Hi there,
In the last post where I told you about the horror that was the bathroom renovation, at the end I commented that Nicolas Scavone from Porto Pladur was recommended to me, and I was happy with him.
Here I leave the two posts in which I tell the horror with the renovations of the house:
In a Facebook group of Latinos in Porto, the Porto Pladur company was recommended to me, and I called the man to come make the budget.
At the time I wanted to tile two walls in the downstairs bathroom and paint the stairwell area in the downstairs room.
Initially we were going to pay to have the entire downstairs room painted, but after so many bad experiences we decided to do as much as possible on our own.
For the stair area, since it has such a high ceiling, we needed a professional with the proper tools to do it.
Nicolas Scavone gave me an estimate of 420 euros to lay the tiles and paint the stair area.
It did not seem too expensive considering the other budgets that I have been sent. Also, if he did it wrong, we didn’t lose much money either.
To do this job, Nicolas came on a Saturday with a Brazilian assistant, he arrived at 8AM and we couldn’t believe it after the experience with Paulo Correia who arrived at 11AM and worked 3 hours per day.
While they worked, Diego and I were also painting the rest of the room.
The guy placed paper all over the stairs so as not to stain and he seemed to work well.
Even so, he leaned on the plasterboard and made two holes in which he later had to put putty. In addition, the helper who had come on Saturday no longer showed up on Sunday and the work, which should have lasted two days, was extended to 4.
To paint, it’s not like he put up scaffolding or anything, he just tied the brush to a stick, which we could have done ourselves.
Two other details: the finish of the tiles at the bottom was bad and then I had to put putty on the two walls; Also, when he took off the paper that was covering the stairs, he ripped off bits of paint and then I had to touch up the baseboards.
In other words, the work was far from perfect, but it was the “less bad” thing we had found so far.
One thing that caught my attention is that when he came to do the budget and I explained what had happened to me, he told me “You like details like architects do.” As if doing the job well with proper finishes was a luxury.
The next thing was to tune and paint 2 doors.
If for the first job he arrived at 8AM and worked 8 hours, for the second job he already started to arrive at 10AM and work part-time.
I figured he was going to remove the doors to sand and paint them accordingly, but no, he did it all without removing the doors.
The day he had to come to give the second coat of paint, he sent one of his Brazilian assistants who didn’t even know what he had to do.
He did not sand what was left to be sanded and began to paint directly, leaving the paint dripping. When I showed him the drops on one of the frames, he began to chip everything by hand, and I almost had a heart attack.
We had to tell him to leave because he was going to destroy the house.
A week later Nico showed up to finish the job. After he supposedly finished it, there were a lot of unpainted spots left because since he hadn’t bothered to put paper on the floor or tape the hinges, there were parts that he had not even painted.
Another week later he showed up to fix what he had left wrong. Still, the “finished” job was far from perfect.
In other words, he painted the doors as we would have painted them, not like a professional. In fact, we would have painted them much better.
His excuse was that “the doors were of poor quality and that’s how they stayed.”
Here I must highlight something important, which is that from the beginning he insisted that he preferred to be paid in cash, which is the perfect formula for defrauding and not paying taxes.
The first time I contacted him via WhatsApp, the first thing I did was ask if he would make the invoices and he said yes, that’s why I hired him.
But, after two jobs and having received almost 700 euros, he had not sent me any invoice.
Since he had fixed the electrical problem that the house had since we bought it, I demanded that he gave me the invoice because I had to attach it to the complaint that I filed against those who scammed me in the sale of the house.
As it was still the least bad thing I had found so far, I asked him for an estimate to put two roofs on the outside of the house.
1225 euros without counting the painting “that he had forgotten to add to the budget”. 280 euros to put a cement floor in the back.
Putting up the roofs was an absolute circus.
He would show up at noon, work two hours and leave, show up again in the afternoon, then forget to come the next day.
The excuse: “He had to go to several stores to look for the materials.”
Every time I saw how the work was going, I found things that had been done wrong and had to tell him every day to fix this and that.
He had told me that it would take a week and it took almost 3.
During all the time that he was placing the roofs, we had called his attention because he had badly cut the plastic sheet, because he had placed them dirty, because he had left unpainted wood thinking that we were not going to notice, etc,.
If you watch videos on Youtube, you can see that to cut anything, professionals use certain tools to make the cut straight and clean.
Instead, it looked as if Nicolas Scavone had cut the plastic sheets with his teeth.
In addition, the phrase lately was “This is how it stays” to justify leaving the job poorly done.
When finishing the roofs, he had to have placed silicone on all the edges so that logically the water would not pass when it rained.
Coincidentally, the day he finished he told me that he “had forgotten to buy the silicone” and that he would put it on when he repainted what was left of the house.
