Signature One Home Remode

We hired Jim of Signature One Home Remodeler's thinking we would have a wonderful experience since a friend recommended him. Everything was going fine with just a few things that happened here or there but nothing that we couldn’t move on from.

The final straw was after the tile was complete and we had a chance to inspect it. To our dismay, multiple instances of sloppy, uneven tilework, uneven grout lines, and a wall with a large bump in the center that was supposed to have a sliding shower door close against it.

The wall that he built was not flat and he blamed it on my house being built in the '60s. He built the wall! My husband installs shower doors and was not able to measure for doors never mind installing them because the wall was such a mess. The floor was not flat, the window was not properly sealed, and the grout lines were horrendous. It actually looked like an armature did the work.

Jim was not onsite often and the crews that were there were often not given correct instructions. In one instance, the crew started to frame out a wall 12” from the correct location, which would result in a much smaller bathroom. The tile floor, which was not flat, was supposed to be as close to the level of the hallway floor as possible, but the final height of the tile was 3” higher than the hallway.
We believe that he built up the floor so much because he didn't want to put a new door in.
His crew also used the tile machine on my front lawn and ruined my grass leaving a terrible mess of tile dust and broken tile all over. I had to have a landscaper come in and place a layer of topsoil and seed for grass to grow. He tried to resolve the issue and told me he could fix it but there is no way to fix a bumpy floor and messed up tile from floor to ceiling without ripping it out (which he refused).
Honestly, the whole process felt like amateur hour. We hired a contractor so we wouldn’t have to GC this job, but that’s exactly what we ended up doing. In communication with him, while bringing up these issues throughout the process, he was apologetic but said he was there every day checking on the work. This was a complete lie, we have cameras. When he did show up, he was there for a few minutes at best.

Jim told me the bathroom looked beautiful and didn't know what my problem was. He initially offered me 2 thousand dollars to part ways the day after I asked him to leave my home and not return. He had a lot more work to do in my house and I had already paid him $13,500 cash. I told him if this is what he thought was quality work then I was not letting him touch the rest of my home.

My family and I then ripped out the tile and subfloor and redid everything correctly with the help of a professional tile company. My father is a plumber and corrected his worker on using the improper tubing and checked to make sure he changed it which he did to L copper tubing from the M copper tubing which is illegal in NYC. Just another example of sloppy work and improperly trained staff.

When I filed against him in civil court and he received the court papers, he tried to negotiate again. I told him $7,500 and he offered me $5,000 and I would have to sign something, so I refused. I would not be able to write a negative review and expose his poor business practices to the general public. I won in court the maximum amount and Jim has still not paid me. I am now working with the Sheriff's office and the Nassau County Licensing Department.

After day one of meeting with Jim that’s when the professionalism ended. In our contract It stated that he would be on site everyday I think he showed up 3 times out of the 8-9 days it took to complete the bathroom. Day one the car broke down and they couldn’t start work. I wasn’t notified until noon about that fortunately my wife worked from home at the time. They did an upstairs bathroom and I ended up with a hole in the ceiling to my kitchen directly below the bathroom from a cracked pipe??? They patched up the ceiling but needed to be re done because the patch job was pretty noticeable. Another day decided they couldn’t show (I’m assuming to finish another job) the next day they had someone come and sweep/sand a wall for half the day to appease me. (Instead just pissed me off more) we discussed putting in built in shelves and a pocket door. When I asked mid way through the project what was going on with that they pretended like they had no idea about it then told me there is no way to put the pocket door in or the cabinets. I insisted on the pocket door and miraculously they were able to put the door in. Never got the built in shelving. They hung the light fixture up not centered with the mirror and I was told there is nothing they can do about that?!?! Once again I insisted that it needs to be put up centered. Miraculously they were able to put it up centered. Used the wrong color grout on one of the small walls. The tiling was very crooked in some areas. Paint job was sloppy. The cement board walls were put up crooked so the tiling is crooked in the shower as well as the wall with the vanity. The floor tiling was great I’ll give them that. The exhaust fan is terrible that they put in very cheap. The vanity was chipped by the workers in several areas and I was told don’t worry you can use a sharpie on those spots no one will ever see it. Overall subpar work, unreliable and zero communication between Jim and his workers. Don’t worry last day when it comes time for payment Jim is right on time and very professional again.

