Juan Carlos Painting

The summary of our experience with Juan Carlos Painting. We were very reasonable people. We started to become more anxious and demanding towards the end of the project when we realized how horrible of a job this was turning into. I yelled at him once (I’ll explain below) and apologized soon afterwards.
Pros:
–He’s a very nice man
–His price came in cheaper than others. I understand people usually say you get what you pay for but we used him solely based on the recommendation of a coworker. Price was not an issue and we would have paid more if that meant better quality control.
–He offered our money back (I let him keep what I already paid because I believe that people should still be paid for hard work. Part of me regrets sticking to that principle).
Cons:
–He promises everything but under delivers
–He forgets what he says yes and no to (Doesn’t write anything down, only goes by memory)
–Poor attention to detail
–Very bad quality control
–Poor communication with client
–Poor supervision of his own workers
–Poor ability to plan
–Only picks up the phone sometimes and sometimes responds to texts
–Client is wrong mentality (we were pointing out our concerns during the process but claimed that it’ll look all better when complete).
Mistakes:
–Didn’t remove the backer board on the floor despite purchasing new backer board (wasn’t communicated to workers), so they just laid mortar over the old mortar causing the floor to be almost an inch higher than the wood floor to the kitchen.
–Workers improperly laid down the tile pattern despite us sending a photo to him. Had to waste tile and purchase new tile
–Very sloppy tile work (uneven gaps and not level in many places).
–Uneven and very sloppy backsplash (some places are closer, some places stick in, others stick out. Some areas aren’t straight and is very noticeable).
–Cut tile had very uneven cuts (claimed that once it’s grouted it we won’t see it. Definitely not the case).
–Used grout along the backsplash and granite instead of caulk.
–used grout along the window instead of caulk.
–Purchased too much paint (3 gallons for small cabinets). Didn’t prime the bottom cabinets and used the wrong color (despite telling him repeatedly the color we wanted and him confirming).
–Never communicated with the cabinet maker what we wanted despite my wife’s concern that the cabinet guy could not speak English. Had to pay extra for him to undo and redo work.
–Incorrect color used for trim
–Dented our refrigerator while trying to move it to the living room. Later claimed it wasn’t their fault and changed his story to say he helped move it himself despite him not showing up to check up on the work until a few days after they moved it.
–Dumped excess chunks of mortar and mortar water on our plants by the street.
Our Experience:
We hired Juan Carlos painting based on a glowing review from my wife’s coworker. We contracted him to remove and replace our kitchen tile floor, remove and replace tile in our half bath, paint our half bath, install a new backsplash, make new upper cabinets, install an apron sink and retile our landing on the stairs. His total cost without materials (including cabinets) came out to roughly $ 7,000.
My wife explained to him that she’s very detail oriented and will want to see pictures and updates when the work starts so she can approve. She gave him exact instructions on the paint color, tile pattern, grout size, hinges, backsplash layout and trim color.
He said the work will take about a week and that our kitchen will be ready for Thanksgiving.
His workers ripped up the floor and laid down the tile right on top of the existing mortar. Despite the fact that he purchased new hardie board, they never used it. We asked for a herringbone pattern and it seemed like the workers had a very difficult time cutting and measuring. He said he’s done it before but it seems like his workers never did this job. There was lots of waste and broken tile and they laid the tile down in a large V pattern instead of a W!
They would’ve kept on going because Juan did not check up on them the first two days but we sent him a picture of what they laid down and he called them to redo it. When he came to our house after the 2^nd day, he noticed that they still didn’t work on the bathroom to his dismay.
They started to put the backsplash on and I noticed that many of the tiles were not straight and some of the cut tile were very uneven. We were using 2“x4″ subway tile and some of the cuts his workers made varied by more than half an inch! He claimed that we won’t see it once it was grouted.
The next day his cabinet worker came in and did not speak any English. My wife told Juan that she was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to properly communicate with him but he reassured that it would be ok. It took him 3 days to put the cabinets in and apparently he put in fixed shelves when my wife wanted shelves that are adjustable. The cabinet guy claimed that she didn’t want it even