Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  27/06/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On April 11th, Karel the business owner met to discuss details of flooring with my husband and I. He provided a timeline of 8 days and a quote of $15,000 for the job. On April 19th, Karel's workers arrived to remove old flooring. My husband and I paid him $8400 gst included. Old flooring was reused and a some new flooring ordered which took between 5 to 9 business days to arrive (between may 9th and may 16th). Karel asked for another payment may 6th. $6,300 including gst was paid to him. From May 19th till 2 weeks there was no work done, no call , no communication, the flooring unfinished and still no invoice or receipts reflecting the amounts we paid. During that time and till date we have asked multiple times for invoices, receipts, work to be finished and the damages workers did to our property to be repaired. Karel avoids our calls, does not provide any information on when project will be complete or damages will be taken care of or when they will clean up the mess workers left and does not respond to our messages. He requested further payment may 26th for flooring baseboard $3885. Because I was already wary and skeptical of his dealings, I only sent $2000 on June 7th. I requested again for a receipt. We are yet to receive one. The work is unfinished and 8 days has become 10 weeks. He has not made any attempt to resolve this problem. My husband and I want him to provide us itemized receipt and invoice, clean up the mess and repair damages made by his workers and for him to finish the job so we can move on with our lives. We have been very patient with Karel but our patience has run out.

