Amen, Glenn. I started when I was 12 helping Dad on weekends and evenings when Mom worked. At 15, I helped during evening weekends, and summer vacations (and getting paid!) when he went out on his own. At 17, I went to the Armstong School of Resilient Installation to learn all that I could, which was before certifications. They confirmed shool completions back then but didnt "certify" as they do now. All my life I have been taught on the job and Dad pulled me aside when other co-workers and his bosses did things inappropriately to save time and cut corners, telling me this isnt the way you should do this, but we do what we have to when we work for someone else. Every facet from pattern scribing inlaid resilient sheet in a room full of pipes and old radiators, all the way down to professionally and expertly installing vinyl/rubber cover base corners. Nothing was too big or too small to do right. At 21, me and Dad had a falling out in business. He had his own busienss now doign commercial and residential subcontract work and was becomming like so many others we laughed at and despised for doing shoddy work to make a buck, then I went out on my own. I am not maligning my Father. I love Him and he taught me pretty much evrything I know, but I couldnt do the work he was asking me to do anylonger when I knew it wasnt right. He had changed. Business had changed him. Money and time was becomming more important that job quality. Business certainly isnt easy, but a time comes when it's either right or its wrong, with little middle ground. Whhen professionals hit that crossroad, then take the wrong path, it changes them, and each time they elect that improper path, it makes the next crossroads easier and easier to take the wrong path, until the day comes that money and time means more than giving people who trust use with their work a professional job. I am an advocate of installer and buiness educataion no matter how they go about obtaining it, whether that be on the job, through a mentorship, union apprentiship, manufacturer or distributor training session, or certification. If certifications are the only way they can get proper training, they shoud go get it. Consumers need to step up and make a fuss when anything isnt exactly how they want it to be. We live in a low cost wallmart and home depot world, where as long as the price is right, they can live with almost anything. As an employer, I instill in my men and women the same installation and customer service values my Dad originally instilled in me, and I demand that on every job. I believe much of the talent has moved to the commercial spectrum too. Its where the money is at. Interesting you should say that (about commercial work getting the good men). When I left Dad, I went all commercial for about 10-11 years before we started opening up stores. Did alot of traveling and made alot of money. Now we bring those values and quality to the residential sector. In the end if something isnt done right, it doesnt matter why.

I think many here are being a little hard on the crew that did this work. Whoever did the work is definately lacking some experience in woodworking and capet for not finishing the transition, but i see nothing wrong with the tile work itself. Obviously they arent carpet mechanics, or they would have finished the carpet transition, so let's get that one out of the way first. Secondly, many of the pictures show incomplete and improperly completed cabinetry and areas where they cant possibly nail or anchor the wood trim to. Let's face it, ANY wood trim looks crappy on a tile job but it was required here. Let's ask why it was required here. Because the door sills and the base were higher than the finish floor height ??? ok so why didnt they remove and reinstall the basebaords ? possibly because it may break when being removed or some pieces may have been already cracked, PLUS it would have lowered the height of the base. What does this mean? It means that potentially the walls needed preparation, painting, and possible the walls painted to to get an exact match ... which any experienced floor mechanic will tell you is no easy or quick task ... so they used trim. I guess alot of this depends on what was discussed between the company and the owner/poster. Back-cutting for open-ends in shoe-molding and 1/4-round molding is standard, however it is unusual to do a complete 45 degree cut, only a partial with a sheared end (pictured): example: The problems I see at your inside corners where the trim is riding above the tile could possibly be from grout, thinset, or tile holdiung it up, but I would guess it is from an improperly cut inside corner on the moulding piece. The isntaller probably did 2' 45 degree angles which would work if the existing bas eand the floors were perfectly perpendicular and parallel ... they never are ...so the right way to do it is to cus the one piece square to the inside corner and to cove the meeting piece to the profile of the trim. This facillitates the cove pivoting on the radius of the trim piece making any out od squareness irelevent, giving the appearance of a perfect fit almost every time (pictured): example: Placing trim accross transitional areas or doorways is unusual, but it really depends what was there to begin with. If the existing doorway sill height went above that of the top edge of the tile, then they probably did not want to leave an opens gap. I can not tell by the pictures if the tile is an issue or of varying heights. It seems that your only issues here are aesthetics caused by basebaords that were too high to begin with, and incomplete or improperly completed cabinetry work, possibly because this area had carpeting in previously ? While I agree the carpentry craftsmanship is not exemplary, to be fair, they did not have alot to work with here because some of the pictures you have shown, show areas the could not do much about to begin with, like the metal dishwasher base (cant nail to metal and there might not have been too much width to chamfer out the trim for it, and the corner undr your cabinet doesnt even have a base block to nail to, which is either a opening for hvac or air moement, or it is an area never completed with wood base to begin with (whoever did your cabinets to begin with didnt finish it?). The only way this could have been done to ease every concern you have shown, if the existing base was gapped, would have been to remove all the basebaords, scribed them back to the tile or replaced them entirely if they break during removal (no guarantees on that one - sometimes they break and sometimes they dont and sometimes htey are already installed cracked but repaired and you cant see it til you try to remove them), then this would have made the wood base height LESS and tould have required at a minimum touchup paint, and in the worst of cases, respacling, repainting, and even then it might not have matched the walls, so the pickiest of people would have wanted to paint their entire walls to match exactly. It begins and ends with the basebaords height. If you dont like the look of the trim, then the base needs removed and reinstalled or replaced to cover the gap, which would create a need to repaint or repair the wall above where the base was originally set. I agree the carpetntry work on the wood trim was bad. The tile looks good.

