SOS: Bathroom remodeler promises to return to scene of remodel | Just Ask Us

Travis Schuh was part of a team that did a good job renovating the upstairs bathroom at Gloria Hanson’s South Side Madison home, so when she wanted someone to add a shower to her downstairs half-bath, she hired Schuh.

She paid half the $15,000 cost of the project, he did most of the work, and then she paid the other half on his promise that he would soon be finished, she said.

But then “finished” to him didn’t look like “finished” to her — or finished very well, for that matter. So she called him — and called and called and called, she said. Finally, she called SOS.

SOS is no remodeling expert and certainly no professional contractor like Schuh, but it had to admit that Hanson’s newly full-size bathroom looks to be something between unfinished and shoddily finished.

The ceiling exhaust fan appears to be hanging by a single screw, and the opening for the fan is too big for its plastic grate. There are gaps between the new wall and an old wall and between the shower stall and wall. The shower head is lacking its decorative escutcheon. Perhaps most troubling to Hanson, the concrete floor under the vinyl flooring feels pitted and uneven.

Schuh first blamed Hanson’s complaints about the floor on her son, who had moved one of the interior walls of the bathroom out, such that the flooring no longer covered the entire floor. But given where the wall had been before — somewhat out of line with the door frame — moving it seemed like an improvement, according to Hanson.

Schuh also said he wasn’t avoiding Hanson but had lots of other, more time-sensitive work to do.

“As a business owner, you have to see which is going to make the least amount of noise,” he said.

He noted that the contract for the job stipulates he does not tape and mud drywall, which accounts for why there are gaps or other unfinished final touches. Hanson contends the drywall work wasn’t done well enough to properly mud and tape.

All the same, he said: “If she wants me to come fix her floor, I will.” He also promised to install the missing escutcheon.

It seems pretty clear that Hanson and Schuh probably still have some differences about what will constitute his competent completion of the project, but at least Schuh and Hanson are now in touch. The two set May 20 — a Saturday — for Schuh to come out and “finish” the job, Hanson said.