Never again! Oh man! Where do I start?! Yes, I chose them because they were the cheapest- I guess I got what I paid for. Lesson learned! The owner initially started very good, we talked thru what we wanted, how we wanted it as we had a big job, kitchen, bar, desk and two custom sinks for two bathrooms. Some was in person conversation, some via text and some over the phone. After the first visit we no longer saw the owner if we weren't paying attention we would have ended up with an under mount sink when we requested top mount. Once we started pointing out our concerns over the phone- because remember we never saw him after the first day, he became unresponsive. We had talked about covering all the old surface because who wants to see where the prior tile was...he did not ensure this was done around the sink. We asked for custom bathroom
Sinks.. two turned out ok the third is not what we requested and now we have two different types of sinks in the bathrooms. When we asked him to fix it, apparently there wasn't enough material- I asked him to return all unused portions and he returned a slab piece that is apx 2 ft x 5ft. I find it hard to believe there wasn't enough material. I think at this point he was just being vindictive in not giving us what we wanted. This job was done in two phases, first the kitchen and bar then the bathroom. We were told all could be done within 2 weeks. 4 weeks in and when near completion of the kitchen only he asked for full payment. We let him know we had no issue with making the full payment ( he has already been paid 50%) however we wanted to ensure the job was completed first. This fool pulled his men off the job. Wow! Whereas he has the ability for recourse by placing a lien on our house for the unpaid portion- we have zero recourse against him, other than to spend more money and take him to court. Again, he was told we would pay him the remaining balance for the kitchen portion as soon as the job was completed. During the job we would contact him to let him know that his workers were not doing things as per our discussion- because remember we only saw him once- he finally sent in another guy to take the lead. I appreciated this guy as I understood he was stepping in 1/2 way thru the job. Again we let him know what the plan was supposed to be but still throughout this conversation there were many details the owner did not pass on to the job foreman. In the midst of all this we were expecting family from out of the country. I had provided a drop dead date the job must be completed by. The kitchen portion only was completed the evening before my family was arriving. My family and I spent the entire night cleaning, organizing, painting, putting things back into the cupboards, installing the sinks and stove. I would NEVER recommend Aust to anyone. Cheaper is not always the way to go. Pay a little more and go with someone who is not going to disappear once they have the job and 50% of your money! I would rate them in the negative if that was an option. They are not worth the one star! read more