The morning after we fired Caleb Hastings and Key Lime Construction, I woke up happy! Which is saying a lot, given the nature of remodeling in Austin now. We hired him in June 2021 when he had one crew of 7, including himself. They couldn't start till end of September, at which point he had 4 crews of 3 or 4 guys, not including himself. The work started at the end of September 2021. We got the D Team. Since we were having the popcorn removed and a new floor put in, I arranged for a rental for the first 10 days of the remodel. I did not book it till he told me that he'd have a full crew there and could work straight through. The first three days, he had one guy. Next two days - no one. My husband talked to him and he told us that he had "a good business, a lot of million-dollar home clients, didn't need our business, and offered to pack up his equipment and leave." With the dusty debris of popcorn removal everywhere, having waited over two months, and no replacement. We backed down. Wish we hadn't.
I asked for a smooth ceiling. What we got was a ceiling with trowel marks, not fully painted, and tape visible all over. He told me that he hadn't quoted a "level 5" ceiling. I hadn't said a "level 3" ceiling would be ok. He told me that I expected too much.
The tile job on the floor is disgraceful. Completely unacceptable lippage (unevenness), vast differences in the grout seams, then they did not measure properly, and had to rip up about `150 square feet. He originally told me that the corners of my house were off by a lot. They just didn't measure properly. He also said that the lippage was perfectly acceptable. I look these things up, it is not. They also left mud in the grout seams which may be hard to clean and could affect the grout seal. Caleb said, "Would it have been better if the guys had sponged the tile down as they worked? Sure. But they can just scrape it off as they go."
We asked him about these issues, he became very defensive, started talking about how his million-dollar house clients were very happy with the work in their houses. My husband said, "Oh, because our house is only worth $500,000, we get half the consideration?" He offered to leave again, we let him.
Now, I have a 20-foot pod in our driveway with all of our belongings, a torn-up house, 700 square feet of uneven, ungrouted tile that Caleb told me was "toast," and a that needs to be completed correctly. I'll need to order more (if possible), then have someone rip up the job, level the floor, and install it properly. The worst decision I ever made was hiring Key Lime Construction and the best decision we've made recently is firing him. read more