Cal Pro Contractors

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• By Todd B.

  July 24, 2024

  Remodel 3 showers

  $25,000

  I fired Matt G. (Cal Pro Contractors) and his team after they screwed up 2 of the showers that they did for us. I hired a different contractor to fix and finish the 2nd shower and do the 3rd shower. Matt and his team ended up costing me more money and a much longer timeline to finish remodeling 3 showers in the end. Here's why:
  1) Matt, the project manager was not around to supervise his team's work. Matt went on vacation for the first few days of work. His team was not briefed on the work that needed to be done. I had to go over the project with his team and buy materials like the shower niche that Matt was supposed to provide. Later, I learned very quickly that Matt didn't do any of the hands-on work. His team did all the work. He was supposed to supervise the work to make sure it was done correctly and help resolve any problems that might come up. He turned out to be more of a ghost project manager. He would appear and disappear at our house after a quick look at the shower work. Didn't let me know when he was coming or going.
  2) Subcontractors: Matt uses subcontractors. They are always in a hurry to do the job so they can move on to the next job quickly. They don't take time to do quality work.
  3) Does not guarantee quality work: When things go wrong, they don't want to fix it to make sure things are properly done.
  4) Poor customer service: Matt does not want to hear when things are going wrong and when problems are brought up to him, he gets angry and does not address and appease the customer's concerns. He leaves trash and shower debris next to house all during the project rather than clean up mess each week.
  5) Excuses rather than solutions: Matt had more excuses than solutions in dealing with the poor quality work that his team did.
  6) They wasted too much tile. I had to order more boxes of tile. I found good tiles in the trash bin that could have been used in other parts of the shower.
  7) Some of their tiling work was bad and not in alignment (see photos).
  8) Niche installed was not centered correctly. Matt told us we wouldn't notice it once it was tiled.
  9) Shower cartridge was installed incorrectly. They had to remove the newly installed tile and HardieBacker wallboard to get to the shower cartridge. They did not read the instructions and placed the cartridge too far forward and cut the valve stems to close. They had to order new stems which delayed the shower's completion.
  10) One of the showers did not drain properly. The bigger upstairs shower (29 X 58 inch floor) proved to be an even bigger nightmare. A 3 X 2-foot puddle of water remained at the bottom of the shower floor after a water test was done (see photos). Matt said, not to worry, that puddling would be fixed when they tiled the floor. Well, tiling the floor didn't fix the problem. The 3 X 2 foot puddle showed up again after we ran the shower. The puddle would take about 2 days to evaporate and be absorbed into the grouted floor. I pointed out this glaring problem to Matt when he eventually inspected the shower in person. He told me that puddling of water on a shower floor was not unusual and that this puddle met industry acceptable standards (he said that a lot about his other sloppy work). I pointed out that didn't sound right, that the floor could be damaged by standing water and it could be a slipping hazard. He looked me straight in the eyes and said with a straight face, that I COULD USE A SQUEEGEE TO REMOVE THE PUDDLE OF WATER. I thought he was kidding. From my research, there should never be a left-over shower puddle. The shower floor should fully drain within 15 minutes or less. After consulting with other tile and shower experts, I told Matt that the floor would have to be demolished, fixed and retiled. Matt's professional response, "You don't expect me to pay for this repair?" If Matt was a good businessman and stood by his work, he would have guaranteed his team's work and absorb all the costs for his team's screw ups. But he didn't, so I offered to pay for the extra tiles if his guys redo the cement floor. They tried again and messed up the shower floor a second time. I got more excuses from Matt, so I ended up firing him and his team.

  Eventually, thankfully, a family member visiting from another country for the holidays who is a professional tiler fixed the floor. No puddles and no need for a squeegee! Otherwise, we were quoted $4-6K by other contractors to fix it. If that had happened, we would have taken Matt to court.

  My rating of 1 is very generous considering all the problems, excuses, stress, extra costs and time this project cost us. Matt and his team should stay away from doing shower remodels because they do a very poor job. I wish I had hired an outside inspector to review Matt's work and let me know if they were doing things wrong. It's a hard lesson to learn.

  We did eventually have the third shower redone by another contractor. The shower came out great with no excuses or added costs...or a squeegee.

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