[island_dude]

Ok. I have an update on the case. I finally got a reply to my request that he explain how he arrived at the total he was claiming. He did this by submitting a summary of the payments to date and then adding in the extra stuff. Now there are a couple of interesting things here:

1. He originally claimed a bottom line of $2,600. Now its $2,300. He is adding in extra labor on one extra task (he quoted 2 hours, and charged 3 hours. at $60/hr I expect more accuracy). He is charging me for three extra boxes of flooring that he picked up because he ran out. One of those boxes he did not pay for. Part of another I shouldn't have to pay for since they had to replace a bunch of planks that they scrached up on installation.

2. (this is my favorite): He notes that he is not charging me for 8 hours of work that he did to putty between boards installed that were defective. For those of you that did not catch this point: He installed materials that were defective. Rather than remove them (or better yet not install them at all), and install flooring in spec, he has given me the "gift" of 8 hours of labor ($650!). Excuse me Dumb A$$... Why would you install defective material in the first place? Why not put aside the defective materials and use only the stuff that was good? Since he dragged the job out over the course of 18 days, you could argue that there was plenty of time to have replace the defective materials. Idiot. He just handed me a key admission: that he screwed up the job!!!

3. He has charged me for work he didn't do since his original quote had an item for installing 330 feet of shoe molding. He decided to only install 100 feet, yet he didn't make any deduction.

I will be working up a response, but he is expecting payment now.

Ok boys. What do you think I should do next?