Where is the Professionalism?

You work so hard.  SO hard.  You plan, you budget, you shop around.  You get picky.  You read reviews, you trust, you hire a professional.

Professional.  A word that implies that someone is good in their craft.  A word that conjures up thoughts and hopes of a person that knows what they are doing.  An idea that someone takes pride in their work.

I am so frustrated with the lack of professionalism in my flooring installers' work.  It's tricky, too, because I am stuck with it.  And that fault lies on no one but me.  So here is what happened.  I bought hardwood from a local flooring shop.  I then used "their" installers to install the hardwood.

Well, while there, my Dad asked them if they did tile, as well.  They said they did and then went beyond that.  "Actually, you are getting screwed by working with the flooring shop.  I don't know what they charged you, but they are paying me $1.75/square foot to install this hardwood.  All you need to do is look at your receipt to see how much you are getting screwed.  If you by-pass them, I can save you a ton of money."

Of course, I immediately grabbed my receipt and learned that I was being charged $3.00/square foot!  So the flooring company was making $1.25/square foot for...nothing!  That was just mark-up!  So I could by-pass the flooring company and use the SAME installers and save $1.25/square foot?!  Yes, please!

I took that as wonderful news.  I took that as a man trying to save money on a foreclosure flip.  I took that as a way to save another $1000 on my expensive floors.  I took that in the exact opposite manner I should have taken it.

Why?

Here, I have a contractor who is trying to work against the owner who supplied him with work.  Here I have a contractor who is trying to circumvent what is probably written in his own contract.  Here I have a man who is trying to bite the very hand that feeds him.

And I was excited!

And now I have to suffer the results of that decision.

So I'm in a pickle.  I have a wonderful hardwood flooring installation followed by a fairly terrible tile installation.  At first glance, it looks good.  I mean, it had me fooled.  The tiles are down.  But it's the DETAILS where I see the poor workmanship.

The tiles are uneven.  Not terrible but certainly noticeable.  The grout is cut short of the walls and trim.  The floors don't even come close to meeting each other (a couple of inches).  And the absolute worst is the ridiculously awful and aggressive cutting of the doorjambs and trim.  I mean, it's nothing short of horrendous.

Not 1/16th of an inch off.  Nearly an inch!!!

The floor is so far away from the trim.

Can you read a tape measure?

Just horrendous work.  This is the picture where the associate said, "That looks like ****."

Another missed cut.

What am I supposed to do?!

There is just a bit off.  There is poor.  And then there is just a blatant lack of knowledge of how to cut.  This is awful.  From a "professional!"

I am so unhappy with this.

The gap between the hardwood and tile is 100% the result of improper measuring.

Floors are supposed to MEET each other!!!

Pieces left behind.  Look at the gap between the hardwood and tile!

The large gap.  I had to beg over a couple of months to get them to come install the threshold.

Can we read a tape measure?!

Gaps everywhere.

And the worst was the large overhang of tile with no mortarboard or grout below it.  At places, it was over an inch deep.  I could stick 1/3 of my finger underneath.  I demanded that grout be applied below.

The massive amount of gap yet again.

It's literally as if the contractor could not read a tape measure.  All over my house I have trim pieces that do not reach the floor.  I have tile that sits on top of open space (no floorboard or grout below it).  I have threshold that does not reach side-to-side.

The threshold comes up short.  Again, can you read a tape measure?!

I want to say that I'm being too picky, but when you look at the actual work, it's just awful!

On top of everything, I had to stay on top of the flooring company to get the project completed.  I was quoted at 4-5 days for everything, and it took nearly 2 1/2 months.  And that was ME having to call them.  That was me having to keep them on the project.  In that time, I've received mailings and phone calls asking me to pay for the work!  I keep on saying, "As soon as it is complete!"

Well, the work is so bad that I took some pictures into the company.  And here is where I have screwed myself.  Because most of the poor workmanship is in the tile, I am just going to have to deal with it.  I only went through the flooring company with the hardwood!  Yes, it's the same installer.  Yes, if I asked, the flooring company would have also used this same person for the tile.  Yes, I would have paid even more for the exact same work.

But now that I need it corrected, I really can't ask the flooring company to correct it.  Not on the tile.  They can only correct it on the hardwood.  And that is just too bad.

Because the tile work is poor!  And it's not the tile mostly...it's the wood cut to put the tile in!

Again, they can't use a tape measure!

Yes, I'm frustrated.  I worked so hard to make this house look nice, and someone else has now made the craftsmanship poor.  And I PAID thousands of dollars for that poor craftsmanship!

Seriously, folks, take PRIDE in your work.  This is awful.