Services Provided
Install baseboard and shoe moulding for our entire house
Experience and Good Comments
Longer baseboards are often preferable, as they reduce the number of seams on long walls. However, long baseboards are hard to transport too. Pickup trucks often have 8-foot long beds, but baseboards can go as long as 16 feet. I wasn't sure how to secure those baseboards on a truck. So I call Mr. Guan for help, and he agreed, although he would only get paid by the length of baseboard he installs (he charges $3 per foot).
When we arrived at The Home Depot, I found all trucks and vans are rented out, and I was the 4th in the wait list of trucks and 1st of vans. The tools rental lady explained that vans actually had longer beds than trucks, with 11 feet in total, but she was not sure when the van would be back. So Mr. Guan and I have to wait there. I felt so sorry that I suggested to come back after lunch. However, Mr. Guan insisted to wait. He said it didn't worth the trouble of going back and forth. It turned out that he was right. The van became available a few minutes later.
When we arrived at home, it was already lunch time. I invited Mr. Guan to join us for lunch. He turned down our invitation, and said that he brought his lunch. So he started painting the baseboard before lunch.
He is experienced and very quick at cutting and installing baseboards. He also fixed some problems caused by my mistakes when I was installing the laminate floor myself.
Mr. Guan repetitively encourage me to do some home improvement projects myself and only call contractors on harder projects. He is willing to give advises to other projects we are planning.
Not-So-Good Comments
He didn't fill many nail holes on the basedboard until I pointed out. To be fair, the light was not so good at some corners and he may not have as good sight as young people. As I can easily fill the nail holes myself, and most of them are inconspicuous, I am not too worried about them.
He has a very strong Cantonese accent, and not very good at Mandarin, even less at English. It's not very easy to understand what he says if you don't already know what's involved in the project.
