To all who've hired this con artist for shower tile, have your showers checked by a licensed…read moreprofessional.
It's always a huge waste of time to bring to light scammers such as this that attempt to scheme, lie, and rob their way into getting money from property owners. This schemer has threatened an illegal mechanic's lien against our project, which seems to be standard procedure for him as he sent a screenshot of likely another victim to his mechanic's lien scheme. To top it off, his demands for payment even mentioned valuation of our property. He was paid $5,500 for two finished bad tile jobs, laundry floor and half bath floor (BATH 1+2 below), stole several hundred dollars in tile and materials from our project (texted that he would bring it back after his car was released from police impound, but failed to bring back), caused several hundred dollars of tile and prep materials to be demo'd, caused water damage to kitchen ceiling, and caused thousands of dollars in delays. The level of this con artist's deceit has no limits, as he even added $7,000+ in materials to his extortion mechanic's lien (materials we purchased from floor and decor, under our name, via our credit card), on top of the $6,000+ he added for no reason.
On or around November 2019, I contacted Jose Escobar of Escobar tile and Stone inc, to inquire about tile remodel services after seeing his advertisement on Craigslist. His company, "Escobar tile inc" was advertised as being "licensed." This was later discovered to be false, as he is in fact unlicensed.
BATH 1+2 completed (shoddily)
He hastily completed two bathtub surround wall tiles...
*scratching all tiles (advised to purchase sanded grout, when in fact unsanded grout was the right choice)
*failed to apply water proof membrane over backer board as requested *failed to replace sheetrock with cement board prior to tiling in one bath, as requested
*failed to install tile bullnose edge, as purchased and left on site
*failed to slope niches in both baths (half of niche is flat, metal Schluter overlaps tile, trapping water, which will eventually penetrate walls over time)
*failed to clean walls after applying grout, causing a film to harden over polished tile, creating a dull finish that needs to be polished
*installed gouged Schluter metal trim after installing tile (standard procedure is prior to setting tile)
*improper mixture of water with grout (causing bubbles and tiny holes in grout).
BATH 3+4
The master bath shower floor was opened and 2x4 blocks of wood installed. Since the drain was installed cricked, we had a plumber open the floor to repair the drain. At this time, we discovered loose and hanging wood under the shower floor. The water pipes for the freestanding tub he tampered with caused water damage to the kitchen ceiling below. The 4th bath, a small walk-in shower, was COMPLETELY and utterly BUTCHERED with bad work by Jose. To start, he again failed to apply redgard water proof membrane on the walls and especially the seams, as repeatedly requested. He only applied it on the bench and curb.
*He installed the shower pan liner, cutting the corners, and NAILED against the curb and bench, compromising the system and defeating the purpose of having a liner.
*He used LIQUID NAIL at the niche seams and bench seams.
*The shower pan had dried chunks of thinset ALL OVER.
*The glass tile was gouged and scratched in over half the wall.
*The wavy white tile had uneven lengths.
In going against the advice of the professionals who advised a full demo and re-do of the shower, in hopes of salvaging the very expensive tile, the best tile expert could not fix this man's sabotage. The tile guy we hired to try to salvage the work is highly known in the tile industry (has won 3 awards; among other work, did tile at the Apple building, Google, Salesforce, Hermes, and currently at the Gucci store in San Francisco. The most fundamental part of tile install includes leveling your wall, especially when working with cement board such as hardibacker, which has bends. Rather than measuring his thinset to adjust for uneven walls, this man took shortcuts and left 1 inch variations between 4 tiles. This is only on one wall, and between 4 tiles. Expand to the entire wall, and the entire shower, and you get the full picture of his work. The final product, even after spending an additional $3,600, is regrettable.
The hundreds of dollars of prep materials he used in the master bath had to be demo'd due to the extremely shoddy work. A total of four licensed contractors (ironically, including one reference supplied by Jose himself as he confidently defended his work) all stated that ALL of jose's work, including the two completed tub surround shower walls, were improperly done and would eventually leak. The consensus of said professionals was that the work was not that of a professional and would create major water damage over the course of months.