STAY AWAY FROM SUPERIOR DECORATING...Hired Alan to do a major renovation on an older home in Monroe Township, NJ. We gave him a list of what had to be done, he surveyed the property and agreed to do the work. We agreed to the proposal and contract changes. The contract had to be changed several times due to updating changes to the home.
On April 8, 2019, he started to demo the house. That took about a week and a half.
First problem, Alan was hardly ever there to supervise the work. The workers did horrible work. They didn't care. Ex. Putting paint on the wall while others workers were sanding in the same area. The workers were very dirty leaving debris all over the house, food, cigarette butts and empty bottles (inside and outside of house). I told Alan this had to be cleaned up. They cleaned up only to do it over and over again.
Issues......
Paint....The painters were inexperienced. . They slopped the paint on. We used flat and satin finishes. The painters put flat paint where the satin should be and satin paint where the flat paint should have been put on in certain areas. We had to correct them several times as the paint was unevenly put on the walls, painted around doorknobs (instead of taking the doorknob off) which paint got on the doorknob and paint drips under the doorknobs. They painted over areas where the walls needed to be spackled and fixed. Then when they did spackle in certain areas, they didn't sand down the spackle, prime the area and then paint, so the walls were not done correctly.
Flooring, the tile is crooked and unevenly laid. They did not use spacers when laying tile. Alan blamed Home Depot tile. He said it is not good. The same tile was used in the bathroom and that came out fine. The floor in the main area of the house was not prepped correctly. They did not even out the underneath flooring before laying the tile. Some of the grout is a darker color than others areas. The grout also is coming out of the seam because it was not mixed correctly. They just dumped the grout and added water to it. There is a formula on the bag and it has to be made according to the directions. They did not do this and consequently the grout is not done right. It doesn't adhere in the seam.
Kitchen...The back splash tile is crooked. The lighting fixture over the island, was hung crooked.
Bathrooms(2)..Paid him for Fabuwood cabinets....He put Fabuwood base cabinets in and for the drawer he used a company called JWQ without telling me. When I questioned him, he gave me some reason I didn't believe. I also then found out the cabinets were ready to assemble cabinets and not cabinets that came from the manufacturer already put together from the factory, which is what I was paying him for. Never told me of the change. (see pic)
Bathroom....Sloppy caulking work..(see pic)
Inside doors...Painted over old material instead of sanding and then painting (see pic)
When he planned the design of the kitchen, he didn't clear enough space for the refrigerator door on the right hand side to fully open. We have to put towels in between the door and wall so the refrigerator doesn't dent. Base cabinet hits oven door when opening. Top cabinet hits another cabinet when opening.
We told him of all these mistakes. He did come back and attempt to correct the mistakes. But he would not correct any major items such as the flooring, and backslash or correct major painting errors. He wanted to change the kitchen cabinet structure to fix the refrigerator, but then the cabinets would not be in line with the refrigerator (he proposed a cheap way out). And if he did that, and if it didn't look right, he was not going to pay for a new cabinet and molding piece. He did send his painters in again and again the painting was terrible. Example...the painter was painting a wall in the hall and left to do another area. I noticed a large paint drip..I pointed it out to him and he took his finger and caught the drip instead of using a paintbrush to even the wall out. He then was painting another area so unevenly with drips, that I told him to stop and I called Alan to come over immediately and observe what was going on. Alan came and left with the painters. And that was the last time I saw him..I sent him the attached email asking when he was coming back to finish painting...He never responded....his workers tried to cover-up all the mistakes, but this was caught once we moved in. Had Alan been supervising the workers, he would have caught these errors, and I wouldn't be writing this letter. Consequently, this is his fault all this happened. Alan always had an excuse why things weren't right..mostly stating the house was old. He knew this from the start. Now, the grout in the floor is coming up because the flooring and grout was not was not properly prepared. Stay away from Superior Decorating. read more