I would give ZERO stars, but I was unable to submit my review without putting in at least a star. The work done on my bathroom remodel has been a nightmare from the start. There has been damage and error associated with every step of this project. As I could speak for 3 hours regarding all that has transpired, it’s probably best to respond to common questions people ask when trying to select a contractor. I can’t stress enough to stay away from this company.

• Were they happy with the contractor? Absolutely NOT. There’s been error, damage & dishonesty associated with every step of this project.

• Did they complete the job in the time frame they promised? Not even close. And it’s nowhere near done & I need to start from scratch. I reached the end of the line with regard to all of the mistakes, dishonesty & subpar work that kept happening, and I parted ways with them.

• How was the quality of work? Below subpar. I consider it a hack job. The “owner” argued with me that it’s not a hack job. Definition of a hack job: the completion of a task in the quickest possible time at the expense of quality or attention to detail. Most definitely a hack job. Not quality work, no attention to detail whatsoever, rushed and forceful work style that creates more damage. Pictures and video are able to be provided.

• Was the contractor readily accessible and did he respond to problems as they arose in a timely manner? Absolutely NOT. He was non-responsive the majority of the time, late responding and ignored/didn’t address many issues, which had to be repeated multiple times. The sheet says he’s on-site every day...he was rarely on-site.

• Did the contractor willingly make any necessary corrections? NONE of the corrections were made. They should have been made at the time they happened. He kept saying they’d fix them, but they never did, they just left the issues as is and moved on to create more issues. I will gladly follow up regarding all of the unresolved issues, none of which are small or unimportant errors.

• Did the workers show up regularly and was there supervision? NO. They showed up very late, didn’t show up several days, they left me hanging for a week. I kept following up on when they were coming back and what time they were coming back. Extremely poor communication and blatant disregard for the customer’s time.There was no supervision, no licensed plumber or electrician, as stated there would be. You can imagine what followed. I had two leaks due to the forceful yanking on my pipes, which caused my ceiling to break off in the basement. I have had electrical issues since they put two high hats and redid my existing exhaust fan. I currently have four circuits that are out as a result of turning on the lights and fan in the bathroom they were working on.

• Did he keep the project moving? NO

• Would you recommend this contractor and would you use him/her again? ABSOLUTELY NOT to both of these questions. I would NOT recommend him and I would never use him again. I had to part ways as it’s been a nightmare from the start. He also tried to put through payment on my credit card without my approval. He’s been dishonest a multitude of times. He was threatening me, tried to extort payment with threats of not sending the workers, not showing up and not finishing the job. They’ve damaged my home and my yard. My floors and walls are damaged. He kept purchasing under the line so he didn’t buy too much material & cut into his margin...the workers were short on accent tile, saddle and floor tile. I had to give the worker a sample floor tile I had from the store in order to finish the floor. He also did not have a licensed plumber OR electrician handle the work, as stated; as a result, I had and am still having issues related to that.The tile work done in the shower is a hack job. The walls are not symmetrical, the center niche is not centered, the tiles are not flushed with each other, some are sticking out, some are crooked, some are not aligned, they damaged the accent tile putting in the wrong shower door, the grout was not done correctly, the tiles by the window area are short & as a result, they will crack due to heat and cold, the tile cut around the tub was done wrong, pieces from the shower door are randomly falling to the ground, there is no buffer on the right side of the shower door and it slams into the tile, they never removed the old radiator at demolition despite me addressing that issue many times. Sadly, that’s not even all of the issues I’ve dealt with and are current issues. Again, I cannot stress enough to stay away from this company.