Walstad Tile & Stone

Walstad Tile & Stone was the subcontractor to be used by Knight Construction Design, Inc. for a home remodel project of mine. It sickens me to read the 01÷20÷12 Unilocal review on Walstad’s because it brings back such bad, bad memories & the hopelessness experienced when we dealt with the Knight company & some of their subcontractors.
Walstad was to install tile flooring for a 6×8 bathroom — part of the larger remodel by Knight. No one from Knight was going to be at my home to direct the guy from Walstad’s, so I had to arrange for the time off work to be at home. The Walstad’s guy arrived not knowing anything about the job he was supposed to do that day & so was not prepared for the work. My day off work was wasted. It was one of many for me & my husband. Knight proved irresponsible for properly managing our project.
Before this day with Walstad’s, Knight had given me a Change Order to sign charging me an exorbitant price, the equivalent of $ 40.00 per sq. ft., for the labor alone. I had already paid & transported the tile, bought the grout, & sealer — still have the receipts.
I should not have had to do any of that. Flooring was included in the contract price, but Knight was wanting to rewrite the contract, up the price considerably, provide far less labor & materials, and disregard their legal obligation to fulfill the contract that they signed with me several months earlier. Knight had already taken a disproportionate amount of money for the little work & materials that we had received within that time period.
I don’t blame Walstad’s for the way Knight was handling the overall project, but Walstad’s did bid on the job knowing nothing about it, came to the house ill-​prepared, didn’t even think to call Knight with questions, was unapologetic about wasting my day, & could only fixate on the amount Knight was trying to charge me for their services. The guy literally took a step back with eyes & mouth wide open. It was comical for a brief second.
I loss tens of thousands of dollars having to take legal action against Knight Construction Design, Inc. for their mismanagement of my project work & project money, plus the added cost to demolish their work & start the remodel from scratch with another company. In the end, I am very happy with the work Castle Gate Construction did for me.
From what I experienced of Walstad’s, and after reading another customer’s review of Walstad’s on Angie’s List — they threw Walstad’s out, because their work was so poor, much like the first review by Alison B. on Unilocal,I am glad that I never had more dealings with Walstad Tile & Stone Company — birds of a feather…
*** 2014:
Read another nightmare review about this company off Angie’s List. Much the same nightmare as others posted there & on Unilocal.This last reviewer stated that Walstad’s is now out-​of-​business. Would like to know what work they are into now. If you know, please, post this information. Changing a name does not mean a change of heart.

I have been in a battle with these people for over a year now with regards to a countertop fabrication and installation. These people are the master of excuses and don’t even begin to stand behind their work.
When the guy came out to measure, I told him to use the existing countertops as the exact template for the new countertops, including the corner radiuses. I gave him a picture of the exact edge detail I wanted. I told them exactly where I wanted the faucet placed and the soap pump. They came out and removed the existing counters and tore out the old tile backsplash like animals, leaving almost no drywall remaining (which they told me is totally normal– I just renovated an entire house where we took out about 1000 sf of tile and had minimal drywall repair because they broke the tiles rather than trying to pry whole tiles off the wall as fast as possible). When they put the new counters on, they were completely wrong. Not only were the corners not at all what we ordered, the soap pump was put about 18″ from the faucet at a spot where it almost doesn’t get the soap into the sink. You have to put the pan right underneath it so it doesn’t land on the counter and it just hangs out in its own little world. We were also charged $ 300 for a «Cooktop cutout» when in fact they chose to not do a cutout, but rather put little rails in the front and back of the cooktop (which looks horrible, doesn’t line up and the epoxy that they use is dull on the polished granite. Don’t worry though, the epoxy fell out so now there is a loose rail with a big open seam!) When I mentioned this, he said they always do it that way so as to not risk the stone cracking. I would have to think that a little potential cracking is a worthy risk to not have big gaps and seams on the counter. Then he told me it was the fault of the cooktop (standard size and lighter than usual because it is induction) is so large. Then he told me that the excessive heat from the cooktop is why the epoxy came out. I explained that induction cooktops don’t produce heat at all and that if the epoxy that they use every time can’t stand the heat of the cooktop, shouldn’t they then have just risked the stone cracking and done an ACTUAL cutout? Then I was told that because I used existing cabinets, rather than getting new that this was also a problem. Really? The cabinets are solid oak cabinets in perfect condition with no warping or gaps. And furthermore– can they only do a job correctly if it is done on new construction homes?
The island granite was not even ready on the installation day, which turned out to be ok since the corners were done wrong and needed to be redone (again, we showed them the EXACT corner radius we wanted) and a WEEK later, they returned to put the counters on– STILL WRONG! At this point we just accepted them as the kitchen had been completely torn up for over a week. The island at this point was still not ready which they didn’t let us know until hours after they were supposed to have arrived. Oh, did I forget to mention that EVERY appointment we had with them they were HOURS late to? In addition to all of this, they were so careless with the way the templates were laid out on the stone that every weird spot on the granite (I understand it is a natural product and that some weird spots are normal) are in the most prominent spots possible. I am an interior designer and all of my fabricators where I live are careful enough to point out if there is a weird spot and ask me how I want it laid out to ensure I am happy.
With each complaint and problem, we have been told that WE did not communicate clearly and have been given excuse after excuse ranging from the stone is soft (I am sorry but when did granite, one of the hardest materials on the planet, become soft?), they cut corners in order to save me money (didn’t ask for money savings, just a job well done), I was not clear when I gave them an exact template and a picture of my edge details and that their job was well within acceptable limits. If this is acceptable business practices to them, they may want to rethink their business model.
The never ending bs and excuses of these people is beyond exhausting and I would love to just get this settled and never, ever deal with them again.