L&M Plumbing and Remodeling

Stellar service! On time! Affordable! Solution oriented! Lucy clearly explained what was going on & educated me to prevent future occurrences of issue!

After dealing with Lucy Moreno and her business I think I have a pretty good idea of what it is like to go through a terrible divorce: I trusted the wrong person who repeatedly broke their promises to me and ultimately I spent a lot of money and needed legal counsel to make an awful person leave my life while praying they don’t destroy my house in the process.
I contracted with this business to remodel my kitchen. In the beginning the initial project manager (Tom Estes) warned me that I would have to «get tough» with Lucy and basically kiss her butt if I was going to get her to perform all the stuff she promised to do. That was insane to me, I was baffled that her own sub was undermining his boss, and I shouldn’t have to «get tough» with anyone who I was paying to provide services they enthusiastically agreed to do. Tom also said that the comment Lucy hears most often from her clients is «You lied to me!» Lucy assured me that there would be no cost overruns, they wouldn’t do anything we didn’t agree to do in writing, I’d be happy with their quality work, etc.
It turns out this business wrote the book on dirty contractor tricks. Every other day I was getting messages that work was cancelled and they’d have to start up another day. My favorite excuse was that when work couldn’t start on a Monday for whatever reason, she claimed that it was «easier to work a full five day week then to get started mid-​week and only work a couple of days in a row» so progress was pushed off until the following Monday. Sure, her crew totally isn’t sitting around not making any money on another smaller project she didn’t want to turn down in favor of my project because working a 3 or 4 day week is «so complicated.»
Even though our contract was fixed-​price Lucy constantly hit me up for the cost of items she either «forgot to include» in the price or she didn’t want to pay for. Seemed like it was always a pushy, high-​pressure sell to get me to agree to something «now now now, the guy is here he can do it or he’ll have to come back later» type of thing. I always said no, and when I’d ask her why she doesn’t think the contract means she has to cover it she’d throw up her hands and say «hey, I won’t fight you on this one.» I didn’t want to fight either, I just wanted my contractor to do what they said they would do!
When I found substandard work in progress and complained I was told to relax and stop bringing these things to her attention because they’re not finished and there’s nothing to worry about. When I called her attention to inferior work upon completion I was blamed for not catching the poor quality work in progress and directing the sub to fix it (which under agreement I could not even do, the homeowner cannot direct subs). Everything was «blame the homeowner,» including the fact that I was trying to turn an old carport into a kitchen, something that was abundantly clear to this business when they bid on the project.
The previous reviewer totally nailed it: Lucy is a bully, and with a volatile combination of arrogance and stubbornness to the point of being surreal. While standing in my kitchen as her subs ripped up parts of my new wood floor to redo it for the second time (and only after bitter complaining on my part) she refused to acknowledge that there had been any problems on my job and that «we do quality work, we get nothing but compliments.» Say what?!? I had to hear «that’s the best that can be done» until I argued, and argued, and argued, and argued to get things fixed. The project suffered from lack of oversight and management, with Lucy and much of her subs apparently incapable of applying logic or common sense to the work. I spent more than one evening surveying what was supposed to be my fabulous new kitchen completely in tears trying to comprehend the insane mind that could think this kind of work was acceptable. I must admit that a couple of her subs were honest, hardworking guys who obviously cared more about quality and customer service than Lucy did.
When the project failed to pass the electrical inspection Lucy doubled-​down and refused to do any more work until I gave her the final payment, which clearly is not due by contract until all the work is done and the liabilities are cleared. Lucy literally stated she did not care about the terms of our contract, she just wanted to be paid (greatest email ever, got it in writing, thank you!). Never mind the fact that it didn’t pass the city inspection or that a sub (who had been fired early in the project before demo even started) had attempted to file an invalid lien on my property. She makes up the rules as she goes along and I don’t think she ever even actually read the contract that we signed. Her work ethic reminds me of a drug-​addict: lie and do whatever it takes to get the money and always deny any problems exist.

