Tom Pearson was hired to do 2 jobs: Lay new flooring on a lower level and restore the original wood on the upper level. The problems occurred at the beginning. Costs would often exceed the original estimate by thousands of dollars. I understand that unexpected costs can arise, but underestimating costs and then demanding immediate payment before the project was finished was a regular occurrence.
Mr. Pearson often did not show up for appointments or would cancel at the last minute after arrangements were made to meet him. Mr. Pearson hired a sub-contractor to do about 80% of the job. His associate was messy and would leave piles of trash inside and outside the house including numerous Mountain Dew bottles and cigarette butts. Concrete was also spilled on our lawn, which had to be dug up and that obviously ruined the grass.
At one point the project was left unfinished for about 6 weeks. This included installing pieces of new flooring and transitions into bathrooms. Two floor boards also needed to be repaired because they were cut too short and a gap of about 1/4 inch was observed between the new floor and baseboards. Two other flooring companies have examined the area and confirmed the floor boards were cut too short. When this was brought to Mr. Pearson's attention, he blamed the contractor who installed the baseboards. His solution was to install a quarter round to conceal the gap. He said it went with the theme of the house, but none of the other walls had a quarter round at the base. Also, it was installed with a single nail and was easily removed by pulling on it.
New flooring had to be laid in one of the closets and it required staining in order to match the newly refinished floor, which was a natural light brown color. Mr. Pearson stained the new floor a cherry red, which created a stark contrast and said, "it is the only color of stain that is sold." This is obviously not true and we had to sand it off and stain it ourselves with the correct match. Finally, one of the transitions Mr. Pearson installed between a hallway and bathroom looked awful. He blamed those who laid the bathroom tile and said the transition could only be built one way. He was told not to install it, but he did anyway.
Mr. Pearson was delayed final payment until the project was completed including fixing the floor boards that were cut short. He complained about this and said we were refusing payment. This is not true. Ninety percent of the entire project had been paid by this time, which consisted of nearly $20,000. Mr. Pearson threatened to sue even though the project was still unfinished. He blamed us for delaying the project and not paying on time. However, we actually postponed our other contractor from doing their work on the house so that Mr. Pearson would be uninhibited. We also have record of all our payments being made on time (i.e. when Mr. Pearson presented an invoice). We offered to pay Mr. Pearson the final amount due (approx. $2,500) and subtract the amount it would cost to make necessary repairs. Mr. Pearson declined this offer as well and said he wanted the whole thing or else he would put a lein on our property.
Mr. Pearson illegally hired an unlicensed contractor to do work pertaining to the final invoice (as stated above). Mr. Pearson continually misrepresented this person as being fully licensed and allowed him to be in our home performing contracting work - this is a misdemeanor. He was not an employee of Mr. Pearson either. Unfortunately, we did not learn about this until after the unlicensed contractor's work was finished, which also needed to be repaired because a different floor board was not installed properly. We felt we had no choice but to report the matter to the California Contractors License Board.