In the Spring of 2008, my wife and I hired Bruce Clark and Son for a major bathroom renovation. It was a costly decision that we subsequently came to regret.
I’m aware renovations don’t always go smoothly, however many of the mistakes made during ours were downright amateurish and sloppy, including:
- installing a marble window jamb in bathtub area with the unfinished side facing out (even though there was a large sticker on this side)
- installing visibly chipped and uneven tiles in the bathtub area.
- marble jambs surrounding bathroom window and niche do not line up properly
- having to cut a huge (approximately 2 sq ft) hole in newly installed drywall (which I paid over $400 for!) because no one had the foresight to line up the existing plumbing with the new vanity/sink. Fortunately, the vanity had a backer board, but I'm still left with a huge, unnecessary hole behind it.
- having to cut large holes in the same newly installed and finished drywall because new bathroom fan wasn't properly wired. Problem was corrected after "Jeff", who was clearly older and more experienced than those who performed most of the work on our bathroom, was brought in.
- tub faucet not flush with wall. Had to use silicone to bridge gap.
- wall studs surrounding tub should have been shimmed or sistered before putting up cement backer boards as uneveness caused boards to warp.
Then there were the annoying things, such as:
- Losing my house key and failing to inform my wife and me. Instead, we came home to find our house unlocked.
- Somehow a large red bucket disappeared after owner said one of his workers “cleaned it”.
- Failing to use plumber's tape around the shower head. Had to apply and tighten shower head myself because it was leaking. Easy fix, but this is Plumbing 101.
- silicone caulk in right-hand corner of bathtub wall niche (located opposite tub faucet) extended more than 1" beyond the grout line. I'm not talking about a small bead, but an area approximately 1.5" square! Also, why silicone the grout on the right side of the niche (the side least likely to get wet) and not the other three sides?
- spent considerable time scraping and wiping excess grout off bathtub tiles. I have had two different tile companies do work at my house, and both did a much neater job.
- installing the toilet seat without bothering to take off the toilet bowl sticker first. Had to remove and reinstall seat myself. Also had to scrape the sticker off the marble window jamb with the unfinished side facing out. Minor stuff, but nevertheless sloppy.
- leaving a two-inch cutting blade angled up on a towel in the bedroom hall area, where a child or someone could have seriously cut themselves. The blade was partly covered by the towel. Luckily, I saw it out of the corner of my eye.
- left side of new vanity countertop was not shimmed. Had to shim myself.
- nicked new acrylic tub.
- left reno debris and old bathroom mirror sitting in my garage for several weeks after repeatedly promising to pick up.
- frequently missed or late for appointments
Things got so bad that I ended up doing some of the finishing work (installing vanity knobs, caulking, etc.) myself as I no longer trusted their workmanship. I even had to go into my attic to resecure the bathroom exhaust ducting as it had come loose and was venting into the attic.
As I mentioned above, I know things don't always go smoothly during a renovation, and can tolerate the odd mistake or two or even three or four, however we are not talking about a few mistakes here. What upsets me the most is that many of them were completely avoidable, and not what one would expect from a supposedly reputable contractor. Btw, the $7,800 approximate cost does not include the cost of fixtures, which I purchased separately. The total cost was about 11K.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $7,800.00