RSE Home Improvements LLC, Ray Eimerman Horrendous Installation of Flooring, refusal to guarantee work despite a court order Palatine Illinois

RSE Home Improvements LLC and owner, Mr. Ray Eimerman did such a terrible job on a ceramic tile floor installation in our home, that a subsequent home inspection report by Anchor Inspections claims tripping hazards. Further Mr. Eimerman has taken our money and run, despite our best, legal and otherwise, efforts to resolve the situation.

In August of 2006, Mr. Eimerman, who had persistently pitched us on an installation of tile flooring in our kitchen, hallway, and three bathrooms for several months, was contracted to do the job. We paid in full for materials and labor and vacated our home for 5 days while the job proceeded.

Upon returning and inspecting the work done, we were very unsatisfied with both the actual installation plus a terrible mess that included excess materials swept into our vents. We were promised in the proposal that all construction dust would be removed and the house would be the same except for a new floor. We further ended up having a small flood due to the water line to the refrigerator being badly reconnected.

Within a month of the installation, grout broke apart and tiles began cracking due to the uneven and poorly applied mortaring and sub-floor.

Mr. Eimerman came back once and fixed, unsatisfactorily, one section of tile, then did not return calls and effectively abandoned his responsibility to us on the job.

We placed calls to Mr. Eimerman for almost a year, when it was finally decided by my wife and I to initiate Litigation against him. In a phone call previous to the filing, I actually spoke with Mr. Eimerman, who told me Go ahead and sue me.

On July 24, 2007, I filed a small claims complaint. At the first hearing on August 23, 2007, Mr. Eimerman showed up to the court just to make sure we had no jurisdiction as he had been ducking service of the summons.

We had to hire a private investigator to finally serve Mr. Eimerman. It took until September 29, 2007.

We were awarded a judgment on January 11, 2008. The judgment, for a refund plus damages was due to shoddy work on tile flooring by contractor Mr. Ray Eimerman owner of RSE Home Improvements. The judgment is a matter of public record: issued by The Hon. Judge Helen Rosenburg on case # 07 SC 5190 in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court of Lake County Illinois.

During the hearing, Ray Eimerman said that we had not paid him in full--I produced a signed receipt from him, acknowledging that we had paid in full. We had paid him the full amount on his urging and promise that despite the unsatisfactory job, he would be repairing all the problems immediately. He went on further to claim that I had forged this receipt and signature and had done the damage to the floor myself. The judge was clearly not impressed with his deceit-laden arguments. In my opinion, he committed perjury, and I said so, but the court did not pursue further action.

The court's award, now uncollected for over a year was in the amount of $7253.32. It remains unsatisfied as Mr. Eimerman refuses to be held accountable for poorly executed home improvement work. Mr. Eimerman also filed a motion to reconsider after the original judgment, which was rejected by the court on May 9, 2008 after several intentional delays filed by his attorney in hopes that we would give up.

It should also be known, Ray's/RSE attorney, also his sister, Rebecca M. Eimerman has proclaimed, "Ray is 'judgment proof' as he has no tangible assets."

Would you consider hiring a contractor who has no assets to back his work? He assured us he was licensed and bonded.

He now owes me another $725.33 to date as under Illinois law, I can collect up to 10% APR on debts from judgments.

This has been a long and tiresome process to try to replace/repair a floor installation done in August of 2006 by Ray Eimerman of RSE Home Improvements or "Big Ray" as he is known. By using this contractor, you take a significant risk of this happening to you.

Ray Eimerman still touts his "skills" publically despite this particular skeleton in his closet. Recently, Mr. Eimerman has begun advertising his services in the Yellow Pages and on a contractor finding service called Service Magic online. I have called Service Magic, in Colorado to state my grievances in hopes they won't tarnish their reputation by representing a contractor of Mr. Eimerman's character.

Further, Mr. Eimerman claims to be an authorized installer for Home Depot. I have had a conversation with the Vice President of Home Services for Home Depot who informed me that he is, in fact, a subcontractor. The VP then sent his Regional Director and the actual contractor to my home to inspect Mr. Eimerman's workneedless to say, they agreed with the findings of the court and offered to help me collect his debt, if needed. I may still take them up on this.

RSE/Ray Eimerman has also posted a website. The fluff on this site is very smooth. Here are two items, for example, on Mr. Eimerman's website that are direct contradictions to what you actually receive, when contracting RSE/Ray Eimerman:

(from the RSE website) "We understand that your home is your biggest investment in life and feel we should respect that and do everything in our power to maintain it. We take the approach that what if it was our house, do we want to be staring at a patch the didn't get sanded enough, or a poor tile job, or even paint streaks or roller tracks. Absolutely not. Nobody should have to."

The Judge's ruling, was based on factual evidence from photographs, home inspection reports and additional proposals to remove and replace Mr. Eimerman's work. Further as noted before, our house was left a messincluding waste swept into our vents. You should be concerned he could smoothly sell you on a job--then do this to you. He is a very nice guy and has an empathetic nature with peoplebut unless the job is done right the first time, do not expect satisfaction.

(from the RSE website) "All of our techs and service staff are checked for quality service and background before they enter your home. We don't have felons or drinkers or druggies on staff. If you are paying your hard earned money to someone, shouldn't it be to someone who isn't or wasn't a drain on society?"

In direct contradiction to the claim on the website, during our installation in 2006, several neighbors reported to me that they saw one of the installers drinking heavily in my garage. As mentioned, we had vacated our home for the installation so I did not see this, however, when we returned, there was at least a case worth of the discarded Busch Light beer cans in our garbage.

We spent hard earned money to make an improvement on our house. It was in good faith that we hired this contractor. Sadly RSE Home Improvements and its owner, Ray Eimerman talk a good game, but alas, Caveat Emptor, there is no substance or integrity beneath the surface. The experience we have had with Mr. Eimerman has made me very leery of the entire industry and we will certainly make sure we check references extensively before hiring any contractor in the future. People like this truly hurt honest, hard working people on a myriad of levels.

If anyone is interested in seeing photos of the job or copies of the reports or judgment, I will be happy to provide.

Tom
Round Lake, Illinois
U.S.A.