A & L Tile

Cesar was referred to me by California Flooring and Design where I picked out some tile. He is completely unprofessional. When he came over to look at my kitchen in my rental condo to see the tile floor that I wanted to replace he spent the first 15 minutes talking to his lawyer on the phone about trouble he is having with regulators. Then he talked to me about how they’re all over him and that he’s had to throw them out of his office before. That was my first sign but I gave him the benefit of the doubt because he seemed to know what he was talking about when he finally started looking at my tile floor.
When I got the estimate a few days later (not that day like he had told me) it said «bathroom» instead of «kitchen» and had my name completely wrong. I think attention to detail is important in someone working on your home but I let it go.
I don’t really have much time to get a lot of estimates since I don’t live or work anywhere near the condo, so when I decided to just go ahead and get the work done since I already had the tile picked out, I called him to schedule and he couldn’t remember who I was or what the job was at all. He came back to the condo with the tenants there to refresh his memory and he never followed up with me after, so when i called him later to see how it went he wouldn’t return my call after I left a voice message. The next day I texted him to follow up to see how it went and if he wanted to schedule the job and he just replied «No.».
As rude, forgetful, and unprofessional as he was, i’m extremely glad he didn’t take the job as I’m sure it would have been a nightmare from there!
P. S. — I’m a long time Unilocal user when picking things out but first time poster/​reviewer, this incident was bad enough to make me finally sign up to post a review.

My husband mostly dealt with A&L Tile and had a terrible experience. These were his thoughts:
Not impressed with their work.
— Holes for the faucet were drilled off-​center to the sink (see picture)
— Undermount sink was loosely installed using two strips of plywood to hold it up (see picture)
— The gap between the sink and the counter was visible (due to loose installation), and their solution was to just add more caulk, and that the caulk would hold up the sink once it dries. The caulk line was completely visible following their installation, and it looked terrible.
— When installing the countertop, they wedged it in between the wall and the tall cabinet, causing the frame of the adjacent tall cabinet to bow in the middle and split from its adjacent cabinet. (see picture).
For solutions:
— I had to re-​drill the holes for the faucet and get a faucet set that had bases large enough to cover the now larger holes.
— I had to remount the sink by myself (I didn’t trust them to do it again after seeing their original work).
— I had to disassemble my tall cabinet front and grind down the edge of the counter so that it didn’t bow in and have a large uneven gap.
When I had Ceasar over to my house to show him the terrible work, he didn’t have anything to say and he didn’t offer any solutions. I’m assuming that’s because he knew they’d screwed up bad. They were the cheapest bid, and it only goes to show that you get what you pay for. After paying hundreds of dollars for a job, I expect it to be done well. I don’t expect to have to fix the errors of a so-​called professional contractor. I would never recommend them to anybody, nor would I use them again, even if they are the cheapest rate.

A & L Tile installed granite in my kitchen 4 months ago. Saw an ad on craigslist for slabs of granite for 300 dollars. Caesar quoted me 1600 for the job. In the end the job cost me 3500 not including all the money I have had to spend fixing their leftover work. When they removed the prior kitchen back splash… they DESTROYED the walls and left them destroyed. Large holes were left in my kitchen wall as the crew drove off without any worry for the damage they left. I ended up having to pay someone else 300 dollars to fix my walls. They also left a mess around my fireplace where they removed tile and replaced it with granite. They also left electrical outlets hanging out of the walls on the island. The granite is now too think that it’s not a simple fix. So I will have to probably pay someone else to fix it. I think the icing on the cake was that the «stainless steal» sink that I purchased through them for over a 100 dollars began to rust after only having it for a month. I contacted Caesar, and he asked to see pictures… I sent them… and never heard back. It’s unprofessional how they left my home destroyed and discarded my issues to the side. I was hoping to have found a quality tile company in San Diego to help with the kitchen flooring and bathroom projects that I hoped to begin… but instead found a company that did a poor job and doesn’t care about the customer.

Attention to detail! Cesar and his crew did an awesome job with a difficult granite fabrication on expensive material for our island. It is perfect. Very knowledgeable, friendly, and fair on pricing.

My husband hired A&L Tile to match existing countertops at a high-​end restaurant in the La Jolla /​UTC area. Cesar required an upfront deposit for materials, which was fine. As soon as they received the deposit, the work was scheduled right away. They had the black absolute granite installed on time and did an excellent job.
We look forward to working with this company again.

