Warren was a friend of mine, and I hired JTM for two bathroom remodels. I waited about a year for him. About halfway through the first bathroom, I began to see issues and was told that my expectations were too high, which I accepted (I'm an engineer and kind of like to see straight lines). When I asked to go and see the shower doors he had picked out on the showroom floor, Warren got exasperated and told me I was meddling. I brushed it off. It was as he had mostly finished the guest bath that he divulged to me that he only did one or two tile jobs per year. This job is almost nothing but tile. Shame on me for not asking for qualifications.
Then about 3/4 of the way through the master bath he ran out of tile, and it was a month to wait for more to arrive. When the tile necessary to finish the job finally arrived, Warren injured himself and I was told he was having trouble finding someone who could finish. My bathroom had already been in pieces for 5 months. I have friends in flooring and so I asked around and found a tile specialist who came to take a look. They had major concerns about the workmanship and wouldn't finish without a release of liability (which wasn't an unreasonable ask). Warren dismissed their remarks and told me to ignore them as they were from Spokane and were just trying to make a name for themselves. The problem was that the concerns they expressed validated my own concerns, which Warren told me were unrealistically high expectations.
Warren walked off the job and the next day he dropped off the remaining tile in my driveway and drove off. He texted me that he had evidence of the delivery, and he then sent me a bill for around $3,000 for extras I asked for along the way and told me that unless I paid him, he would not release the shower door (for which I had already paid Warren). I offered to pay for the extras but asked to see evidence of the expenses (I expected maybe $1,500). Warren refused to send me evidence of the expenses and then sent me a final invoice the next day showing the $3,000 as a write off because I refused to pay. I decided to find another installer to finish my project and let Warren go.
Warren's a nice guy. But I paid him around $20,000 to remodel two small bathrooms and it cost me another $3,000 to hire someone to finish and to correct as best they could the mistakes that were made. Warren's overall visions were fine. But according to three separate tile specialists, his workmanship is 'handman' quality and he's probably okay for simple jobs like backsplashes, but he should get some updated training on complex tile jobs (e.g., shower stalls).
I give him one star not only because the unfinished work, the high price, and quality of his workmanship, but because I was told my expectations were too high. Three different tile installers told me my expectations were completely reasonable, and that Warren's skills at even basic tile were novice. We are no longer friends.
