontractors did pretty good work. I only noticed two small areas that the seems had separated and with some dark caulk are not noticeable. Sadly the work Clayton didn't let them do was the staircases and it didn't come out near as well. His cuts have gaps that even after filling look awful. I'm an amateur but can do a better job at fitting edges and angles than he did. It's not like he didn't have enough material to fix issues. I asked him to order 2 extra boxes of flooring in case i needed extra in the future. Somehow I ended up with 7 unopened boxes and two partially used boxes that he would not credit me for or let me return.
Also, initially I had planned to tile a half bathroom but Clayton explained that wood in a half bath is done all the time and convinced me to continue the wood in that room. Once it was installed he told me he hadn't added in reinstalling the toilet and that I needed to pay him extra or call a plumber. How do you bid a job where you have to install flooring under a toilet and not plan to reinstall it??? I've done many bathrooms and never had this come up. In the other bathroom he was only removing flooring and not reinstalling. Again he said he didn't include removing the toilet so they just cut a section around the toilet since I didn't want to pay an additional few hundred dollars.
I did ask for a change in the trim work on the staircase for which we did a change order for the increase in cost. I spent a weekend getting staircase skirt and molding done in time for the crew to be back on Monday. They didn't come back for many days so I pulled some late nights for no reason. I asked his crew if the trim needed any adjustments and they said it was great and they always work around trim anyway. Clayton on the other hand used the molding as a continual excuse for why he was having trouble getting the stairs right. I've since had a professional carpenter on site and he commented that the trim work was better than most he sees and the baseboards that Clayton's team installed.
After seeing the price I was paying for the floor glue and doing a bit a research I was able to buy the same stuff at floor and decor for a lot less than his supposed cost at Clayton's supplier.
Clayton came to me on a couple of occasions asking for an advance on payment. We had agreed 50% up front and 50% on completion. He said he was st read more
