Pictures from our Shipputz

For the story behind these pictures (which is only a tiny portion of the entire project that they did), click here:

Here is the entrance to the bathroom. I added three dark lines over the grout to that you could see that, for some crazy reason, they decided that the bathroom floor did not need to line up with the rest of the floor that they were laying at the same time,

Also notice the door. That is as far as it will open, because they chose to lay tile on top of the old tile. "Don't worry about it", I was told. You won't notice any difference. Right...

There was also a smell coming from there. It was not until I paid someone to tear it up that we discovered the problem: something under the tiles, probably the adhesive, smelled horrible. Once the new person removed all of the old under-tile area, as well as the toilet, the smell went away.

Although it didn't help the tiles outside of the bathroom, where the neft (heating kerosene) was leaking under the floor in a pipe that they had installed. - this, after the THIRD time that they caused a neft leak. Notice the grout between the tiles is a darker color where the neft was soaking through, and light where it had not yet appeared.

Now how did their work affect the toilet?

In their first attempt, the toilet was leaning to the left.

What, they thought I wouldn't notice?!

When I complained, they straightened it out, but that night, water came all over the floor because the pipe was too short! So they fixed it again, and water only dribbled. Then they finally jerry-rigged a fix using non-standard connectors to give me this:

When I showed this to a plumber, he shook his head telling me that I would have a lot of problems with this down the road. (I paid someone else to rip all of this out). Think of it: fecal matter passing through a passage with pockets where it can be trapped. Perhaps the smell was coming from there. It's hard to say. Once the old work was removed, the room smelled fine.

And this closeup of one of the corners (they are all about as good) will give you an idea of the quality of their work:

Notice, by the way, the poor job of finishing the tiles around it. Here is a closeup of the tank area:

I lost count how many times they had to redo the grout. The kitchen area was done 2-3 times and the bathroom was done a couple of times. First because of bad color, then because of missing areas, then because of too much grout, and also because it would crack after a few weeks, like this:

Of course, their finishing around the front of the toilet door wasn't any better:

When I complained: "Don't worry about it. We'll fix that". This is after the second time they "fixed it".

The light switch inside the bathroom, but the frame that they added to hide the ragged tile cutting. Notice that there are two colors of grout. "Don't worry about it". This is after the 3rd fix. Let's look at a few close-up's.

Poorly cut, Extra-heavy grout. Two colors of grout. Mess on the wood. Tile at odd angles. This is representative of the work. Oh, and this was after being fixed more than once.

Here is the light switch. A badly cut-out "square" (they cannot seem to measure well and hope that nobody will notice) and some incredibly hard adhesive that I cannot get off the switch. When I complained, "Don't worry about it. We'll clean that all up and you won't notice that corner." Right.

I forced them to replace one tile that was so badly misshapen, and here was the result:

 No, that isn't mold. That's the color of the grout, badly applied. When I complained, "Don't worry. It will get lighter when it dries". They lied. And, of course, the gap between those tiles, due to the lack of spacers, is bigger than the ones above it.

As for the door frame itself, let's just say that they aren't known for paining in a straight line, or without it dripping. When I complained, "Don't worry about it. It will all be cleaned up:. Uh-huh.

And her is the other side of the door. Just as bad. They just do these things and think that nobody will notice. They just didn't care.

Another door that they painted badly a few feet away ended up peeling a few months later:

Now what about cutting tiles to fit?

Here is the lower part of the bathroom door. They don't seem to be able to cut odd shapes (or straight lines).

Missing grout and mess on the wood. "Don't worry..." etc.

Summary:

These guys cannot paint, they cannot do plumbing, the cannot tile. All of which spells disaster when you are having your bathroom redone!

What is galling is that I still owe these guys 7,000 shekels (an agreement - hold back 7,000 shekels for 1 year and then give it up) when I have to pay more than that to redo this small segment of their work. They are unwilling to forego that and demand that I give them a 4th or 5th chance.

Warning: Stay as far away as you can from them!