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webuser_712782231

My mother and I had our kitchen redone. Two women who

Houzz-bruger-ID-712782231
sidste måned
sidst ændret:sidste måned



Please help! my mother and i hired a contractor to remodel our kitchen. we bought the cabinets from home depot and the flooring. he demolished our kitchen and placed everything in our garage, left bags of garage for us to clean up and we ended up paying him before we looked around. the cabinets are uneven, bottom panels are missing/coming off and the backsplaah job looks uneven or just not right. looking for any opinion!






(19) kommentarer

  • Paul F.
    sidste måned

    So you are saying you paid him the full amount and now he is ghosting you? Is he a licensed contractor?

  • mnmamax3
    sidste måned

    Oh man, I'm sorry you paid them. Do you think they will come back to address the issues? There should be a transition on the floor and the backsplash does not look right. If they came recomended from Home Depot, go back to them. Good luck.

  • PRO
    Beth H. :
    sidste måned
    Sidst ændret: {last_modified_time}sidste måned

    one of the worst backsplash jobs I've seen. horrible.

    Can you back up and show us a picture of the whole kitchen?

    so you bought the cabs from home depot, and you hired him to install them and do the backsplash? He did it?

    where did you find this guy?

    what does your contract say? do you have one?

    How much did you pay him to install one set of cabs and do one backsplash?

    Why would YOU take care of the garbage?

    you paid him in FULL before you thoroughly checked everything? Now you have complaints and what, he won't answer you? Do you really think he's going to come out and fix anything? if was able to do things correctly, he would have done it that way to begin with. He's a hack.

    Does he have a contractors license? Did you check? If he does, and he refuses your calls to come and fix, you can file a complaint w/the state contractors board

  • Houzz-bruger-ID-712782231
    Forfatter
    sidste måned

    Yes. we bought the floor and cabinets from home depot. He installed both the cabinets and flooring. He said he wpuld come back and finish the transition piece. I did not know what to buy or get so i asked him if he could help and he said he was jot responsible for matierls. (even though i said i would pay him for it.)


    he was paid early because my mom had to have an emergency surgery. He was bery disrespectful about being paid. Paying and not having the job done was completely my fault and a hige learning lesson.


    he charged us an extra $300 for garbage removal bit still left a ton of garage in our living room for my mom and i to take out. the Kitchen cost us $7,000. He is a licensed contractor.


    The backsplash was completed by someone else which cost $1300 for the job. my mom and i picked up all the materials from home depot.


    my mom is 70 and I am 40. we both do not have experiece in home renovations and When I hired him he was a completkey diffrent person. Thank you for your response. Part of it was my fault. trusting the wrong people, not having enoigh knowledge of the job and not having a backbone.



  • Houzz-bruger-ID-712782231
    Forfatter
    sidste måned

    I have another question. the cabinets do not have anything underneath them besides for the wood. is that our responsibility or is the contractor supposed to cover that as well?

  • Paul F.
    sidste måned
    Sidst ændret: {last_modified_time}sidste måned

    So you hired multiple people to complete the kitchen. It's the one guy that installed the cabinets that won't take all your garbage? Did the contract say it he needed to take the garbage? $300 is not a lot to take a huge amount of garbage. Was there a 3rd person you hired for the counters? How did he (or she... or they) handle the unleveled cabinets?

  • Houzz-bruger-ID-712782231
    Forfatter
    sidste måned

    yes. the contractor told us to get the counter top from a local tile/marble store instead of Home Depot. we took his advice.


    There was nothing in the contract about garbage removal. only spoken about that he would remove it. which again was my fault to not have that price and situation confirmed. He left the demolished kitchen in our garage. He did ask, ”iI if he could put some garbage in the garage,” we did not think it would be the entire kitchen (stove, dishwasher caninets...). Bottom line is he lnew we were two women he had no idea what they were doing so he took advantage of the situation and was nice and detailed before he gored him. The second he started working, he had us running in circles. Running back and forth to home depot…I do not know how the compant dealt with the ineven cabinets. I have a feeling they work together a lot and closely so nothing was said to us.


    The backsplash is very upsetting too and he was also recomended by a friend. We wanted to update the kitchen because we want to sell the house in a few years and the kirchen was close to 30 years old.

