Need good tile guy, or gal.

[HoneySuckle]

Doug is his name 313-0171.  Tell him Elizabeth told you about him.  He does good work, is reasonable and will redo something if you don't like it.  Also, any tile you find in town (except from HD and Lowes) you can get through Factory Tile inc.  Ask for Casey.  I've been working through her for years.

[HoneySuckle]

Hope you've found someone by now, or called my tile setter.

[EricP]

Grigsby's wanted $450 in labor to tile 96 square feet of kitchen floor.... needless to say I am curious if any of you guys had any luck with the people listed in this thread. What kind of labor cost per square footage are you getting? $4.50 doesn't sound too hot to me..

[HoneySuckle]

I had Grigby's come out but wasn't impressed, and then I got a recommendation for the guy I use (Doug).

[TheArtist]

I havent called anyone yet. Will do that next week after the chaos dies down. I am finishing up the laaaast mural for that big project I have been working on and its driving me nuts.

[HoneySuckle]

Steve, C&C might have been perfect 22 years ago, but remember some of the new people they have working now do not have the same standards.  I am saying this because a friend went through them based on your recommendations last year I believe (or maybe it was someone else here), and she was so disappointed.  She had to get them back in three times before they fixed the problem.

[HoneySuckle]

Eric, Doug is here doing some work for me and he said he got a call from you?  I think you wanted work started tomorrow?  Do you still need him?  What I'm having done can wait until next week.

[EricP]

quote:Originally posted by HoneySuckle

Eric, Doug is here doing some work for me and he said he got a call from you?  I think you wanted work started tomorrow?  Do you still need him?  What I'm having done can wait until next week.

He is coming out on Monday to do our kitchen and picking our tile up for us from grisby's since we can't fit it all in our Civic Look forward to meeting him!

[HoneySuckle]

Glad to hear that.  Be very specific with what you want and you should be happy. He had to redo our shampoo niche because my hubby didn't like it, and it was not a problem.

[EricP]

Well, the grout color came out to be very inconsistent and I have had no luck getting him to meet up with us and look at it and have had no call back after 2 voicemails and Monday (when the job was "completed") was the last time I saw him. He cashed my check as a "priority payment" Monday night.

I am going to have to paint every inch of the grout because of the large color variations and I don't have time to play cat and mouse trying to get him to fix it by my daughter's 1st birthday party on Saturday. I told him every hour I spend fixing it while he fails to contact me I will consider a refund he owes me (yeah right, eh?) Some of the thinset is also showing through the grout in a spot or two, but I am hoping the paint/sealant will cover that up. Someday I will have to grind it back down even and re-paint.

Hopefully you had better luck with him, the tile install itself is fine but he is not keeping his word to me that he would take care of the grout problem. I wouldn't consider this talking behind his back because I guess talking to his front doesn't work. [!]

[HoneySuckle]

Eric, don't touch that grout!  Let him come back and take care of it.  I had the same problem and he tried to fix it.

He's getting married this weekend so I guess that's why you haven't heard back from him, but he does come back, I promise.

[HoneySuckle]

Eric, I feel really badly that your grout got messed up.  Again, I ask that you do nothing to it before Doug comes back out.  I sent him a text asking him why he had not responded to you.  He's in S. Carolina (getting married today I think) and will be back next week.

Be very firm and don't stop calling.  Do you have his email addy?  I'd write too.

[EricP]

I left him 2 or 3 voicemails this week and never got a response. I think I contacted him Tuesday, was supposed to meet him Wednesday then attempted to contact him again later Wednesday and then again on Thursday. We had a lot of company coming over on Saturday for my daughter's 1st birthday party and I let him know that when he was finishing up on Monday. I didn't have time to wait days and days for him to completely ignore me, whatever the circumstance. I figure if you are going to take my check and cash it as a priority payment the night you finish the job, before the grout is even dry, I am entitled to some sort of response.

I told him if I didn't hear from him I would be fixing the problem myself, so I spent 3 hours on Thursday night painting/sealing the grout with a toothbrush to get the right color. I was going to seal the grout anyway, but it sure wasn't going to be with a toothbrush. Anyway, the kitchen looks perfect now other than the 2 lumps of thinset sticking up through the grout.. so I would just as soon never ever have to deal with getting tile installed by someone else ever again if this is what it is like. I sincerely feel like if he had any desire or intent to get back to me at all that I would've heard from him. If I didn't get back to my company that just paid me my paycheck for a week, my donkey would be sitting in an unemployment line for sure. Whether this is all perception or not is anyone's guess, but when you leave your customer guessing that isn't my fault. The rest of the job is fine, just wish it had ended smoothly.

[HoneySuckle]

I totally understand and I feel badly that I recommended him.  We've had issues before but he's fixed them, though I get frustrated waiting for him to get back to me sometimes.

After this episode though I think I'll look for someone else to do my kitchen backsplash!  I'd hate to have it messed up.

[HoneySuckle]

Eric, I sent an email to Doug with your concerns.  Not sure when he'll get back, but last night I inspected the shower he did and found some areas that are not acceptable.  I don't know what the heck has gone wrong with him but he's had his head in the clouds over this marriage and I guess he messed up.

One tile is coming apart near the shower niche and he used some tiles around the niche that are not even.  Geez, better to do the darn thing yourself!  Now going to have to look for another tile setter for my backsplash!