Martin Blake came to our home in response to a query on Magic. We were looking only to do exterior rot repair. He appeared very polite, and professional in some ways. We discussed with him that we were also thinking about painting parts of the interior and about tiling in the kitchen and family room. He asked us what our budget was. After giving him our budget, he proceeded to write an estimate for all of the work we were planning at the time. He told us that we would need to purchase tile for about $1.25 per square foot to stay within that estimate and if we chose more expensive tile, the price would reflect that. He included $600 in his estimate for the tiles. I told Martin that I knew that tile is difficult to do, and that it had taken me a long time to be willing to tile the family room too. <strong>He assured us that his general manager Dave was a tile expert and would be the one doing the tile work and that it would be beautiful. </strong> Martin told us that the reason he could do it for less was that if we agreed to do all of the work at one time, his crew would not have to run back and forth to Lowes, wasting time and gas. He said his crew would be at our house, working both inside and outside at the same time, and that they could start at the beginning of the next week and be done within 10 days, as I was having family company coming then. The crew came over at the beginning of the next week. The two primary painters did a very good job. (They have both quit since because they were not being paid for most of the time they put in and were called to put in.) <br /> When they were done painting the family room and kitchen, Dave was supposed to begin the tile work. One of the painters, Victor, took up the carpet in the living room and informed us that the outside crew and Dave had been called away to do a big job in Pennsylvania, and that Dave and Martin had said that he, Victor, would be responsible for doing the tiling. VIctor was an excellent painter who had done a little tile work, for his own house and relatives. I tried to call Martin and Dave called me back telling me Victor would do an excellent job, not to worry. <br /> When Victor went to get the tiles, we were informed that we needed to pay for the tiles because Martin could not be reached immediately to pay for them. We paid the $600 to Lowes, and Victor discovered the tiles were all broken. The $600 went back into Martin's account instead of ours. We went back to Lowes to choose different tiles and chose a much more expensive, glazed porcelain tile. Both painters were at Lowes with us at the time. Because they did not have the tiles we chose at the particular Lowes, a Lowes employee called other Lowes stores and found 2 stores which together had enough tile. No one told us that the tiles could be significantly different from the two different stores. (A tile expert would have known about that.) <br /> Martin, the contractor has been totally unwilling to even answer a phone call from us. He ignored a letter from us. Dave attemped to help us to be happy with the work. He wanted to make Lowes responsible for the whole problem. We feel it is Executive Paint and Contracting who are responsible, for agreeing to do tile work they are not licensed to do, and clearly do not have the expertise to do large areas of large tile 18 x 18 which is what he told us to go with, in a diamond pattern. We are now getting the family room tile removed and having hardwood flooring put in. We are considering taking Martin Blake to small claims court. Dave tried to help us to feel better by giving us homemade pens. Martin Blake is totally unprofessional. <br />