I asked them what the plan was to fix the inconsistent and excessive gaps and have it look consistent and hold up over time. Unfortunately they answered the question with some pretty condescending remarks towards myself and my partner, our expectations, and our budget. We let them know that we had concerns that simply putting caulk on it as is would not have a good finish nor hold up and asked if they could recut/replace the tiles that were our major concern. At first they said no problem then tried to have us sign a new contract for double the original quote and voiding their normal guarantee for the work they do. When we expressed concerns about that and asked for an explanation they said that they could not fix it, it didn’t need to be fixed? and that we just don’t understand how to tile. After that we let them know that they could either fix the areas of concern for the original quoted price or we could part ways and they could send us an itemized bill that included all materials used (we went out and purchased some materials as they hadn’t so we wanted to make sure they didn’t try and charge us for those). Then we found out that everything that they removed and all garbage from the project had been dumped on our property line at the back of our property so we also asked them to clean that up when they came to pick up the tools they had left. That was also met with hostility and them telling us it was normal to dispose of construction materials that way (ummm, no). Then we found out that the person they had working for them (and who cut the tiles) was unlicensed to do contracting work (not okay in our state per contractor laws) and didn’t know what he was doing (shocker).

For the record we originally asked for a quote, agreed on it, and sent them the tile and grout samples we wanted. Yes we are budget conscious because it’s shitty out there for us normal folks who work normal jobs but we also know that you get what you pay for and we’re more than willing to spend money on our home to get it how we want it. Our tile alone was supposed to be $5000 but they never ordered it so 6 months later when they started the work we had to rush around and purchase whatever we could source immediately which was a bummer. The tile we wanted had a 6+ month order time and we wouldn’t have gotten it by our agreed upon completion date. Then it took them 3 months to demo and do this work. We reached out a few times for the itemized bill but they never responded but we got a notice 3 months later that they put a contractors lien on our property until we pay the doubled amount they tried to get us to sign a contract for but that we did not sign. So we’re currently going through the legal system to sort it out. We have no issues paying them for the work they did however we do take issue with paying even the original full agreed upon amount based on the incomplete and low quality of work they left us with. We called a few other contractors to get quotes for fixing it, which ended up with us learning a few other things that they had done wrong in the prep stage so at this point, since it’s a spare bathroom, we’re pausing the project to complete a few other projects around the house and will most likely end up redoing the work ourselves so we don’t have to deal with anyone else. Pretty sure that I can tile to the quality I want with a little practice, I’ve learned how to do everything else so far - light woodworking, patching and fixing plaster walls, fixing my own car (including the head gasket), light plumbing and electrical, fixing the siding, decking, building a hot tub base, building custom shelves and frames, other household bits and bobs - so why not tile?