I have been doing this long enough to know what people are actually worried about when they hire a contractor, and it is almost never the tile.
It is that you will not know when the work starts. That it will drag on and nobody will tell you why. That something will fail in eight months and the guy will not pick up. That you will call and text and get nothing back for a week.
Those are fair worries. If you read the complaints filed against contractors in Franklin County, that is most of them. So here is what I do about it, in writing, on every job.
1. A start date and a finish date, on the estimate
Your written estimate has the day I start and the day I expect to finish. Not "four to six weeks." An actual date.
Ohio has required start and finish dates in writing on remodeling contracts over $25,000 since January 1st of 2025, so this is the law, but you would not know it from looking at what most contractors hand you. I put it on every job regardless of the size.
Two things that go with it. First, if something is going to push that finish date, you hear it from me before you notice it yourself, and you get a new date and the reason. Weather, a material backorder and an inspection hold are all real. Going quiet is not. Second, anything that changes the scope or the price gets written up as a change order with a number on it, and I do not do the work until you sign it. You will never open an invoice and find a surprise on it.
2. Two years on my workmanship
If something I built or installed fails because of how it was done, I come back and fix it at no charge, for two years from the day the job is finished.
What that covers
Framing, drywall and finish work, tile and grout, trim and carpentry, doors and hardware I installed, paint, flooring installation, and the installation of fixtures and equipment. Anything that fails because of how I did it.
What it does not cover
Normal wear and tear. Damage from something else, like a leak from a source I did not install, or a foundation issue, or an appliance failure. Settling and hairline cracks in drywall and grout, which happen in every house in Ohio as it goes through a heating season. Anything you or someone else modified after I left. Materials you supplied yourself.
Materials are separate
Your flooring, fixtures, appliances and windows come with their own manufacturer warranties, which are usually longer than mine. I hand you all of that paperwork at the end of the job and I will help you make a claim if you need to.
How to use it
Call me or send me a text. Tell me what is happening and send a photo if you can. I will come look. That is the entire process.
I picked two years on purpose. Almost every workmanship problem that is going to show up shows up in the first winter, when the house dries out and moves, and the first summer, when it swells back. Two years covers both, twice.
3. I answer the same business day
Call me, text me or email me on a business day and you get an answer from me that day.
Not from an office, not from a scheduler, from me. If I am in the middle of a tile install and I cannot talk, you will still get a text back telling you when I can.
I know how low a bar that sounds like. It is not. Go read the reviews of contractors in this town and count how many say "he stopped answering." That is the single most common complaint there is, and it is the easiest thing in the world to fix.
Why any of this matters
None of this makes me a better carpenter. What it does is take the three things you cannot control and put them in writing so you do not have to worry about them.
If another contractor will put the same three things in writing, hire whoever does the better work. I just have not met one around here who will.