PHLAT TiLE CO

They say people look like their dogs. I don't see it.

Anyone who has been in business for 40 years has to have three things: Professionalism, Craftsmanship, and Customer Service.

I began my career in 1984, as a carpet installer. Early on I showed a natural gift for problem solving and the ability learn very quickly. After spending time under 7 different installers learning each of their different specialties I set out on my own journey.

As the word spread and my reputation grew, the calls coming in gradually funneled into strictly tile work and one day I woke up no longer a flooring installer, I had become a tile contractor. I didn't find tile; it found me.

I spent 23 years as the hard surface installer for Home Depot and Lowes thru contracts with Pro Carpet/Pro Floors of Mokena Il, , Crew2, Minneapolis MN, Andersons Installation Service, Sterling Heights, MI, and lastly Dave Gardener's Installation Services out of Detroit. ... Dave bid for the work seeing only dollar signs. Detroit is renowned for having the nations lowest labor rates among the 7000 or so Home Depot and Lowes stores. Dave thought he hit the jackpot, This market has the highest labor rates; he thought because he had guys up north who would work for 3 dollars we would here as well. Fort Wayne has not gone thru the issues Detroit has, nor does Detroit have a group of installers, mangers and sales people which had produced 11 installer of the year and 6 runner up awards (Lowes) and 18 top 3 VOC (Home Depot) , a group that had worked hard every day to keep their reputation and their labor rates among the highest in the country. Dave underbid, cut labor rates by 35% and ended up with 1 carpet installer, no managers and a group of sales people in the Lowes company who immediately lost all faith in their instillation service. Sales slowed to a record low, customer complaints shot to record highs, and in 7 months Dave was gone, not only losing the Fort Wayne contract but his Michigan contract with 70+ stores and $97,000,000.00 valuation as well, within 10 months Dave put over 70 employees and 300 subcontractors out of work, and was left with nothing, I shared this story with you for 2 reasons, first of all ego and greed have no place in a service business. Period. And more importantly you aren't going to get the top tier craftsman to work for cut throat wages. People who strive to be the best are not going to work for the same rate your local handyman is. You can be like Dave and expect people to work for what YOU think is fair or you can get estimates from several people, toss out the highest and the lowest and find a happy medium with as good installer. Dave didn't like his results. Will you?

If you're like me you don't have time for nonsense. Sites claiming to show you how much a shower should cost are not trying to save you money, They are selling data, and you are providing it Their privacy policies all say the same thing: 1) They will sell / share your data. 2) They will track your internet use. 3) They will not follow any do not call registry.

This is why I built my Shower Estimate Engine.