Had bathroom and some work done in kitchen and found him to misrepresent himself. For example, we had purchased stone counters from a large company and he said he could get the same thing at a much better price "20% less:-so as we were not yet bound by contract, we went with him. In the end, the price we got from him was the SAME as the company. When I mentioned that to him, he replied that he was "surprised that his supplier did not offer a discount. In speaking to his supplier ( they only deal with contractors) I was told that contractors do get a percentage of sales for bringing in business in ( which I knew having worked in that business in the past) and as they only deal with contractors, no discounts are offered to individual clients.
Another issue was the membranes that needed to be installed before
putting any type of flooring. He charged an extra $500.00 which he had not account for (which is fair) for an area of 32 feet (size of bathroom minus the tub). As we were considering him to install another vanity (7 feet) which required the same membrane underneath, his price again was $500.00. When I asked how he came to that conclusion since the area was 13 feet, he replied he was tired when he did the estimate-yet the next day, he sent it again, unchanged. Least but not last, we needed wallpaper removal in a 10X10 bathroom (2.5 walls as others did not have any) and paint thereafter. His estimate for this came at $1,500.00 for this part of the job. We looked elsewhere and received an estimate for $800.00 from a recommended company, so we went with them .
Interestingly enough, it took one girl and 5 hours to remove the wall
paper, fix what needed to be fixed on walls and apply a coat of paint (including ceiling). She will be coming back to finish the rest when the
rest of the bathroom are ready. Lastly, he failed to mention that he had scratched (2 small scratches on one of the drawers that could not be
repaired with just paint)-did he not think I would notice this?
I was able to get another drawer front to replace the damaged one.
All in all, I did not find him to be meticulous for the work he does and have since hired someone to finish an area of back splash that was missing a tile and another larger area that was missing edging in the
kitchen . I also found that he was not transparent with pricing and even
deceitful (he really wanted that commission for the counters and he was going to say whatever he needed to get it, & at over $6000 for counters, not a bad commission!) and felt he was price gouging (which he can do
-his prerogative and my right to refuse) . All in all, if you hire him, ensure you have a very detailed estimate which covers all costs, who will be doing the work ( He knew the condominium corporation required a plumber as he had to submit information about the plumbing company doing this work and of course charged us for it which is normal-however, one morning he said he would be installing the toilet but when he opened the box and it had additional parts not usually found with regular toilets, he had to call the plumber after all). Also beware that he can get you better prices-20% NOT.
