My Horrible experience with Jackson Tile.
I had been looking for a tiller to redo our entire first floor (from the entrance to the kitchen) and found Chris. He came by and seemed like a standup guy. We decide to go with him. He asked for a deposit to confirm the install date which was 2 months away. He was very pushy to get the deposit which I was not keen on but proceeded with it as he said it was to cover the material. On the day of the install I called him and this guy was not going to show up. His answer when he picked up the phone was “Is the installation today?”. I lost my confidence there. He did end up coming that day however. This should have been my first red flag as he didn’t even have his scheduling in order. He came that day and ripped up most of the floor and at the end of the day asked for more money for materials. I thought my original deposit was for materials, but he wanted more money. This should have been my second red flag. Then he missed one day of the install. He had agreed to be here for 5 days to do the tiling job but misses one day saying he has an appointment. This is on top of not being on time every other day. This was another red flag. Once the tiles were laid, he had told me that he had laid more tiles than agreed to therefore he wanted more money. Another redflag. He measures incorrectly and low balls the quote then says there is more square footage and demands more money. This is an unethically practice. I ended up paying the extra. After the entire job was done I had paid him in full. I was not able to walk on the floor as it was just grouted therefore thought he had done a good job (viewing from a far).
The next day when the grout dried, there was crazy lippage all over. This was a horrible tile job. Each tile was up and down. I immediately called Chris and he gave me attitude that someone had walked on the tile. There was no one living in the house for someone to walk on the tiles. Even if someone had walked on the tiles, there might have been a few tiles showing lippage but this was on all the tiles. He blamed everyone and the actual tile, and never accepted that he did something wrong. After a month of calling him, he comes by to take a look at the job. He admits that it was a bad tile jobs and says he will make it right. Still doesn’t accept that it was his tiling job that was done incorrectly. Since he was going to redo the tiling for free, I agreed to buy more tiles. He comes the next day and starts ripping the tiles. On the second day of repair he calls me and says I need $1000 or I’m walking. This is with half my floor ripped up. This was blackmail at this point. He knew he had me cornered and used this to his advantage. I had no choice as at this point we were living in the house and I said yes. He finished the job and left. The repair job was just as bad as the original job. The repair job also had lippage and on top of that he installed numerous chipped tiles (in the pictures). Not sure if he is blind and can’t see the chipped tiles. Now I have to hire someone else to rip out the entire floor and redo the work. I should have cut my losses and moved on after the original install. I was fooled by this man. My experience with Chris is exactly what a victim on the Mike Holmes show experiences.
The sad part is that he uses Mike Holmes as a reference and makes claims that he will be on his show and his rates will go up after his guest appearance. He claims he has 20 years of experience but 20 years of doing something incorrectly is not the same of solid 20 year experience.
My advice: Avoid him like the black plaque. If you do go with him for some odd reason, don’t give him a deposit and don’t pay him in full until 2 days after the install so you can assess the crappy install. You would be better off trying to install the tiles yourself. The results might be the same or better. If I can give a negative rating I would but due to homestars I have to stick with a 0. He is polite until he gets the contract and your money and then he is arrogant. He does not stand behind his work. He claims he offers a 3 year warranty, but the warranty is not worth the paper it’s written on. How would anyone stand behind their warranty when they blame everyone else?
DO NOT HIRE HIM unless you have money to throw in the garbage or want to be on the Mike Holmes show as a victim of a contractor.
Reasons for the bad tile job: I am not a tiling expert but here are the reasons why I think he screwed up my tile job:
1) He rushed the job (was supposed to be a 5 day job but finished it four days as he missed a day)
2) Didn’t use leveling clips (I was going with 24 x 12 tiles)
3) Didn’t level the floor properly and bad prep job
4) Doesn’t care about the customer
5) Don’t think he used the correct mortar
6) Cut corners
Keywords so this shows up on google search: Jackson Tile, jacksontile, Chris, Cesar, Caesar, Soares, Christopher, Cambridge, 226-749-2458, 2267492458, Kijiji, #803907203, 803907203