Recently we had our kitchen remodeled and had plywood installed on countertop (from a different contractor) ready for granich stone to be installed. Read up on A&L, stopped by for a visit. Cesar showed me their inventory and was straight forward on pricing, I showed him the measurements I had and he was able to quote me a price on the spot with the stone that I wanted. My mistake was that I left with the stone color I had in mind, came back 2 days later ready to write up a check, but the stone had been SOLD!!! Luckily there was another one that I liked and wrote the check on the spot to have it saved for me. Cesar stopped by my house that same day I paid for the stone slab to make out the exact template for stone measurements. NO extra pricing was thrown at me, he stayed with the same price he quoted me. Gave me the date the stone was going to be installed and that was what happen. Installers stopped by on the date I was promised, completed their work perfectly!!! They had to remove my overtop sink to cut a hole in the stone to install the sink back in… PERFECT INSTALL!!! the installers claimed that they don’t work on plumbing BUT looks like they did anyways because they installed everything back in, NO WATER LEAKS, NO OTHER ISSUES. I highly recommend this business for kitchen stone countertop install. If you do visit this place, and like the stone you want for your kitchen, I recommend buying the stone slab on the spot, because it might get sold that same day!!! I like the way Cesar did business with me, he only charged for the stone slab, then allowed me as a customer to PAY the rest ONLY after the installers have completed their work and only if I was totally satisfied!!! which I was. Hope this review helps…

I had a rather unpleasant experience with A&L tile:
1. A&L Tile committed to do the job in a certain timeframe
2. During the estimate process the owner did not point out that I would have to remove the mirrors, find the vendor to do that and pay him directly. The owner also told me that they could do a certain cut on my tile, but later the installer told me that its impossible.
3.The installer walked out of the job without telling me and A&L was not able to complete on time, as they had to find a replacement.
4. The owner did not have the decency to call and apologise for ruining my schedule and did not make any attempts.
I must admit that the quality of work is superior. However, the service is unacceptable.

Nearly 10 years ago, we used Cesar to install our versaille patterned, pillow top travertine flooring in our new home. We had just purchased our home and at the time were living up in the bay area. I can’t remember how we found him but he ended up being the most amazing find… to this day, we firmly believe this.
Since we were up north, we were not able to oversee the day-​to-​day construction of the new house. We selected the materials on our own but Cesar was left to navigate everything without us present; picking up the materials and doing the install etc. I remember coming down to visit on a weekend when it was all done and seeing the flooring for the first time… we were blown away! By far, the BEST decision we made with our home. We were so pleased with how it came out and always remembered his professionalism, workmanship – and how easy he was to work with. While we really did appreciate, It wasn’t until a few years later did we realize how lucky we really were to have chosen Cesar.
After all these years, we LOVE our flooring and feel it was worth every hard earned penny spent. Every vendor or contractor that has ever come through our home, has always commented «…whoever installed our flooring, did a really good job». For another contractor to pay another a compliment, meant a lot. We knew we were pleased but it means so much when their peers also feel the same. Absolutely no corners were cut. In one bathroom where we installed a different material, he suggested we do a diamond pattern which turned out fabulous and makes a huge difference. The flooring really pops.
Over the years, we misplaced his folder and contact information and unfortunately, lost touch with him. Fast forward to present day.
When remodeling one of our guest bathrooms, the contractor we hired made a comment about our flooring. We started to rave about Cesar and amazingly, our contractor knew who Cesar was. We were shocked. Long story short… we got in touch with Cesar and hired him again to do more work at our house – and who also did all the fabrication work for the kitchen, master bath and guest room granite that we installed at my MIL’s house recently. =) We are so glad that we’ve reconnected with him after all these years… and more importantly, I’m so glad his business survived the downturn.
Just like he was nearly 10 years ago… a very honest, hardworking and truly talented individual, he is the same today. For his company to survive the housing bust and crazy economic times, is a true testament to his work ethic and skill. He has a great reputation in the industry… and that goes a long way with us.

I am extremely pleased with the service that I received from everyone at A & L Tile. This was my first time doing any kind of major remodel in my kitchen, replacing the tile with granite and installing a new sink and fixtures. I shopped for granite and spoke to 4 different fabricators. Two of the three came in at the same price, one was higher, and Cesar at A & L Tile was significantly lower. He also was the ONLY one who offered to get me a better price on the granite cost, a significant reduction of about 35%!! The lower cost for product along with the reduced granite cost allowed me to afford exactly what I wanted. I was concerned about quality of work going with the lowest bidder. I had no reason to be. I visited the shop to help the fabricator layout the template exactly as I wanted it on my one piece of granite. despite the language issue, his craftsmanship exceeded my expectation. The installers did a fantastic job, there is only one very small seam, hardly visible and the way the stone was cut really magnifies the beauty of the granite. You can”t go wrong using A & L Tile for your granite work. Even my handiman who works in many high end houses in Rancho Santa Fe complimented the work and said «you got a deal»!