tl;dr
Very disappointed given the great reviews. It sounds…read morelike Daniel is great, but has had a lot of difficulties scaling his business. There was general dishonesty about the price and sloppy workmanship from Nick and his partner. I have incomplete work that will cost me more time and money for someone else to do.
Here's what happened:
I texted Daniel a list of items I needed done in my house. He said he would have someone contact me immediately, which they did, so far so good. I went over my list of things that needed done:
- floor trim (7 transition areas)
- finishing baseboards (2-3 small areas)
- drywall patching from moving electrical
- rangehood installation and microwave removal
- kitchen cabinet trim (5 straight lines, approx 30ft)
- trim on 2 doors
Separately I wanted a backspash installed, but we did not agree to do this within the initial scope of work, which is fine.
For the above work, minus the backspash, I was quoted $480. Keep in mind, I had most of the supplies.
I sent a message confirming all of this after Nick had come to my house. An hour after leaving, he sends me a text and says that after thinking about it, the molding for the cabinets is very expensive and needs an extra $120.
Since that sounded far too expensive, and after going back and forth, we decided that I would buy all necessary materials, and he would charge me $400 for the labor. Even better, since the extra trim came out to about $80, not the $120 he said it would cost for extra materials.
One unforeseen thing that happened was there was more damage to my kitchen island than originally thought. So, we discussed it, and Nick said to add an extra $50 to the total price, to which I agreed.
After a delay of almost a week because Nick's partner had to go to Miami for family (understandably these things happen), the work started.
Nick and his partner would spend a couple hours each night working on the projects until they were finished, again, totally fine.
On the second time being here, however, Nick and his partner started trying to take shortcuts.
- They chipped a transition and only tried to patch it
- The center island drywall was cut so the baseboard went inside the drywall, and the drywall was shaved off
- They didn't want to paint the cabinet trim with the paint matched color, they wanted to use spray paint, which wouldn't match
Then, Nick asked if I could paint the kitchen island and trim, complaining that the job was costing them too much. Again keep in mind that I have paid for 98% consumable supplies up to this point. They only brought themselves, their tools, and a bit of drywall left over from another job. They continued to ask me to buy more things. Which is fine, I agreed to pay for the supplies.
I'm totally fine paying more for work that was outside the scope of the original agreement. The island, for example. However, Nick started asking for more money for the same work. I would also understand if more work was uncovered along the way, but this was the same work that was agreed on at the beginning that was getting more and more expensive. He also wanted me to do some of the work he had said he would do in the first place.
To me, this is unacceptable.
So now I have unfinished and damaged pieces.
- The aforementioned transition (damaged)
- Uninstalled floor (transition) trim
- Uninstalled Rangehood
- Uninstalled cabinet trim
- Uninstalled baseboards
- Unfinished/unpainted kitchen island
- Unpainted door trim
