In Agust we submitted a request online on www.bidclerk.com a for tile work to be performed on a house that we had recently purchased. The house is new construction, built in 2005. We wanted to make cosmetic long lasting improvements. We chose to hire Fook Meng Che aka Frank Che with Che Homes after verifying he was licensed, as appears on Florida Department of Business Professional Regulation.
The house had a fiberglass shower in the master bathroom that we decided to have removed and have Che Homes construct a new ceramic tile shower. After the completion of the work from Che Homes (shower tile and tile flooring) the house was vacant for three months. During that time nobody used the shower. When our tenants moved in, they started noticing signs of mold through the master bedroom closet walls and floors.
We visited the property to verify their statement and hired a plumber to give us an opinion. The plumber opened the closet wall to get to the source of the problem. His diagnostic was that the shower was not properly built. Apparently there is a membrane on the bottom of the shower that was not folded correctly and there was a gap in the grout. The water was going through the gap and the membrane letting the water through the walls and floors. The newly installed carpet in the closet and freshly painted walls were damaged as well. The plumber charged us $1,000 to rebuild the shower enclosure and repair the adjacent areas from the water damage, plus $343.47 in materials.
We called Mr. Che to communicate the issue and give him the opportunity to make it right, but his response left us astonished.
He said that we approved the work upon completion. How could anyone have assessed an improper plumbing work underneath a layer of tile? It is not unreasonable to expect a newly constructed shower to last many years, if not the entire life of the house itself.
He also mentioned that the grout gap was a problem with that particular product, which was selected by his subcontractors.
He said that his warranty on his work is 90 days! This was not stated in the agreement we signed and it is an overstatement to mention that that type of work should last longer than that (?)
When we called him to advise of the situation, he stated that he had never worked with those contractors before and had one of them (Alex) call us to discuss the situation, but Alex referred us back to Mr. Che.
We hired Mr. Ches company through a trustworthy web site and verified proper licensing but Mr. Che, turned around and subcontracted cheap labor with no previous knowledge of their capabilities. Furthermore, please note that one of these contractors admitted to us that he was an illegal alien from Mexico.
We paid him the agreed amount on the day of completion, gave him an opportunity to amend the situation, but were ripped off.
We demand the prompt refund of the $1,343.47 dollars that cost us to repair the damage. We have supporting documentation available upon request (pictures, invoice and receipts). Otherwise we will pursue the revocation of his license as well as conduct an aggressive marketing campaign to prevent Mr. Che from continuing his misleading and deceiving business practices.
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