We hired JEI to install a shower kit and to replace the drywall in our home after Helene. As a disabled Vet, I can no longer do the work myself and decided to contract it out. The drywall consisted of removing & replacing all of the drywall up to 16 inches from the floor and then texture them. It was a 7 day job, tops. New floors were coming in a week and a half.
It took them 5 weeks and we ended up firing them.
1. Only 1 of their workers was working, the other was talking. Had to complain.
2. They skipped drywall in places like behind the door, in the closet and behind door trim. Basically, if you couldn't see it, they would leave it. A few of those pieces started growing mold we had to remove ourselves.
3. They had no respect for our property. They got drywall mud on everything. They used a painting of the American Flag as a table and got mud all over it. They got mud on my gun safe, air purifiers, furniture, an old wood plaque, etc. When we said something, they promised to send in cleaners.
4. When we realized they wouldn't be done in time for the floors, we asked them to get certain rooms done 1st so we could prevent them from getting into each others way. They jumped between rooms and got in the way.
5. They installed the first shower kit wrong. It was a thin walled kit and required an OSB wall behind it to keep it stiff. They didn't use OSB board and the walls were flexing and would have broken if you leaned on it. The installer lied about using OSB board. After we complained, it was removed and they had me to order a different kit with rigid walls. She gave me the part numbers to order online. They picked them up and installed it. When the installer asked me to look at it, I saw that the shower wall extended beyond the corner of the bathroom wall. The installer (same guy) told me they see that problem in these old houses. I asked him if these old houses made shower pans smaller 4" smaller than shower walls. He acted all surprise and said "OMG, don't tell me they ordered the wrong size walls." Had he paid attention to what he was doing, he would've have seen they had me order the 34" walls with the 30" base pan. They left and management tried to blame Lowes, but they gave us the part numbers she asked for. She said it would be taken care of.
My wife and I tore down the old walls and were going to send them back to try and get credit. That's when we found that they installed the valve wrong and it was leaking everywhere and they just covered it up with the shower wall. Then we saw that they broke the shower wall tabs, tried to use regular drywall around the shower, they used screws too small to hold the wall to the studs, skipped screws in some places, didn't use all the base pan clips, put a screw through the base pan, and didn't level underneath the base pan so it cracked when you walked on it.
We called them back and told them not to send that crew back to our house again and explained why. The owner of the company came out to redo the shower the following weekend. We ordered the new wall and base pan and did a curbside picked up ourselves. Lowes did make a mistake this time and gave us a left side drain instead of the right side drain, but the owner took care of it and Lowes refunded it. He did a great install and fixed the valve.
Lastly, the texture guys did a great job, they were subcontractors. But a lot of work wasn't finished when they left after working until almost 8pm. No one came back the next day. Their management called to settle up and claimed I told the workers the job was finished. It wasn't and I sent her pictures. I also fired them. She said it was my word vs their word even though the pictures clearly show the job wasn't done. Then Lowes called me and told me a worker just left and was rude to them and was trying to get a refund on the other shower parts. But they tried to get the refund on their credit card instead of mine. Lowes refused and refunded it to my card. That's not even everything. read more