Home Depot North Brampton Location - Demonstration from Tile Expert in the Store

Home Depot North Brampton Location in Brampton, Ontario, Canada

I, to my demise took the advice of the person demonstrating how to apply

tile.

I was retiling my bathroom. I was diligent in getting the entire old tile

off the floor and had also removed the toilet. It was a massive job for one

senior. Being a rookie I went to Home Depot where there was someone

demonstrating tiling, his name was Domenic. He was very helpful. I showed

him the tile that I was using and told him I was putting it on the floor in

my washroom. It was not purchased from Home Depot. I was using natural

stone, River Rock. He commented that it was very nice. He was actually

just finishing a training session in the main lobby of the North Brampton,

Ontario location; he walked me through all the procedures, showed me the

consistency of the grout and assisted me in getting the right tools and

product which he placed in my cart. He is the only one who does the demos

at the North Brampton location. He had lots of experience and spent a lot

of time tutoring me. I went home and started by putting the thin-set down

and laying the tiles. I waited 24 hours for it to dry. I went back to the

store to buy another box of the unsanded grout that Domenic had previously

assisted me with. I wanted to make sure that I didn't run out midway

through my project. I mixed the grout, as per Domenic's instructions and

started applying. I followed the instructions on the box for grouting, some

how it didn't look right. It wouldn't stay in the cracks. The grout wouldn't

fill in the cracks. I went into panic mode and then went to look up

information on the net. It was there that I discovered that any cracks

wider than 1/8th of an inch require sanded grout, my cracks were

considerably larger than that. I further found that tiles on the floor

should actually use sanded grout because it makes it stronger. I ran back

to my box of grout to see if that is what I had. I almost died. The

computer revealed that I should have been using the sanded grout because I

had a lot of areas that were much larger than 1/8 of an inch wide. I would

say an inch in most areas.

I called Home Depot and they transferred me to someone in the tile

department. I pretended that I was just calling for general information,

described my situation to the guy and ask the guy what kind of grout I

should use. He told me the only grout for that job is the sanded kind. I

then proceeded to enlighten him to what happened and he quickly referred me

to the manager. I can't remember his name. The manager said that he

wanted to talk to Domenic and find out what happened. I never heard from

him and called the store again, this time getting Dan the assistant manager.

Dan seemed to be the most understanding. He told me that they could replace

the tile and give me the supplies to do the tiling over again but that they

could not remove the tiles because they don't have that kind of service. I

said what about the contractors that work for Home Depot. He said they

actually are an individual business. I said I would like to be put back to

where I was when I started and that was no tile on the floor and the product

to finish the job. Dan told me that he would have the right person contact

me. He said the manager won't be in tomorrow blah blah blah. I had to

wait several days for a response. I then called again and the assistant

manager told me he would find the right person and have her call me. I

finally had to call her. Her name was Mary. I had told her that there were

a few little cracks and the product looked a little recessed. The area that

were about 1/8th of an inch were fine.

She went into detail of using the right sponge etcetera; I informed her that

I knew I had the right sponge. She said using the wrong sponge would cause

blah blah blah. I looked up on the net to find out what happens when you

use the wrong grout, it clearly stated the grout would shrink and crack.

Mary, the manager of the tiling section asked if my mixture looked like

peanut butter I said no it didn't. I said Domenic has some there that he

showed me the correct consistency. He said I want it to look just like

this. She again, went back to I had used the product incorrectly. I invited

them to come and view the results so that they could see for themselves and

then judge. She said, no they could not do that. They further stated that

since they did not put the tile down that they were not responsible.

I bought the product because of their recommendations I thought I was

talking to an expert who was demonstrating in the store, what would you

think? I feel they should have put me back to where I was before using the

wrong product, meaning, I wanted them to remove my tile, give me new tile

and then replace the additional product with the correct sanded grout and

enough thin-set to apply to the existing tile. She said the best that she

could do was to offer me a grouting tool and enough grout to finish the job.

Doing this would be horrific, it would take weeks to achieve the correct

results with the little 3 dollar grouting tool on a floor with large gaps.

I live in a condo and have been without a toilet for several weeks. I have

been using the facilities in the lobby. I asked if she knew what that was

like and she said yes. I needed some help quickly. I then told her that I

would be taking them to court and she told me to stop threatening her. I

said I'm not threatening you I and just informing you.

She made sure she was on track with her advice by putting me on hold and

talking with a couple of other managers. When she came back to the phone

she said yes that was the best that she could do.

My opinion is this, if I use the wrong product there is no way no matter

what I do that I can get the right results. Mary seemed to constantly block

that knowledge out and consistently fed back to me that I mixed the mixture

incorrectly.

I am trying to fix my condo up so that I can sell it. I am missing the

spring market. I have no toilet. What I'm left with is impossible for me

to fix. I went to the bathroom and tried to remove a bit of the tile. One

thing is for sure that the thin-set is working fine. This problem looks

like it's going to take time to resolve.

I need a solution; I need Home Depot to own the responsibility of what

happened.

I am contacting you to hopefully get a solution. The fact is if this guy

doesn't know what he is doing, then he shouldn't be doing the demonstrations

offering people bad advice.

Regards

Patricia