  • PRO
    Beth H. :
    sidste måned
    Sidst ændret: {last_modified_time}sidste måned

    He charged you 7K to install those cabs and install flooring?? what?

    That's highway robbery.

    You can hire cabinet install people and they usually charge around 2K (depending on how many cabs, how tall, etc) for installation.

    did he remove the old cabs? did he have to do anything to install the new cabs? patch any walls, paint, how about crown molding? (I'm guessing no)

    vinyl floor install runs about 3-4 bucks a sq ft.

    that's why I'm so surprised you were charged so much!

    he charged you 300 more to take away half of the garbage? that should have been included along w/the toe kick.

    what about baseboard molding?


    Here's the underside of mine so you can see how it should look. (you can paint yours white to be less noticeable)


    The cabs you got from HD are a lower quality, cheaper cabinet so they are not finished on the underside


    so here is yours. look at the rails/stiles (the trim part) on the doors. you see how the flat edges are butted up together w/a joint?


    These are a very nice shaker cab. you see how the corners are all mitered?


    Here's another one so you can see how the doors look as well as the toe kick



    Here's a close up of mine. all beveled edges and 45 degree corners




    Can you please show us a picture of the entire space? all of the cab install?

    I'm very sorry but you were taken advantage of big time. I hope anyone who reads this learns that you NEVER pay in full until you are satisfied. I wouldn't have give him 7K to start with, but I wouldn't have paid him more than 20% to start since he didn't have to have any money to purchase materials. You bought everything and did all the 'fetching', so there was no need to pay him in full untill completiong. (normally you give them 25% as they go so they can use the money to buy things needed to complete the job. )

    You were robbed. do you have his name and lic #. I urge you to file a complaint w/the state board.

  • PRO
    Minardi
    sidste måned

    I read it as the cabinets were 7K which is just stock off the shelf stuff.

  • Houzz-bruger-ID-910663146
    sidste måned

    Call your "friend" and let that friend know in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS what a crap job that contractor did and how he took advantage of you. The point is so your friend never recommends that man to anyone ever again. If you are wish-washy because you don't want to upset or hurt your friend's feelings, you will just be setting up the next person for getting ripped off.


    Get your phone and take lots of pictures--including the mess in the garage if it is still there. I'd be looking into small claims court if it were me. You don't need an attorney for that.


    If you have this guy's email, email him about fixing the crap job that he did. Why email? Because it is great proof if you need/want to complain to the state licensing board, Better Business Bureau, Yelp, and small claims court. Better than calling him on the phone, although I would do that too.


    Have you learned anything from this or grown a backbone? I wonder. You keep playing the little woman/my mom was sick card. Quit it. If you think that someone is always going to bail out a woman in distress in life, you are going to have a rough existence because there are lots of bad actors out there. So when the roof starts leaking, or the furnace goes out, or the car breaks down, you need to quit looking for someone to wave a wand and fix it all for you. Am I being exceptionally harsh? You bet.


    If this guy does come back to fix things, do not fall for any of his lines or let him continue to buffalo you as he has so far.


    Next time, stick with reputable businesses to fix/install your projects. You could have hired an installer through Home Depot, and then you would have had a big firm to turn to when things go wrong. You certainly didn't save any money going with a guy.

  • PRO
    Patricia Colwell Consulting
    sidste måned

    I understand you are not happy but really in this day and age playing the stupid women card is all wrong. I need to see the whole kitchen from further back to have any clue as to what you are dealing with . The fact you paid upfront is a huge concern since my bet is he did not take pay on credit card either . At least if we can see the whole space we might be able to help some.

  • colleenmary
    sidste måned
    Sidst ændret: {last_modified_time}sidste måned

    Patricia, playing the stupid woman card is not what these two unfortunate woman are doing. They are asking for help. In their defense, re: being woman handling a big job being done by men, in my experience of being a single woman dealing with male professional plumbers, electricians, workers, drywallers, etc., most are respectful and reliable, but a few do treat woman differently than woman who are also with men. There is a man who gets my underground sprinkler system going and also winterizes it, and he treats me very disrespectfully, so I had my son-in-law deal with him, and his demeanor changed.