@ paintguy, I'd agree that the mistake should not have been made, however, everyone makes mistakes from time to time. Maybe there was a new guy on the crew that was trying to be ambitious but used the wrong caulk, who knows. That said, unless specified contractually, the methods used to achieve the final product as advertised and paid for are at the discretion of the contractor, provided that they do not step outside the boundaries of industry standard practices. I'd strongly agree that some discussion between contractor and homeowner would be advisable here to determine to pros and cons of each approach, however most times the contractor does have the "right to cure" at his or her discretion when it comes to methods... The best case scenario of course is when both the contractor and homeowner agree on the best solution to fix an issue, which in my experience actually happens more often than not when dealing with a reputable company.... Now if you paid this guy cash under the table and he was pounding PBR's while he installed your windows on a Sunday, that all goes out the window!

Howdy. Every time I think about sitting down and providing an update, I get upset all over again...just like every time I walk into my kitchen (many, many times a day), the awful feelings churn up. I don't consider myself to be someone who needs to LOVE her kitchen. But at this point, I have nothing but negative feelings (emotionally and physically, really) every time I lay eyes on my counters. So, consider this as follow-up, more venting...what, closure? Maybe an education for anyone else going through this? I glanced at the date stamp on my initial post: what a way to mark this one-year anniversary. I'll try to stay as focused as possible. Last autumn, with all the small claims paperwork filed, both parties waited for a mediation date to be set (which likely wouldn't happen til after the first of the year). In Texas, a mediation session is required for small claims cases. In December, I called the precinct to double check and make sure the hearing didn't get pushed forward: I was shocked to hear that the fabricator had filed a countersuit in October! Part of the shock was due to my never having even been notified...very odd business, I thought. Up til then, their attorney emailed and snail-mailed every scrap of formage and documentation. We've said it and heard it time and again on these forums: give the company an opportunity to 'make it right'. I can't remembered if I covered this here already, but after they honed my tops, I was left with grit all over. We went back and forth, the fabricator not sure what happened...got to a point where he asked me to do internet research, contact his tech rep at MIA, post the problem with the pros at the Stone Fabricators Alliance forum, etc. I was told by this company that, don't worry, at the end of the day, they were going to provide me with smooth (non-gritty) and sealed tops. Several trips back and forth to re-hone on site. They finally switched brushes/heads and 'leathered' on-site (after asking me to provide and put up plastic sheeting to isolate the dust.) The grit resolved, but the leathering was very uneven. Shiny spots were mixed with dull spots; and there were grinder arc marks that they couldn't figure out how to get rid of. I told them it was good enough. The next several weeks were spent helping them figure out the right type of sealer to use. Their go-to didn't work, so again it was on me to find a sealer that worked. OK, so, the counter suit: not only did they fabricate two phony invoices for the hours and trips spent getting rid of the grit AND properly sealing the counters (each time, I stood side-by-side with the owner, helping him with the sealer applications -- sometimes timing, other times helping scrub and rinse with water during the stripping process), they claimed that I was more than 90 days delinquent paying these two invoices...to the tune of ~ $4,000 more (ballpark...can't remember exactly now). PREPOSTEROUS!!!! I knew this countersuit wouldn't hold any water: history would show that I always paid my invoices within 24-72 hours. And they could never prove that I received these two phony invoices: all invoices were emailed to me, and I can guarantee they could never have come up with original emails proving I was invoiced. During all this time, I sat down with my attorney acquaintance and laid everything out. He reminded me of one very important thing: at least in TX, small claims judgements are not binding. He felt I had a rock solid case not only to prove my case, but also to have the countersuit quickly dismissed. However, even if the judgement went in my favor, there's no guaranteeing I'd collect a dime. Up until the time I stumbled upon the countersuit, I somehow (naively?) had faith in the system, and felt that if I won the case, that would be that. Seeing what low and underhanded lengths this company and their attorney stooped with the countersuit, I started to doubt that they would honor a judgement. My attorney friend says these are the types of companies/cases he takes, and he spends months and years chasing companies just like this. (Going to stop here and post...back in a sec with the next part.)