  Business response

  12/08/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/07/02) */ Our initial contact with this client to do some renovations and installations in a basement bathroom and laundry room, for a designer. While there, the client asked if we could also replace and repair a poorly installed ceramic-tile floor. The tiles were coming loose in many places. On April 19, 2022, my crew arrived to begin removing the existing tile from the floor. The living & dining rooms and office, were to be cleared of furniture, but had not been. My crew needed to move most of the furniture in order to create a good work area. No charge for furniture moving. The tile came up easily in some spots, and with difficulty in others. It was to be reused, if possible, so we tried to remove as much as possible without breaking it. The intact tiles needed to be cleaned of mortar. The test tiles had come up easily, so I'd estimated it would take about 2 days for removal. Because there were areas were the tile did not come up easily, and because we were working carefully so as to not break tiles, it took 5-6 days. No charge for this additional work. As we worked, a spongy area in the floor was discovered. Removal of the subfloor showed that some floor joists did not reach the header. We extended the joists to the header and installed new subfloor. No charge for this, but another delay. After the tiling had started, the client decided to do additional floors, and added tiling the kitchen floor and the basement stairs to the project. More tile was ordered with a 2 to 3 weeks delivery added to the time-line. Experience has shown that supply-chain issues often disrupt delivery date estimates. While waiting for delivery, my crew was sent to other work. It is not always possible to stop work immediately to get back to a job. When the new tile arrived, we had to reschedule a time when we could assign enough time and man-power to work efficiently. Additional, there was a 2-3 day delay while the client decided if they wanted tile-base installed throughout. At one point, our crew discovered that the main-floor toilet was leaking so we repaired the leak and damaged ceiling tile. This was unrelated to the work we were doing, but we were happy to help, and did the repairs; no charge. I do understand that we could have been more diligent from a cleanliness perspective, in controlling mortar dust while cleaning the tile that was re-used. The designer and I met with the client to address the concerns, and on June 30, 2022 most everything has been completed. The designer is waiting for delivery of a couple of items, and we will return to install them when they arrive. A statement of the financial transactions has been forwarded to the client. Also, on June 30 & July 1, 2022, I hired a cleaner to come into the house and do a thorough, 10-hour cleaning. To date, the work left to complete is: -painting the casing -buffing the tile floors We will have a walk-thorough with the client when the work is complete. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/07/05) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) We appreciate that if all delays i.e ordering extra tile and fixing joist plus leak took about 2 and a half weeks all together. Why is the entire job still almost 3 months long? If the contractor estimated 2 days to remove poorly laid tile but it took longer, could he not have communicated this to us. A job that he gave his word would take two weeks, has now been 13 weeks with the contractor no longer responding to calls or texts which is why we had to seek help from BBB as well as the designer. Their help with our furniture moving was appreciated but the reason furniture had not yet been moved was because the work crew arrived one day earlier than they were scheduled to arrive. We had movers booked for the following day. We appreciate the issues discovered and repaired I.e missing joist and minor toilet leak. We fully expected these to be included in costs and we were prepared to pay for the repairs when charged. In regards to the tiling of the kitchen & staircase. During the initial discussion with the contractor, we explained the scope of work that needed to be done. Previously there was a tile baseboard and the workers demolished the tile baseboard (without any care for our painted walls, drywall was ripped off in several areas and paint peeled or stained with black grout). If contractor had provided a detailed invoice instead of just words of "tiling the entire area" he would have been more aware that as they took off the tile baseboards we expect them to be redone. If the contractor had provided us with a detailed invoice in April at the start of the job, this would have guided the scope of the work. Instead a haphazardly written invoice was finally sent to us on July 1st, after multiple requests to him, the designer and finally BBB. Most of these issues could have been avoided if there was detailed paperwork. The invoice was dated June 28th but only sent to us July 1st. It was not an itemized invoice as we requested. After meeting with the designer and contractor, they both agreed that there are many significant issues with the tile that was layed, plus significant damages to my property from carelessness of workers and a near three month time line that is unfair for a client who was promised two weeks. I requested they purchase necessary materials to remove the grout that had dried on all the tiles, if possible they bring a professional that can finish grouting and clean grout stains off tile properly. I explained i would no longer tolerate further damages to my property while work was ongoing, I requested once again they use drop cloths on the high gloss tile while workers wore their boots around the house. I let them know I had to seek a quote from a painter to patch and paint all the damages their workers caused on doors & walls, the quote for that was over $1500. I further stated if they were unable to fix the mess they made before July 5th, I would call the painter to fix the mess they made and they would bear the charge because my whole family has run out of patience, my young children are unhappy living in construction area for months when it was just supposed to be weeks. The contractor returned to fix outstanding issues on June 30th, I returned from work that day to discover the contractor touching up the black grout marks his workers left on the walls with white paint and NO drop cloth. He patched walls and said he would return the following week to paint the grout stained doors and trims. On July 1st, the cleaner arrived to Scrape grout that had dried on the surface of the tiles, she was not provided with grout haze remover and she revealed she had not scraped grout stains off tile before. She cleaned what she could and sent photographs of the incomplete job to the designer. Despite her efforts, she could not remove the cloudy grout haze from the high gloss tile. I don't understand why the contractor would allow the job sit for so long that grout would dry and stain the tiles. The cleaner confirmed that there was sloppy work done in the grouting and finishing of the tile. Before leaving she explained she was unable to remove most of the grout that had stained the black gloss tile, she cleaned most of the white paint but needed better cleaning materials for the grout haze and the new paint stains. While she cleaned we discovered dried white paint stains on the tile, on the aluminum schluter edging for the tile baseboards and paint stains on the grout in between tiles because despite insisting that workers use drop cloths , the contractor himself did NOT use a drop cloth while touching up paint. I took photographs of parts of the tile that had been cracked, parts that were missing grout and parts that had grout that was yet to be wiped away (had dried and needed scraping), I also took photos of the paint stains made June 30th. At this point, it seems the work being done is just sloppy and no consideration is given to protecting my property while they work to fix their damages. I have decided i no longer want said contractor to continue with repairing his damages because of the fear of him causing further damage. ******************************************************************************* I have decided to move forward with the designers suggestion of asking the contractor to stop his work in my home and requesting a professional to fix the damages he and his workers made to the walls, trim and doors they caused, there's also need to finish grouting over 3 dozen points where grout is missing, and Scrape and use grout haze remover for all the tiles, baseboards & corners that are stained with grout. The tile job we paid for is also supposed to run throughout kitchen floor once our kitchen renovation is completed later this year, the tiles was supposed to return to finish laying the tile. But at this point we are hesitant and worried about further damages and mess to our property while the job is finished. We are also concerned about the project being abandoned several times without notice or proper communication. Once again, I am requesting an ITEMIZED detailed (product and labour etc) invoice from the contractor to understand better how the $8400 paid April 20th $6300 paid may 6th. $2000 paid June 7th we paid was used. Thank you.

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