For starters, «Doing one job at a time» like their website claims, is absolute crap. I lost count of how many times Lucy & Tom (master plumber & proj mgr) actually told us they had too many jobs to keep up with & were so busy; «I really need to get over to this one in Westlake Hills, so yours HAS to be finished tomorrow» even though there were SO MANY problems left unaddressed! We chose L&M based on the reviews & photos on their site & regret it. To be told straight to her face that «this is not a job we want to take photos of for our website» by Lucy herself blew my roommate away & proved their true work ethic. She wasn’t talking about design, colors, etc. the work is so poor & shoddy she didn’t want to take credit for it! Fortunately, I work in Facilities & have had many opportunities to share the experience with other coworkers & industry professionals and refer them elsewhere. I will be the first to say my roommate’s house has a lot of problems, its run down, but this bathroom was remodeled by people who didn’t care about their workmanship & its abundantly clear in the photos taken the day Tom left after arguing this was as good as anyone would do. 3 times my roommate had to demand the painters come back because they did such a crappy job. If you saw it yourself (contact me, I’ll be happy to share pictures & offer better referrals), you would think my friends painted it & say, «man, yall should have hired some professionals!» On the tub, there were two different colors of caulk used. It’s messy & my roommate confronted Tom about it several times-​he told her it was the best they could do & «anyone who does this would have the same results.» You can barely push on the shower wall but hear it cave in, stick to the hardy plank behind it & pop back up. She pointed that out too & Tom actually told her «don’t worry it’s glued down real good around the edges. I’m not takin’ it off now!» Seriously?! I will give credit that they came up w/​some solutions to the walls being uneven around the vanity & chose good quality parts, but the actual work they did is just embarrassing. We feel like we were ripped off in the worst way & taken advantage of since we did complain repeatedly, send photos of our concerns to Lucy & were basically bullied into backing down because they were just too busy to deal with our small project! When Lucy came & did the initial quote my roommate told her she didn’t want it painted or tiled and that money was an issue. Lucy pushed & insisted on including the costs in the quote anyway-​we asked for a breakdown & couldn’t get one; Lucy guaranteed we’d be happier having them do it. We both really wish we’d not backed down to her bullying & done it ourselves! Tom again said after the 3^rd time the painters came back that «nobody would cut a line straighter than this!» There’s paint on shower walls (he says, «well, just scrape it off» Um, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have to scrape it off!), paint running over the line where the tile meets the wall, door frame/​ceiling look horrendous. But L&M will no doubt be quick to tell you they use contractors for that & can’t control them… Lucy had to come out herself to fix some plumbing issues because they were so busy («doing one job at a time» HA!) that she couldn’t get her go-​to guy to come do it for her. He had to come anyway the next day. Nobody who visits sees that work though, they see the tacky paint lines, the messy caked on caulk that’s different colors, the gaping openings where the side panels of the shower should meet. You can’t convince me water’s not getting in there like Tom claimed. There are huge gaps where two of the walls meet that weren’t caulked at all, much less in different colors! L&M overcharges for the quality, doesn’t care about their actual customers wants/​requests & steamrollers you into paying for what L&M will get the most money for, adding on extra things you specifically said you didn’t want while talking down to you like you’re a complete moron until you give in & agree stupidly thinking that, as professionals, they must know best. They rush through jobs without taking care of the things that are most noticeable cosmetically. My roommate actually asked Tom point blank: «Tom! If this were in your home, would you leave it like this?» he sheepishly said, «Well, no I wouldn’t» so she said, «ok, then don’t expect me to accept it in mine!» She complained & let him know she was not happy, she’d already emailed Lucy several times about concerns, including photos (we still have the emails too) & everytime it was just pushed off. They made her feel so inferior that it just became easier to get them out! Having the messes & carelessness fixed doesn’t even matter anymore but we are both making absolutely sure to share this with everyone we meet & let them know this is not the place they want to take their business to. I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to keep at least 4 people from taking business here simply by showing them the photos.