So far, I had yet to paint the upper part of the house and install a folding door in one of the bathrooms, and that was supposedly going to be done by him.
I was very unhappy with the roofing work and after he left, just the next day it rained and as expected, water was dripping all over the walls.
Once again, the excuse was “it’s that outdoor roofs are like that, water will always get in, that’s how it stays”.
Also, as you know, the silicone must be put on a clean surface, so it had to be placed immediately after finishing the installation of the ceilings.
Nicolas left on February 22, and I stayed waiting for him to put in the silicone since, up to now, he had moderately fixed the things that he left wrong.
I bought the bathroom door because I was waiting for the guy to come back.
The first time it rained, the back floor flooded. Nico had to lay the cement at a certain angle so that the water would run out, but he did it wrong.
On March 8 I wrote to him and sent him photos of how the stagnant water remained.
Also, I noticed that he hadn’t tuned the doors right and they couldn’t be locked.
I also saw that the silicone that he had put on the sink when he laid the tiles had come off. This without any type of use, because the bathroom below is not used by anyone.
Then I found out that he had not used the correct silicone. I had to remove it all and put it back; also add the trip to Leroy Merlin to buy the silicone.
His response was “okay”. No apologies or anything.
When it rained, I always found the shopping trolley and the bikes soaked and it was very strange because they were under the roof that Nicolas had installed.
On April 21, I looked and saw that he had measured wrong and had left a part of the pvc sheet very short, so it did not reach the drainpipe and water fell inside, where it should be dry. That is to say, when it rained it got more wet under the roof than outside.
I made videos and sent them to him. I did not get any response.
I also discovered that he had left unpainted all the wood that he thought I would not see.
Imagen 4
I waited until May 2 and since it was clear that he was not coming to fix the mess he had made, I filed the claim with the competent authorities.
The one who was the “less bad” had become just as bad as the others.
Even before filing the claim, I had already placed the silicone on the edges of the roofs because I knew that if he finally came, he was going to do it wrong, and it was going to be double work to fix his mess and re-position the silicone correctly.
Also, seeing how he had cut the pvc sheets, it was already clear that he was not going to install the bathroom door because he was also going to leave it badly cut.
He explained to me how he was going to paint the upper part of the house without scaffolding, and it had already become clear that he was not going to do it well.
Diego thinks that placing two roofs and making a cement floor is something that was too big for Niscolas Scavone and that he had no idea how to do it. That he was not coming back to put the silicone because he surely didn’t even know how to do it.
Here are several things to keep in mind. Although nobody wants to pay VAT, do not accept workers if they do not make an invoice. The invoice must be issued automatically as soon as the service is paid, you do not have to be behind the service provider so that he deigns to issue the invoice. In addition, with the invoice you have a guarantee and if there is a problem, they have up to a month to solve it.
Another thing is that, if you see that he wants to collect cash, do not hire him because he is a person who moves in illegality and fraud. Just like he doesn’t pay taxes, you won’t get a job well done.
When I saw the only invoice that he had sent me, I saw that he did not charge VAT because “he invoices less than 15,000 euros a year.” It is impossible for a company, with employees under its charge and which also spent its time doing construction in Vigo, to invoice less than 15,000 euros per year. That is only possible if you defraud and do not declare all the income.
I put up with a lot because it was the least bad thing that I had encountered and because I was in a hurry to finish things that were pending at home. I tolerated that he didn’t make the invoices, that he worked the hours he wanted, I put up with having to be a watchman behind him, so he would fix the messes he was leaving behind.
I was so stupid that I always paid him, even if he still had things to fix.
If I had been fair, I wouldn’t have paid for the last part of the roof or half of the cement floor.
Another funny thing is that one day he was impressed with how good my bedroom floor had turned out and said we could work doing that. I told him that to pay and to be left with a poorly done job, I better do it myself.
There he replied that it was always going to look better when one did things for oneself. I was in shock. I told him that things had to be better when done by a professional who charged for that.
This is how the story ended badly with Nicolas Scavone from Porto Pladur who started well, but after the second job he turned out to be as incompetent as the others and always knew how to justify his mediocrity with phrases like “It stays just like that, nothing more can be done” , “It’s that you like details, nobody likes to do that”, “I forgot”, “You do it better because things always look better when you do them for yourself”.
The good thing about this experience is that in the end we painted what was left of the house and it was another of our great achievements and a source of pride. Also, I did an amazing job placing the silicone and not a single drop falls inside when it rains.
And since the fourth time is the charm, after another bad experience, I finally found someone who works well. I’ll tell you about this next Thursday.
In addition, I also found out that everything Nicolas Scavone said was either a lie or he had no idea how the job was done.