    I would hire a well reviewed carpenter/tiler, to come over and give an estimate of how much it would cost to remedy and then go from there, if the installers/tilers won't come back to correct. Also, have a male family member or friend deal with these people if they do decide to come back and fix their mistakes.

  • Connecticut Yankeeeee
    sidste måned

    They are not playing stupid woman card. She admitted she had an error in judgment. I do not blame the OP. You don’t know what you don’t know. To the Original Poster - I’m sorry this happened to you. It’s hard to know what to expect if you’ve never done anything like this before. I hope you find some help. Good luck!

  • Houzz-bruger-ID-910663146
    sidste måned

    colleenmary, you are absolutely right, there are men out there that treat women differently. Some bend over backwards, and some treat you horribly.

  • bry911
    sidste måned
    Sidst ændret: {last_modified_time}sidste måned

    While this is obviously not the highest level or work, it doesn't seem irredeemably bad. At this point I think there are some things that need to be addressed and some expectations that need to be adjusted.

    First and foremost, to really give advice we need more pictures that show the entire job, not just the items that the OP feels are problematic. Let's also note that many great contractors will have a punch list to finish projects.

    Going picture by picture here are my thoughts.

    Picture 1: This is a picture of the tile behind the range and the only problems seem to be the cuts against the ventilation system which are not going to be that noticeable. There certainly should be some grout touchup in a couple of places, but after a few touchups this doesn't seem bad.

    Picture 2: This doesn't look that bad. Someone needs to come clean the tiles a bit but other than the tiles against the cabinets, that no one is going to see, this seems fine. The corner isn't really that bad given how crooked the walls are. No one is supposed to finish the unfinished bottom of cabinets, it just isn't done unless there are special circumstances. There are plenty of fantastic cabinets that don't have finished bottoms.

    Picture 3: I have no idea what I am looking at so it is impossible to comment on it.

    Picture 4: The contractor needs a better blade and a someone needs to slow down and do a better scribe, but I strongly suspect that at this price point that usually gets caulked. Finishing the toe-kick area needs to get done but that is a fairly small job and can easily be fixed and is not really a big job.

    Picture 5: This is really a non-issue. It needs to get fixed but a dab of construction adhesive and it is done. These sometimes get tacked on if there is work left to be done, but again, this is really nothing more than a few seconds to fix.

    Picture 6: This is the biggest issue. That first tile really needs to be replaced so the cut is a bit tighter and the corner line is a bit thick, but the walls are as crooked as the day is long and the grout line might have been left thick so it was harder to notice. I am not sure if the contractor was hired to tear down old walls and true them up, if so then there is a real problem. However, if this was not a down to the studs remodel then crooked walls are just something you have to deal with as best you can.

    The garbage: In my area the standard operating procedure for small updates and remodels is that contractors will place the construction debris in the appropriate area/container and will not haul away debris unless paid for doing so. This is because the disposal rates are much more favorable to homeowners than businesses, so few people want to pay four times more just because the business is doing it. However, most will load the debris into the container when it is on the premises.

    This might actually be a terrible job, but at this point it is a bit much to say so for sure.

  • Houzz-bruger-ID-432451269
    sidste måned
    Sidst ændret: {last_modified_time}sidste måned

    Just needs some base molding. The tile isn’t that bad. I have seen way worse. No one bends over to look up under your cabinets.

    When you decide to be the GC of the job, you take risks of having things go sideways. Hopefully your ”savings” balanced that out.

  • Ann
    sidste måned

    Just wanted to add that i think your choices are very attractive and blend together quite nicely, so you have that going for you!

  • Paul F.
    sidste måned

    I got news for you, some contractors are sleazy and they are just as likely to treat male clients poorly as they do women. I had a licensed and bonded dry waller on my job that did substandard work on my level 5 drywall job and so I went after his bond. I gave him the required notice of 48hrs to perform and he ignored it. I was awarded $18k last week after some back and forth with the surety company.

  • J Sk
    sidste måned
    Sidst ændret: {last_modified_time}sidste måned

    ^^^^ happy to hear you went after this contractor and you got some money. I am tired to hear all this stories when the contractors take advantage of people. Remodeling is so expensive, people put money aside for many years to be able to do some work at home and they get cheated. When I built a house, we had a headache with many contractors and after this experience my opinion about contractors is rather poor to put it gently.

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