We recently bought a house in Jacksonville with a porch and patio that had old textured drywall…read moreceilings with peeling seams. After talking with several contractors, we hired James to remove the drywall and install tongue and groove wood ceilings. He seemed knowledgeable, reasonable, and responsive. The project was supposed to take 3 days.
The first day went fine because it was mostly demolition and removal of the old ceiling. Unfortunately, that was about the end of the positive experience.
On the second day, the wood installation started, but progress was slow and I immediately noticed large gaps between the boards and the walls. By the third day, the quality had gotten much worse. Cuts were rough, angles were off, and everything looked sloppy. Wednesday came and went, and instead of finishing the job, I was told he would come back Friday to complete it.
Friday morning I was assured everything would be finished that day, including staining the wood. By midday it was obvious that was never going to happen. The quality of the work had become unbelievably bad. Many of the cuts looked hacked apart. The gaps and fitment throughout the ceiling were terrible. It honestly looked like someone with no finish carpentry experience attempted the job.
What made it worse was that he seemed completely convinced the work was acceptable. When I pointed out the issues, he blamed the stucco walls not being perfectly even. The stucco was the same from day one, so that explanation made no sense. A skilled contractor plans for uneven surfaces and delivers clean finished work anyway.
At that point I just wanted him off my property. When I raised concerns about the quality, instead of acknowledging the problems, he argued with me and insisted the job was still going to be finished that day. This was despite the fact that it was already obvious there was no chance of completing the project properly. He later claimed he had actually planned to come back on Sunday to continue working, which was shocking because on Wednesday he had specifically told me the project would be finished on Friday. Even after I told him to skip the staining and painting and only finish installing the wood, he still barely completed that part by the end of the day.
To make matters worse, even without the painting and staining, the final invoice still ended up being higher than the original quote. A small part of that was because I asked him to switch from quarter round trim in an attempt to help hide some of the terrible edges and gaps, but most of the increase appeared to come from him not correctly estimating material costs from the beginning.
I paid the invoice in full simply because I needed the situation to be over and wanted him off my property.
I was not even planning to leave a review until I later discovered he posted photos of the work and my house online without my permission. The fact that he was proud enough of this work to advertise it tells me he genuinely does not understand how bad the quality was. The photos he chose to post were also very strategically taken and do not show the actual condition or quality of the work. People seeing those posts deserve an honest view of what was really done here.
I now have to hire someone else to repair and redo much of this project. If you are considering hiring James, look very carefully at the photos and understand this is the level of workmanship you may end up with.
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Since James responded, and because I'm all about transparency, I've included additional photos, including a profile image of the stucco.
- There was no way he was going to finish that day, he didn't finish this disaster until 4:47pm. There was zero chance he was going to prep and correctly apply stain in that day.
- The stucco does not have peaks of 1/2 inch. I've included a profile image of the stucco to show that.
- I did ask him to leave, his work quality was getting worse with each additional step. I believe the photos show his attention to detail.
In the end, his work is not "fine". It's an unmitigated disaster. There's nothing "fine" about it. And regarding him doing it for half of what others would charge, that is not accurate as I had received multiple quotes. I based my decision on the conversation, but have learned that he's far better selling than actually doing. I did not ask for his perceived discounted price, nor did he suggest at any point I would be getting some level of reduced quality in the process. I wasn't looking for a bargain, I wanted it done correctly. It was not.
