Jonathan’s Tile & Construction Services

Jonathan is a hard worker. There were a few setbacks and he never complained. He went out of his way to do little things like move the washer and dryer, put in a new toilet and replace new trim between the tile and wood. He is honest and I could trust him in my house when I wasn’t here. His partner also did a great job cutting tiles, they came out perfect.

My initial impression of Jonathan did not match up with what I experienced and with the end result of the job.
Jonathan appeared very knowledgeable, positive, and professional. A plus was that he did «all» the work.
I saw him use long levels (6 ft. I believe) to keep the tiles straight. But I didn’t hover much (I work from home) to realize that he wasn’t using levels to ensure that the top of each tile was level and that the tops of the tiles were level with one another. I only saw him eye it. I can say that having lived on the tile most of the floor has ridges when transitioning from one tile to the next. I immediately noticed the ridges with my bear feet. Also, I can see shadows cast from one tile to the next by the sun in the morning. Finally, the ridges are even more noticeable when sliding furniture with Magic Sliders across the floor. The most pronounced ridges are as tall as a penny or nickle.
I should note that I had admittedly poorly poured self-​leveling compound on the foundation in one room. Jonathan said that it wouldn’t be a problem.
He cut the tiles with his wet on my front walkway and many small pieces and chunks landed in my grass and planters. I had to hand comb through the areas to find them.
In respect to cutting tiles, Jonathan would cut several tiles along an edge using the same measurement from a single tile. He told me he did this and that usually it isn’t a problem. The assumption is that the tile lines on the floor paralleled the wall (which requires the wall construction to be square). This approach burned him on a few tiles as the cut was well short of the wall to accommodate the baseboard overlap. He left these tiles alone. The quarter round we decided to install has covered everything.
I had to ask him to relay a tile in prominent spot that hadn’t had the spacers properly used.
Before the grout was laid I bounced a golf ball across all the tiles looking for a hollow sound (where the tile/​thin set/​self-​leveling/​foundation were not solid). I did find over a dozen spots that sounded hollow and we asked him to replace them. He said that the problem was with the foundation/​self-​leveling compound and/​or the Redgard.
He did agree to replace a few of the tiles though. All but one Jonathan did, the other he had his sub-​contracted grout guy do (so that he could get the experience). The grout guy laid the replacement tile with a ridge the depth of a nickle.
The entire job took him five days. By day three I think he realized that he had under-​estimated (and thus under-​quoted) the job. At that point it seemed to me that he was in a rush to get the job done. He did jokingly say to me on the last day that he believed that he under estimated the job.
A haze was left behind from the grouting, which I understand is normal, but after mopping the entire floor with warm water/​white vinegar and rinsing with warm water and towel drying, and then steam mopping the entire floor a haze remained. (The steam mop helped; I could see the grout picked up on the mop’s pad.) The haze went away after one to two months of normal foot traffic and additional cleaning.
When I finished «cleaning» the haze I sealed the grout with two coats. It was then that I found two tiles that were installed with chips in them. One is a full tile in the middle of a room. The other tile has two chips along the cut of the tile, and is placed along the outside edge of a room next to the fireplace brick. The color under the chips blends with the tile color so I’m not feeling hard pressed to ask Jonathan to come back and replace these tiles.
I also discovered a number of thin set and grout splashes along the walls. So that I could install the baseboard flush with the wall I had to chisel these spots off the wall. These spots were low enough to the ground that the four inch baseboard covered the marks from chiseling.
The thin set and grout was mixed on my custom colored stamped concrete front walkway. A number of splashes fell onto the walkway and were allowed to dry and became hard. I called Jonathan after the the job and asked him to please come back and clean them up. He said he was busy and would call me in a month (by late December 2012). I called him back in February 2013. He said he had forgotten about me, apologized, and was very busy and would need more time; «Please be patient with me.» A week later he called me from my front walkway, said that there was no need for me to come out and that he was going to clean off the walkway. He tried pressure washing but that didn’t work. Then he proceeded to grind/​scrape them off. They did come off, but the colored concrete is distinctively marred where the thin set and grout once was.
I’ve tried to relate my experience and observations with Jonathan’s Tile. I have tried to minimize my personal opinions and feelings.
As a side note, he laid 20″ porcelain tiles (from HD) on a 1/​8″ grout line using thin set and grout also purchased from HD.