Deposit on tile job
 

We are in the process of agreeing to a wood plank porcelin tile job in our dining room/living room by Great Lakes. We are here for the rest of November and head back to RI in early December for the Christmas holiday. Since Great Lakes is booked for November, we would have to schedule for January when we are back. They are asking for a deposit now of $1,800, 50% of the job’s cost. Is a 50% deposit normal for a flooring project such as this?

IMHO :shrug: No.

I know they have been in business awhile.... so was Legendary Journeys. :oops:

Check out Penn Flooring in Ocala, their price was so dramatically lower for the porcelain tile that we bought and we used Alexander Tile (a sponsor on TOTV) to install, they also picked the tile up for us and you cannot see the grout lines. Penn's phone is 352 3513420 and I dealt with David. We had about 1700 ft of tile and they were $2 less a ft. and it is high end tile, Italian porcelain. We did give a downpayment for the ordering of the tile itself. We did not give any install money until the day they started and then gave a first payment.

Thanks for the quick responses!

If you pay a deposit, put it on a credit card and make sure the work is done within 60 days. Then, you can dispute the charge if something goes wrong. If the contractor will not accept a credit card, then I would not do business with them.

Thanks retiredguy123!

That was our experience with Great Lakes. We had our tile floor installed last month & are happy with our new floor & glad we chose Great Lakes.

When we bought our new CYV in 2011 I noticed the carpet and vinyl was done by Great Lakes. After moving in we had them put indoor/outdoor in our lanai and did a tile backsplash in the kitchen. They did a good job and both jobs material and labor was $1100 total.

In 2013 I wanted the vinyl and carpet removed from the kitchen, foyer and dining room and replaced with engineered hardwood. We went to Great Lakes, got the same salesman, we took a couple of samples home to look at them onsite. We called and he came out and gave us an estimated price of $2,000 for 300sf installed at $5.99 a sf, that included doorway trim and carpet trim. We gave them a deposit for $1,000.

Our salesman ordered the materials and about a week later called that they had arrived. The installation crew showed up, and brought in the materials and realized our salesman had ordered our second choice, which had a lighter color. We called him and he said he could order the right one, if we wanted to wait a week. He didn't make any offers of a discount. We thought about and went with the flooring that was here. It turned out good, they finished in one day, but I would be very sure in the future they have all the right names and numbers when we place another order.

Personally, if you search TOTV for flooring, and going by price, quality and workmanship, you'll find more good reviews over the last couple of years for East Coast Flooring, that's who I would probably use next time.

www.eastcoastflooring.com

My two cents worth
 

They are asking for a $1800. 50% deposit. That is great for THEM. you should offer 1/3. It is a home, you cannot run away. They do NOT want to loose the job that they have already invested time into. Perhaps, they need the money NOW. That is not your problem.

A friend of mine once suggested that in most cases half is the cost of materials and half is labor. Sounds crazy but, I've priced several jobs and repairs and his rule is always very close.

Not sure about in the villages with all the snow birds but usually these businesses are very happy to have work in Janurary.

Great Lakes seem to be a solid, established company with many good reviews. That said, we had flooring installed a couple of years ago by East Coast Flooring. The job was 8K, and we put down 10%, with balance due after satisfactory installation. The service and installation was excellent. From my experience, I highly recommend them.

Does East Coast Flooring work with tile? I thought they just did wood.

Used the Floore Shoppe for porcelain tile, required 1/3 down to order the tile, balance on completion. Very satisfied, quality installation and perfect matches to existing tile.

I ordered my own tile, had it delivered to my home to the work area. I paid for the tile job after it was done. I learned a lesson not giving money up front. I had a company take down a huge palm after the hurricane. He left the logs in our yard and wanted all of the money. Said FEMA would pick up the logs that week. I withheld $500 enough to pay someone else to remove the logs if FEMA didn't come that week. Of course we all know how long it took FEMA to come. The tree service showed up two days later with a truck and 5 men to pick up the logs and the owner showed up five minutes later to collect his $500.

They installed tile in both bathrooms, and their tile guy did a great job. Check with them about larger jobs.

Flooring deposit
 

When I recently had my carpets removed and tile put down, I needed to put down 50 0/0 in order for company to order the flooring. The final $ was due upon completion of job