I choose Tikal b/c Jose was fairly responsive and timely when I was setting up phone calls and an on-site visit for an estimate.
However, that was as good as the experience was going to be.
On the day my fireplace was measured, I made sure his crew new every dimensions I want for the stone surround. We mocked out the fireplace in a notebook, and I was fairly confident they got all the dimensions even though the visit seemed rush.
On install day, Jose's install guy Marvin, helped chip off more brick as the hearth came out thicker than planned. Some of the brick was a little bit too thick anyways, so this was actually helpful - and probably the only helpful or pleasant part of the experience.
Here's where everything went south:
- despite having a guy on hand to vacuum, they all walked all over the cement on the floor, scratching up the floor- sure enough, one of the measurements was off by 4 inches
- I only caught this b/c I was measuring everything myself
- Marving and team rush outside to make new cuts
- the cut is bowed and readily obvious and hearth and surround don't sit flush to one another
- I ask them to fix, the begrudgingly do
- once it looks satisfactory, they install the surround, and this time carelessly spill cement on the right leg of the hearth leaving white cement lines and a non clean look
- I finally ask them to fix that, and they rush it as well just satisfactory enough to not be noticed
Essentially the whole job was rushed and done as carelessly as possible, while still being able to say they did the install. Its a shame too b/c the stone is actually really nice and the fabrication work they did pre-install does look clean.
And then to boot, they took some of my tools on the way out the door - suffice it say, not working w/ Tikal Tile on any future projects. read more