I hired JB Sons to redo my two bathrooms, shower walls, bathroom floor, new vanity, and new paint, installation of laminate in one bedroom, hallway, baseboard, and access panel. JB subcontracts out parts of the remodel (tiling, shower hot mop) which they didn't inform me.
Positives:
The shower hot mop and tiling of bathroom went smoothly. The subcontractor Edgar lined up the grout lines to look seamlessly, catered to our preferences to the layout of the tiles. He grouted with epoxy grout, which is harder to use and buff. Edgar, his team took the time to grout and buff well. They spent a lot of time on the small details of tiling the shampoo box, backsplash, and floor. A+ for tiling and bathroom floor.
We had a last-minute change from cement to Hardiebacker for the bathrooms. We didn't want to deal with the drying of cement for 3 days. Johnny agreed to the change to Hardiebacker.
Mario (the contractor) installed a temporary toilet for us since we didn't have a toilet to use (we only had 2 bathrooms and both were part of the remodel). He fixed the plumbing leak issue which caused wetness in the drywall.
Dino, the painter, was excellent about patching,texturizing the walls.
Negatives:
JB Sons needs improvement on communication. I asked on a daily basis what parts of the project was going to be completed since I didn't get a contract with timeline/milestones. I asked for the contract 4 different times if not more. I didn't receive the contract and payment terms to sign until 3-4 days before the renovation job was completed. On first day of the project, the owner Johnny asked for 50% down payment without a contract which I reluctantly agreed and won't be doing that in the future. Over the next few days, I asked for the contract multiple times, and they still didn't send it.
An employee, Ryan called and demanded $10,000 payment on day 12, saying he was coming over to pick up the payment without scheduling with me. I refused Ryan's demand, and I said that I didn't receive the contract, that it was unprofessional of him to demand payment. Ryan hung up abruptly. I called the owner and discussed the situation with Ryan.
For the shower pan, Mario didn't buy a drain with a lower height even though we told him that we were going to install lower threshold. Mario could have bought several options and showed them to me. The project took longer because Mario came 930am or later on most days, took 1.5 hour or longer lunches and left at 430pm on most days. He would have long phone calls complaining about other customers and my project. Mario installed items such as the medicine cabinet, shower head, at heights without asking me where I would like them. When I asked him to change or adjust the height, he would not do it, give dirty looks and would rudely say that this is the standard height. He was not receptive when I asked him to do something most of the time. Mario yelled and cursed at one of his workers in front of me and other workers which was disrespectful and unprofessional of Mario. Mario broke my new dual panel window latch which he should have asked me if he didn't know how to open the window. When installing the new baseboard trim, he stapled them instead of gluing them when the baseboards in all the other rooms were glued. The new baseboard trims that were installed by Mario had gaps (not flush to the wall).
Mario and his contractor relative would speak in their native language talking negatively, complaining about other customers and me saying comments such as "lacks common sense, stupid" which was unprofessional and disrespectful of them. I have worked with many contractors from different backgrounds. I understand enough of some languages and can speak multiple languages fluently. He installed the bi-view/bi-fold bathroom mirrored medicine cabinet without confirming the location so the medicine cabinet door hits the side wall when opened. I told him that the location of the medicine cabinet was not where we wanted it, and he said it was the "standard location" and gave me a dirty look.
Dino was painting the bathroom walls, but not the ceilings. When I asked him to paint the ceilings, he said that he was not told to paint the ceilings despite the estimate including painting for all walls, including ceilings. I had to call the owner to resolve this issue. Dino didn't lay down painter's plastic, dripped paint on the light fixtures, metal Schluter trims, plumbing fixtures, etc.
Conclusion:
Because of the negative attitude, unprofessionalism, rudeness, lack of work ethic by Mario, lack of communication by the owner on the contract, bad paint job, bad baseboard and access panel installation, lack of communication by the owner to his workers about the things to be done, I told the owner to not send his workers to finish the job, and he offered to credit $1,000 off the invoice.
I would not hire JB sons again. read more