I could not love my wallpaper installation more. Attention to detail and level of professionalism…read moreoff the charts. Natalia is highly skilled and lovely to work with!

We hired SDexter to install two wallpaper murals in our home, one on a flat wall and one in a…read morecurved nook area. We purchased the wallpaper, followed all manufacturer's directions on measuring the space and added extra as instructed - this was later confirmed from the pieces left over after the installation. The area was previously smoothed, with only a couple of uneven spots of paint pointed out by the installer (Alexsei). Alex (SDexter manager, different from Aleksei) initially asked $1300 to do a full 2-step skim coat and sanding of the full wall. When we pushed back, he agreed to do one skim coat pass and sanding for $800, which we decided to accept, as they said that the installation would be perfectly smooth. The install took two days. We had issues communicating with Aleksei, who did not understand English well. He used a translator, but mostly used hand gestures and single-word responses. His tone came off as a bit arrogant - we asked a question about why he started with the last panel first, and his response was to gesture and say "Here, you want to do the work?" On the curved nook install, we checked on progress partway through, and found one section that was visibly misaligned. We pointed it out, and Aleksei used hand gestures to explain that he would come back and fix the issue. We checked later, and found him still working on other panels, with that spot still misaligned. Around 5pm we received a text from Alex (manager) that the install was done, and asked us how we wanted to pay. Aleksei was still 4 panels short of finishing. To us, this showed a lack of awareness from Alex on our project. Everything was finally finished at 7:30pm; this was very late for us as we have two young children (one infant) who we were trying to get to bed. We were in a rush, so we had to pay for the work with only a cursory review since it was already dark. At daytime, we inspected fully and found many issues. There were uneven cutouts and cuts into the drywall along window and sheet edges. The worst part was the misalignment we had pointed out - Aleksei had used a Sharpie marker to color through the wing feathers on one of the cranes along the seam to try to hide the mistake. We told Alex the issues, and he said he would send Aleksei back to fix them. When Aleksei returned, he pulled out the Sharpie again to start trying to cover the error. We let him know, as best we could with the language barrier, that we did not want more marking on our wall - we wanted it clean and fixed. We were basically begging him "no, no, no". He replied "gah, no no!" and walked back to his truck and drove off. So we had to contact Alex again. It was at this point (not earlier) than Alex mentioned comments from Aleksei that "the wallpaper was not enough, he had to use Sharpie to mark it". As stated above, there were clear trimmings from all sheets and sides. The real issue isn't due to lack of material, but a 1/8" overlap or miscut-the panels on either side are not the right size (we found the tops of the corresponding sheets to measure and confirm). Even if the install was short on excess, this shouldn't cause panels to overlap as this. Also note that, even until today, Alex has never come to see in person the work of his installer. Since Alex would not come out, we had to consult the manufacturer to figure out how to fix this. Alex had stated that he would only cover cost and labor for the two panels that were marked with Sharpie. It's not possible to fix with just the two panels replaced-all of the panels were installed with the mistake already in place, and there's no way to squeeze the fixed panels back into that space without creating overlap elsewhere. So we really need to replace at least 6 panels, to fix all the way to the left side. The manufacturer even recommended a full rework due to color balance concerns on a reprint. We let Alex know that we were dissatisfied and wanted a full fix. Alex insisted on two panels replacement. So we made him an offer-he tries his 2 panel fix, but if there was still a problem, we would expect he cover the full fix of 6 panels. Alex stated he would only cover two panels, or pay us a $300 refund (barely more than the 2 panels cost) and close our contract. And he still insists that the defect is entirely because we didn't have the proper wallpaper size. Of course this is unsatisfactory for us, the issue remains unresolved. So, after $800 of added cost to smooth the walls for a perfect install, we have a terrible, Sharpie-marked mural, and a company who doesn't want to guarantee their fix. One final detail - Alexsei mentioned that SDexter always bids 2x-3x his cost to customers. So we were paying extra for a middleman who wouldn't visit the site or stand by their work, and would ask for payment as soon as possible, even before confirming the work was actually done. This business is dishonest, irresponsible, and lacking customer service. When issues happen, it is impossible to get the problem solved.