Hi Elisia Ellis, do you mind me asking approximately where you live? US, Canada, someplace else?

The answer to your question, "can this be fixed inexpensively?" is no, it can't.

I think you would be better served by trying to recover any money you spent. Take photos and document everything.

Don't make any additional payments if you haven't paid already.

Write a letter and say you want every bit of your money back, and send along the photos. You don't want them fixing anything - you want every dime back. They don't have the needed skills to do the work.

Make it clear you will sue them in small claims court if you don't get every dime back.

How old is this?

Gut and start over.

Elisia Ellis,

I'm sorry this happened and unfortunately being "anonymous" gives some people, like thatsmuchbetter, freedom to be uncivil. I can say from personal experience, even "reputable" contractors can do crappy work. It happened to me, and I have a tub and tile redo to look forward to.

Best wishes!

Elisia, We too are sorry to see such a disaster. It is completely unacceptable. If you are in the U.S., check to see if your contractor was licensed. Most states have a process for filing a complaint, even if the contractor was not licensed. Here, for example is the process in California: http://www.cslb.ca.gov/Consumers/Filing_A_Complaint/ 

And this is a helpful link to information regarding the process in Wisconsin (and also the small claims process): http://joetheplumbernet.com/state_complaints/Wisconsin-plumb-complaint.html

Unfortunately your only recourse is to try to recoup the money lost so that you can have it redone correctly by a licensed, and vetted professional. Small claims court may be necessary. Best of luck

Hi Elisa, we are sorry you are going through this and will not be placing judgement or making assumptions as to your wallet. Here is some constructive advise we can offer. keep taking pictures and keep a record of conversations via text etc and keep a diary because if this turns out to be a legal matter you will need all of the evidence you can get. Contact the "Renovators" demand a solution to your issues with the bathroom and if you have not done so already paif them any balances due until the issue is resolved. if they are not willing to meet you half way and fix the issue then contact an attorney and take them to court. I would also get an estimate from an other reputable installer and have them quote you for the labor to fix the issues in the bathroom. Also contact your tile vendor and make sure that the tile used on the bathroom is not discontinued, back ordered etc in case you need to remove some of it and replace with new material. Also I do nor know if you still have the boxes of tile...if you do do no throw them away as they will need to know the info on it to give you the same lot# as you purchased......agree with everyone that there is work that needs to be done to fic the bathroom. Keep us all posted.

As far as the fixtures are concerned, see if you can call the vendors and they might be able to send you replacements for the damaged pieces. Most vendors are good about taking care of their clients!!!

Once again we are sorry for what you are going through and are are here to help in in any way we can.

Why are you sorry? if you gave a quote and the client hired the half price guy after you spent a few hours giving a quality real estimate would you be sorry in your own backyard? c'mon people stand up already

Dragon youre alright. A bit soft with that midwestern you betcha thing goin on though. IMAO.

You wont correct the industry until you combat marketing ploys and gimmicks HGTV and the like as well as rampant misinformation.

The number one issue is:

EDUCATE-ing people on how to hire a real professional and not fall into the biggest pothole in the industry time and again by chasing a dream price they know is too good to be true and then coming here to cry wolf without sharing 80% of the facts ever..Now this pothole has been patched and repaired since jesus herself, nothing new. and when they do get sucked in its.....FITB

Im sure you know exactly what im saying and I will go ahead and do the hard work for you, perhaps it will benefit you as well...

Ive got pounds of compassion for the right folks trust you me we just focus on 2 different approaches LOL sometimes a wiffle/baseball bat to the head is in order..

You can't beat up a client just because they are careful with their wallet....and just because the guy charges through the nose does not equal quality work....there can be shotty work at any time at any place. No where in this post does it say that they chose a cheaper price, no where so stop assuming. Granted people make mistakes but a baseball bat?? that is how you help a client?? I think you are in the wrong site...maybe go to Facebook where there is a free for all, but here is a professional site for professionals like our company...people post to be assisted and helped not to be abused an threatened with a bat and belittled this is not Jerry Springer for Remodeling mishaps...let's respect others and their posts.

The vast majority common denominator to these gawdawful hack jobs that keep showing up on here is the Red Flag Hack Price that the homeowner has paid. Yes, there’s a few that paid 10K for a jumbo sized shower that ended up with hack work. But it’s mostly the people who think 1K is an outrageous price for wet area tile work that end up with jobs like this.

