Pull up a chair, this is a long one.
Let me first start off by saying this is my 2nd time utilizing Gercken Construction aka Amazing Bathrooms for my bathroom remodels, as I know Richard's rebuttal will make mention of that. The first time using his company was when covid first hit. His reviews were good, and he was good about follow up. We paid him our first deposit and all other installments, which were immediately cashed in the same day. This was a little concerning for us as it made us question his business stability, but things seemed fine. After work was completed, I moped the new tile floor and noticed the width of the floor in one area was darker than that rest but I was busy and didn't give it any attention, it wasn't until the next time I saw the same thing happen, that I got down on my hands and knees and saw that my tile was completely cracked all the way across the floor. We rarely use this bathroom so it had been months since the tile had been laid but I called Richard's tile guy who stated that the whole floor would have to come out and because my floor was heated that element would need replaced too. I also asked Richard about this crack, and he said my 28-year-old house must have settled.... No other tile that we had put in that bathroom has ever cracked but I took him at his word and have lived with this. What a sick feeling. Then one day we had the basement carpet replaced and found out that the new bathtub they installed had been leaking since installation. Because my basement is finished this consisted of removing the ceiling and part of a wall to get to the leaking drain. The plumber stated that Gercken construction had not used the right drain for the tub, nor did they seal the drain at all. They barely pieced it together and closed everything up. The Plumber documented all this, and the repair cost us 900 dollars and left us with a hole in the ceiling and in the wall that I get to see every day because no one wants to come do a small job.... We absorbed the blame for all this since we failed to notice much sooner. Forward to 2022 we decided to remodel our primary bathroom, and finally found someone we really wanted to use but he was booked up for 7 months, we waited on them but after many delays and a year's time we started looking again and after much hesitation decided to give Gercken another chance, why you ask? Because he was available... which should have been another red flag for us, but I took this opportunity to point out their last mistakes once again and made clear what my expectations were on this project. Could things be worse? Yes, they can. Things started off fine and went downhill from there. We knew from our prior experience with them to stay on top of things, so we did. This is what I expected and paid Richard to do but that did not happen. We would come home each and every night to another problem. My unlevel floor was a huge concern and it was to be taken care of, I repeatedly asked Richard about it, and he said it was fine, then we noticed the trim was off, contacted Richard who said my floor was slightly off... after he said it was fine but instead of making 100% certain, he didn't. He knew this was a huge issue for me and then blew it off. They could have fixed that before this tile was laid and it would have been fixed. Uneven floor = unlevel free standing bathtub... if you lean on it, it moves up and down, so he wanted to glue it down to fix... No thanks. My shower door company said I had to have triple studs to mount their frameless doors so I told this to Richard on 3 separate occasions who kept telling me he would take care of that- he didn't, he then said I didn't need it, said the boards will hold the door and then just told me to use his shower guy. That is NOT his decision to make. I am paying him to do what I want, not what is convenient for him. They put the wrong trim on 3 times, they tried to reuse spare pieces of my old trim, they cracked pieces of trim on my vanity, the painted walls, trim, and shutters have overspray and runs on them. I wanted a beautiful library wall, and this is the mess I was left with. I broke down and paid a real professional to fix and repaint that wall and now it looks like it should have looked in the first place. Richard cuts corners and uses cheap materials but charges you a fortune. He knows that most people do not see these things. I paid a premium price for subpar work. Not once but twice!!! Because you must, 1 star for the award performance he gives you to get your business. If I were to give one positive, it would be that he is willing to rework things over and over again, with no resolve. Personally, I was sick of them being in my home with the same outcomes. When you look at the pictures on his website, keep in mind that what you are looking at is beautiful tile, new fixtures, bath/shower, and vanities that people purchased. This does not represent his work; this represents the nice things you bought read more