We hired Juan about a month ago for a shower remodel. Overall, the work is ok, but definitely not…read moreprofessional quality and left a lot to be desired.
The good:
-competitively priced, one of the cheaper quotes we received
-good quality materials: porcelain tile slabs
-frequent communication
-finished product seems to be functionally ok, for now
-we had a toilet leak during the construction period, Juan reseated the toilet properly and fixed the leak promptly, this was much appreciated.
The bad
The work was overall sloppy, in many regards. First and foremost, after Juan installed the valve and plumbing, they caused a small leak into our living room below during water testing. This required them to open up the ceiling downstairs, dry it out, and patch up the drywall and repaint (see pictures below). This honestly freaked me out and increased my vigilance throughout the project.
During shower door installation, they cracked one of the slabs requiring it to be replaced. This was fine, but the waterproofing patch job looked uneven and thin, but they did come out and re-coat it after I brought this up.
The shower door hinges were poorly installed initially. The screws were not countersunk and sticking out; I even confirmed with the shower door manufacturer that this was not correct. We had a lot of back and forth about this; Juan eventually replaced the screws with ones that fit more properly.
Wall edge at the end of the shower looks very uneven, and the caulking has cracked and the wall on the tub side even has a hole in it at the transition.
On the last day, I asked them to replace the shower arm to raise our showerhead, as it was low; I purchased a gooseneck from Lowe's myself, but Juan initially told me "you can do it yourself" however because they already installed a standard shower arm. He did end up putting it in at the end but it was installed improperly; it was crooked, so I decided to replace it myself afterwards as I was already quite stressed with this project already and this was a simple fix. After taking the shower arm off, I found no teflon tape on the threads, but instead a thin layer of some kind of goo. I'm not a plumber, but teflon tape is generally recommended to seal the threads. I cleaned the threads off and installed the shower arm with properly applied teflon tape with a thin layer of pipe dope. At least the copper elbow in the wall felt solid.
Overall, the wet area seems ok, we're not having any leaks (so far), and the shower is functional; however, I felt the project was rushed, communication, while frequent, was poor, and the end product is just sloppy. In the end I was told "I worry too much about everything." I'll post the pictures of the areas of concern and you can judge for yourself. We saved a few thousand dollars, but in hindsight, I wish I hired someone else and saved myself a lot of stress.