It’s the 2K jobs. Not the 20K jobs. Some people still have not learned TANSTAAFL. They try to lie to themselves that their “fair priced” contractor will give them that 20K job for 2K. That type of self deception is the most painful type of realization.

It doesn’t do the GenPop any good to gloss over the fact that 90% of the issues comes from the greed for “saving money” with an unlicensed and uninsured hack. The vast majority of people with a problem don’t even do that rudimentary check. Hiring smarter on the front end is 95% the answer.

If the price is too good to be true, it ain’t true. Period. Full stop.

I dont even think its the greed of saving money so much, 99% people are all strapped and need to live within their means. Focus on QUALITY and smart hiring and then maybe accept the fact you can only afford a plastic insert bathroom FULL STOP.. I cant afford all the festool's I want and its been 5 years since I want Joseph Corletts festool track saw but im making do and happy with my makita maybe someday ill make more cha ching and splurge.

We didn't pay 2k for the tiling job. They quoted as roughly the same as five other contractors prior to them. We purchased the tiles ourselves, roughly around 24k. This was the only contractor that actually showed up to do the work after we accepted their quote to do the work. The other four just made empty promises and never showed up. In all honestly, a friend of hours recently remodeled his bathroom himself and did a brilliant job doing so, much better than the contractors. They didn't even use the tile cutting tools, but a grinder to cut the tiles. I'm starting to figure we should have used him instead.

I am very sorry!

So you really do need to go after these people. There's no excuse for what was done.
I understand what the others are saying about the $1-2k tile job. Certainly the consumer has a lot of responsibility to educate themselves and to vet their contractors and such - and preventing problems is 90% of the job.

That said, there's never an excuse for someone doing shoddy work. If a contractor can't do quality work at a given price then they don't need to be quoting the job.

Seriously - start by taking photos and documenting everything and say that you want every dime back. Then start following up. Try to get some free legal help if you can ( a letter from an attorney will convince a lot of people that the gig is up).

thatsmuchbetter: Although I also suspected that it wasn't reasonably bid, at this point your $1,000 tile job theory isn't holding up. You have an entire agenda to push and you don't care if it matches up with the facts of this case or not.

For the most part we have to take the information that we get here at face value. Sure there are a lot of questions about how this job could go so wrong. If the facts are as presented - then a contractor took advantage of a consumer who didn't have a lot of sophistication about managing a job like this.

To Elisia Ellis: You need to understand that if things are as you presented them, the cost of the work was probably significantly out of line for what you needed to be done even if it was done right ( I don't have all the details, so I'm hedging here). The work that was done was grossly incompetent at any price.

That this could have gone so badly makes me think that you need some trusted help to resolve the problem with the current contractor and repair your bathroom. This should be a family member or trusted friend who can guide you on legal action, as well as helping you to make decisions with correcting the bathroom. It's not really likely for this to happen as you described unless a contractor was taking advantage of a homeowner without the sophistication and experience to manage such a project.

You don't need to be shamed or feel ashamed -- but I think recovering your money and repairing your bathroom is going to be more complex than even the original job - and it's not something that you should go at alone. Get some assistance from someone who can help you to think through this (again, a family member or trusted friend who has business skills -- not a paid person). You will probably need legal assistance and such, but before you go there, you will probably need a trusted advocate who can commit to helping you sort through this.

The whole thing was wrong from the start. What is with the lip on the edge of the tub on all four sides that will catch water and never drain into the tub, let alone drain onto the floor.

Shower valve was not centered correctly before they started the mess that they finished it looking as. Horrible. The studs behind the wall need to be placed correctly for the shower valve. They are right they cant move it without a complete redo, which I am hoping you can get your money back from these hack jobs. Take lots of pictures, get someone else.

The tub itself is 1 grand... Hope you have a realistic expectation for the next contractor in terms of price. All they did here was waste a lot of time and money. That or learn how to DIY and good luck, the knowledge is out there.

Hi Vith:

Did you see that they paid $24k and supplied the tile? If that's accurate, this isn't about unrealistic expectations.

Oops missed that near the end there. Looks like they paid a lot for the tile, doesnt say how much was for labor. Sounds like getting jobs done in that area is hard with all the contractors being flakes.

I think that they paid $24k for the work + purchased the tile.