Stay away regardless of job because Manuel's team shows LACK OF ATTENTION TO DETAIL and CREATED…read moreELECTRICAL SAFETY ISSUES in my house. He came here recommended by my realtor as a first time home buyer. Big mistake that I will never repeat ever again. It's a shame I paid thousands to learn this lesson.
I trusted Manuel with demo and renovation for kitchen and bathrooms and was burned.
I was going to bury the hatchet until he co-sponsored an event with the real estate team.
This post is to warn first time home buyers / owners / renovators to do your research first and watch your contractors like a hawk. I admit if I were on the job site more often, I could have nipped these issues at the bud.
We canceled our contract with him midway out of sheer horror in his continued mistakes with our flooring (he tried twice and failed). After kicking him out, we discovered we have to undo his framing, mechanical, and electrical work - pretty much anything after demo must go.
Here are the big issues:
*** Flooring failure shows AESTHETIC AND TECHNICAL deficiencies
Look at the tile job in the photos. We have uneven tile spacing, most evident in the edges, gaps so huge that trim can't cover it, gaps in places where tile should have been slid under the trim. Technical is in a separate item
*** Electrical installed NOT TO CODE AND WITH SAFETY HAZARDS
He used hidden junction box and unprotected cables. Look up "hidden junction box" for the safety and maintenance issues that accompany something that would have been hidden behind drywall and cabinets. Cables were routed through studs without protection. This means any screws/nails for cabinets may hit the cable, with shocking results
***Framing is not square and is just SLOPPY.
***Taking my tools shows CARELESSNESS. Sanding poles, pliers, a pickaxe (WTF)? I began asking him and his son, who relayed the message on to their workers, who returned with shrugs. I then began watching them like a hawk and they nearly packed away a battery charger for my lawn tools. I chalk this up to clueless versus malicious intent.
***Bathroom exhaust fans installed backward and shows LACK OF COMMON SENSE
Using logic, the exhaust ducting should run to the eaves (edge of the roof) as air is pushed away from the hope. Doing so minimizes bends in the duct. He had the ducts face inward toward the ridges... And we can't simply turn around the fans now because they're too close to the eaves
***Flooring failure shows lack of TECHNICAL competency
Manuel didn't bother to check sub floor flatness fully, causing us to waste time, material, and money by discovering the issue after the tile was mortared down.
We then found out he used the wrong type thinset for the install. Technical failure #1. He tried again with the subflooring, installing SLC over CBU, but then we observed huge flex in our floors that was causing cement to crack in perfect 3 x 5 patterns around the CBU. Called in multiple tilers, who indicated he failed to understand that the floor was flexing too much to just use CBU (needed plywood to stiffen it up)
I had trust in my realtor and in Manuel, but in the end, I've been incredibly disheartened by the experience. Especially given the electrical hazard, I do not recommend him at all, even for "handyman" jobs, and worry about the work he has done for me that I haven't discovered issues with yet.
I have been battling him since I realized his issues in March. Here's the most exemplary quick story of my experience with him that I love to share: He took off my working bathroom's exhaust fan+light assembly to prevent it from falling off as he did demo work upstairs. Told and showed him in July. He came to take photos for a replacement. I battled him to replace it, even looping in my realtor. Manuel finally dropped off just a plastic fan cover (no light assembly) late October. This is exemplary of the level of service I have come to expect of him, and I do not wish this fate upon anybody else.
