If anyone suggests using this company for any type of project, “TELL” them to run like hell! This company is HORRIBLE!!!!
They performed Four (4) jobs for us, which took them over 35 days to complete (their original timeline was 21 days, which was still much longer than this job should have taken). The jobs were:
•Turn my carpeted stairs into wooden stairs
•Tile the entire 1st floor of my house (which is a little under 1,800 square feet)
•Replace all baseboards on the first floor
•Re-tile the front of the fireplace to match the new floor tile
My husband and I did everything we could to make the job go as smoothly as possible. We placed all of our furniture in storage and had to hire movers to do so, since our furniture is very large and very heavy. However, nothing went smoothly.
We had multiple issues with this company. However, the biggest issue is the tile installation:
Issues with Tile Installation
Before the work began, I asked that my grout be resistant to stains. I was told that the crew would use an epoxy grout. I immediately asked if they knew how to apply this type of grout and told them not to use it if they had no experience working with it. I was told that they knew how to use this grout, but learned after they attempted to use it, that the installers had no idea how to appropriately apply this grout. They did not know how to fill the grout lines up to the edges of the tile, which made the tile prone to chipping. So, I asked Tell Project to find a solution. Their solution was to fill the grout lines with non-sanded grout. We later learned that because the grout lines were so large, they should have used sanded grout. Now, I have holes in the grout because they used the wrong type of grout to fix the problem.
We have had major concerns regarding the tile installation project from Day 1. Because I was not satisfied with the end results of the install, I took the opportunity to consult with a couple of tile installation experts and asked them to come to our home to assess the work that was done. The following are issues they found with the install:
1.There is tile lippage throughout the tiled area due to installing the tile without the use of spacers specifically designed for installing rectified tile. There was no leveling system used to complete the install…I mean NONE! This error will eventually cause the tile to chip along the tile edges where edges are not evenly aligned. I told the project manager of my concern with the tiles being uneven several times, but my concerns were ignored every time.
2.The floors are uneven. The refrigerator doesn’t close completely without being pushed closed because the floor has the refrigerator tilted to the right.
3.Non-sanded grout was used in grout lines that were too large for the application of non-sanded grout (1/8 inches and larger, since grout lines were not made to be all the same size). The use of non-sanded grout has caused holes to develop in the grout lines throughout the installed tile areas.
4.Grout lines are all different sizes. There is no symmetry.
5.Grout haze still exists in multiple areas.
6.Gloss Sealer was used on porcelain tiles. Issues with this are:
a.The tiles we purchased for the install are very high quality, name brand porcelain tile and did not required sealer.
b.The sealer used is TileLab Gloss Sealer & Finish. This sealer is specifically intended for porous tile (as stated on the sealer’s label), not porcelain tile. As a result, this sealer will become spotty on the floors within a matter of months, if not weeks. This is a gross misuse of this product.
c.This sealer was not applied evenly on the floors after several attempts to even it out by Tell Projects, so it didn’t take weeks to notice problems. The issues were evident after each application.
My husband and I are consumers, not floor contractors. When the tiles were being sealed, we were unaware that it was not the right thing to do. We were under the impression that using this sealer was part of the installation process and trusted that Tell Projects was doing the right thing. We were both mislead and misinformed.
Now, we are out of thousands of dollars because the entire floors would need to be re-installed, just to get the floors leveled, let alone free of all of this sealer that should not have been applied to the tile in the first place.
It will cost thousands to buy more tile to reinstall and thousands more to have another company that knows how to correctly install rectified porcelain tile to demo and re-tile the entire 1st floor of my house.
The company made an astronomical amount of work errors throughout this entire horrible ordeal. Every time they attempted to correct the errors they made (to “Make it Right”), it created even bigger problems:
1.They went for several days performing no work, because they did not prepare for the start of the job by ensuring that they had all of the supplies needed before the job start date. They went for days before applying grout to the floor tile because they did not have the color requested in the contract before the work began. There was a lot of re-work that needed to be done due to faulty workmanship. This delayed the completion even more. All of the delays in schedule caused us to have to keep our furniture in storage for an additional month. So, they attempted to “make it right” by paying for the additional month of storage and they split the cost of the movers with us.
2.Tell Projects had to remove our toilets to install the tile and broke one of them. So, they tried to “make it right” by buying us a new toilet. However, the replacement toilet was a less expensive brand than the one they broke.
3.As they removed my old baseboards to install new ones, the made several holes in my walls throughout the first floor. “To make it right”, they patched up the holes. However, there were some that they could not fix in the kitchen because the wall paper in my kitchen is discontinued. So, I have a hole the patched up in my kitchen behind my refrigerator that could not be covered with wallpaper and another hole in my kitchen wall that could not be fix, since fixing the hole without wallpaper would look worst than keeping the hole.
4.The baseboards were cut crookled with large oddly shaped gaps at the corners that the installer filled with caulk. But, to “make it right” they purchase more baseboards and reinstalled them, causing more delays in schedule.
5.They painted all of my baseboards and stairwell trim with an “off the shelf” white paint that was not only the wrong texture, but was not colored as instructed in the contract. I had no idea what they had done until they told me that the painting was completed, because the paint used looked exactly like primer. So, to “make it right”, they had to re-paint all of these surfaces again with the correct texture and color paint, pushing back the completion schedule even more.
6.The floors were sealed multiple times. After the first seal, I noticed grout haze in areas throughout the install. So, I asked that the haze be removed. I was told that it would be removed during the cleanup process. However, the cleaning crew stripped half of the sealer off of the tile. It looked beyond horrible! So, in their effort to “make it right”, Tell Projects paid for our hotel stay needed for them to remove the first coat of sealer and reseal the floors again. So, we spend Thanksgiving in a cramped hotel room while our floors were being stripped of sealer and resealed (little did we know that they were not supposed to be sealed in the first place). I really believe the sealer was put on our floors to cover the grout haze that they did not know how to remove
a.In addition, the chemicals used to remove the sealer ate up the paint on the baseboards, so they had to repaint the baseboards AGAIN to “make it right”.
IMPORTANT: All of the things they attempted to “make right” were the results of damage they caused (100%).
They actually had the nerve to text my husband’s cell phone to ask if he liked the work they did. My husband wanted them out of our lives so badly, he just told them that he was satisfied, only to get rid of them! BUT, you better believe they didn’t to ask me, because I would have told them “HELL NO” and that I don’t want to ever see them again!
This has been the worst experience with a contractor I have ever had. I was even asked by the Project Manager to please not post a review because they are “just hard-working people trying to make a living”. However, I cannot in good conscious keep this nightmare to myself. I would never want anyone else to fall victim to Tell Projects, like my family and I did.
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