We hired Texas Elite Flooring to replace the flooring and repair drywall in our condo after some…read morewater damage. A decision I deeply regret.
The signed contract, dated Mar 19, 2025, listed a start date of Apr 14 with a pessimistic projected completion date of Apr 19. We paid ~$5K for material + 25% labor upfront as agreed.
1. Unreliable Scheduling and Dishonest Communication
Work began with a full day on Mon, Apr 14, but then the crew was absent for the next three days (Tue-Thu), despite daily text messages from the project manager (Shae) saying they'd be there "tomorrow."
Thu night, he texted: "... Floor could be done tomorrow. ..."
Friday, they showed up briefly and made minimal progress. Shae said they would complete everything on Monday, April 21 [contractors are not allowed in our condo during the weekend]. Trusting that commitment, we did not extend our Airbnb rental (which we were using to stay with our cats during the work).
Mon, April 21, they showed up but did not finish the work and never informed us of the delay. I had to rebook the Airbnb last minute at a significantly higher cost.
The pattern repeated:
Tue morning: Promised completion that day -- they didn't finish. I rebooked Airbnb for another night at an even higher cost.
Tue night: Promised arrival "EXACTLY" at 8:30 AM on Wednesday, with completion by 9:30 AM
Wed, Apr 23: Arrived at 10:38 AM and stayed until late afternoon and still left without finishing. Since I missed the check-out time at the Airbnb, had to rebook for another night at an even higher rate.
At 11:54 AM on Wed, while they were still in the condo, Shae sent me a final bill -- with no mention that part of the work was incomplete.
2. Unfinished Work and No Disclosure
When they left, we found:
(i) A closet (~10' x 4') was never demoed or re-floored [pic]
(ii) Baseboards and QR were not installed in some areas. These baseboards were removed by the water mitigation experts in Jan (well before Shae made a bid for the job). [pic]
Despite daily communication, Shae didn't mention even once that these parts of the job wouldn't be completed.
3. Deflection and Excuses Instead of Accountability
When I raised the concern about the baseboards, the responses I received from Shae included:
"?" [bewilderment]
"Where are they?"
"Whoever took them off should of saved them for us"
When I said that this is something that they should have communicated before they left, Shae's response was.
"We do not know everything"
"Until the job is started or finished"
followed by ...
"The work on the work order is completed "
"Here are your next steps: 1) pay us for the work we completed and that we agreed on.
2) call a painter, and get your new Sheetrock muddled and painted
..."
I was understandably upset when I received this text. I had hired them to replace the flooring in my entire condo. I did not expect to have to hire another contractor to finish the work.
4. Escalation and Threats
Above exchange was on Thu, Apr 24. The next day I texted Shae, thanking him for the suggestion:
"Thank you for telling me what my next steps are. This is very informative."
In response, I received the following threatening messages:
"If you don't pay us by tomorrow at 8am and have my check ready, I'll be filing a police report with my lawyers tomorrow for theft of services of over 3K. Choose wisely sir. Have a blessed day..."
"I had patience with you, but I'm done."
...
"But you have ignored us, and also have laughed at our messages, when I have a contract that you signed about the services. Don't think this is a joke ["sheriff/cowboy" emoji]
"Do you understand me?"
To this I replied. "I never said I won't pay".
Shae's reply:
"You said the job isn't done. It's done."
"Now will you pay or not ?"
I felt this level of escalation -- simply for asking about undisclosed, unfinished work -- was completely inappropriate.
I did end up paying. I was naive enough to sign a written contract that was sufficiently vague:
(i) Contract just said "replacement of flooring". Did not mention sq. ft. So even if they just replaced 75% of the floor, I could be legally obligated to pay the full amount since it meets "reasonable expectations" per TX Law. [src: reddit]
(ii) Shae conveniently left the field "Contractor shall complete this work on" blank and instead included the date under description of services. This absolves of him of liability if the work is not completed on time. Again, something I should have seen before signing.
5. Quality of Work:
The flooring work was fine. But the drywall repair was shoddy (pic); also damages to our front door (pic) and a french door.
The project ended up costing me nearly $1K in Airbnb rebookings, caused enormous stress, and now I will incur additional costs to complete the job.
In my opinion, Texas Elite Flooring is not a professional and trustworthy company. and I found Shae's behavior to be dishonest and in the end threatening.