Draft Review - Homestars
Project involved laying new tiles in our kitchen, hallway, coat closet and powder room. Also installed new kitchen backsplash. During the project we added replacement of baseboards as an additional job for an additional fee.
The project started out strong but is suffering at the end. Gaetano Scarolla (President of ABJM?) was initially attentive and responsive to our questions and made an effort to make us happy. Some of his sub-trades were quite good, others needed more supervision or were less than satisfactory. Overall the end result is generally good, but there are a number of smaller concerns (which add up to our dissatisfaction) that we will talk about below. Even though I was 8 (now 9) months pregnant, we were prepared to overlook the fact that a relatively straightforward job was extended by over a week (about double the estimate by Gaetano) including replacement of the first tiling crew due to Gaetano’s (and our) concerns about their competence.
Initially, we rated ABJM quite high (in our opinion) on Homestars (full disclosure – Gaetano offers a $50 discount for completing a review). That review was made on the day that the principal work was completed (and we paid ABJM in full) but before Gaetano was to address a small number of straight forward finishing details. To be fair, some of the unfinished, defective or seemingly sloppy elements of the work were corrected by Gaetano along the way. Other items Gaetano has avoided responsibility for because during the project he convinced us to repaint the walls to freshen up the space - meaning that a number of items that he should have fixed have been passed off to our painter as “painting” issues instead of ABJM issues even though ABJM caused them and if we did not paint ABJM would still have been responsible for these items. Here is the small number of, we think straight forward details that currently remain to be completed but which ABJM has completely, and in insulting language, refused to address (he also no longer responds to messages):
1. Baseboards - we paid extra to have the baseboards removed, replaced, painted, installed and finished, but the baseboard nail holes were not finished despite our being told this was part of the work by ABJM’s baseboard contractor; and in several places the untreated and unpainted sides of the baseboards are highly visible.
2. Backsplash - in some places the grout is cracking or there are voids.
3. Backsplash Trim - the decorative trim containing the backsplash does not meet at right angles or does not extend fully to our kitchen cabinets, leaving unsightly and prominent gaps. It was also scratched and dented by apparent ‘guide screws’ inserted by the backsplash tiler.
4. Heating ducts - During demolition it seems that our heating duct was deformed such that the vent cover no longer fits. Gaetano did try unsuccessfully to fix this but failed and then insisted that the problem was that we were not using the vent cover that was previously in use and there must have been a smaller one.
5. Gaetano also offered to pick up our tiles from the supplier on his account to save us $200. Even after allowing for retaining enough tiles for future needs we have a big surplus and Gaetano refuses to cooperate in securing a refund which the supplier agreed to provide. All we needed from ABJM was a copy of the invoice. No luck.
These items are pretty simple, either as: part of the original work; fulfilling ABJM’s alleged “8 year guarantee”; or in some cases courtesies offered by a professional. Instead, Gaetano has stated that he is "done" with the project even though these are clearly matters that need to be addressed and that fall within the scope of the project or his guarantee. We are continuing to pursue ABJM to finish the project and/or honour its guarantee.
Overall we are concerned that Gaetano's professionalism declined over the course of the project. We consider all elements, big and small, to be part of the job and they all should be completed to a reasonable standard. We want to caution Homestars users on the deficiencies in ABJM's work. If you are willing to deal with ABJM, you need to be prepared and you should hold back final payment until you are 100% satisfied. Do not rely on any guarantee or warranty offered as ABJM may renege on it.
Also note this this company is NOT accreditated by the Better Business Bur
