Work Completed Date: October 19, 2009
Hire Again: No
Approximate Cost: $54,000.00
Description of Work: Remodeled kitchen, half bath and laundry room. This included new tile ceramic tile floor, kitchen cabinets and counter tops.
First payment was made March 10, 2009 final payment was on October 19, 2009 we dealt with William Buschmeier, one of the owners who lives on the same street as we do. FWB was selected because both next door neighbors had hired this company to remodel their kitchens were satisfied with the work.
The remodeling project proceeded without any problems with the exception of the ceramic floor tile. The tile man seemed to have problems laying it flat. Before making the final payment we had him take up and replace about 8 tiles because one corner was noticeably lower than the adjacent tile.
By June of 2011 the grout between some of the tiles, especially in the high traffic areas, had broken up and fallen through leaving gaps. Mr. Bushmeier was contacted about this and he stated that this was because of the natural flexing of the floor! He then promised to "make things right."
After three months, in September 2011, after weekly e-mails asking Mr. Bushmeier what was going to be done about our floor, Mr. Bushmeier showed up with his tile man. I had workmen installing wood flooring in the dining room on that day, when he saw this he became visibly angry. I showed Mr. Buschmeier the tile floor and told him that I wanted the floor replaced. He refused, only offering to re-grout the tile. I said this was unacceptable as the same problem would reoccur. Mr. Buschmeier then erupted in anger and began yelling insults. At this point I told Mr. Buschmeier to get out of my house.
Subsequently, later that month, I paid $640 to have all the grout ground out and replaced using an additive that supposedly would let the grout flex.
This past January (2015) the grout between the kitchen floor tiles was again breaking up leaving gaps between the tiles - in much the same areas as before. This time we called in The Grout Medic to look at the tiles. They found that a number of the tiles were only partly mortared to the underlayment. This allowed the tiles to "flex" breaking up the grout. Grout Medic cleaned out all the broken grout and used a liquid substance to fill in the gaps under the 16 tiles that had only partially adhered to the underlayment. Then completely re-grouted and sealed the entire tile floor. While they were cleaning out the broken grout, they discovered that two tiles had only been held in place by the grout and had to be replaced with new ones that were properly mortared. The cost for Grout Medic to do all this was $890.
Thus far we have spent $1530 to repair a new ceramic tile floor - and it still looks like an amateur tile job as the corners of a number of the tiles are noticeably lower than the adjacent tile. I could have done as poor a job as the so-called professional tile installer did!
Besides the poor tile installation, Mr. Buschmeier did not warn us that the cabinet doors were made of pressboard and unsuitable for areas such as kitchens. Pressboard when it gets wet will swell and crumble and we have had to replace three cabinet doors because of this problem.
Mr. Buschmeier is well aware of our dissatisfaction with the work his company preformed but has made no effort whatsoever to take any responsibility for his poor workmanship. In 2011 after I registered a complaint with the BBB, about this matter, he actually blamed me for the problem, saying that it was because I had insisted on a thinner backer board, when I did no such thing. I had not known there were two thicknesses of backer board, until he offered me the option saying that the thicker would raise the tile above the adjacent carpet.
I will never let this company do anymore work in my house and when asked will let it be known so.
David Rorer read more
