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Warranty and Aftercare
The end of a remodel is not the end of the relationship. Some things need correcting, and some things are the house doing what houses here do. This page explains the difference, what we stand behind, and how to reach us.
- Licensed & Insured
- 20+ years remodeling
- Houston metro
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The short answer
When the work is done we walk the job with you and build a punch list, then close it out. Workmanship issues are ours to correct. Materials carry their own manufacturer warranties. Caulk, grout and seasonal movement are maintenance, not defects. The terms for your project are written into your scope. Call (281) 235-6971.
The walk-through and the punch list
A punch list is the written list of everything left to finish or correct at the end of a job. It is not a complaint, and it is not a sign the project went badly. Every project has one.
Here is how it works. When the work is substantially complete, we walk the whole job with you, in daylight, with the lights on and the space cleaned enough to actually see. You point at things. We write all of them down, without arguing about any single item in the moment. Small things belong on it: a touch-up at a return, a cabinet door that needs adjusting, a switch plate sitting proud of the wall, a caulk line that wants a second pass, a drawer that catches.
Then the list gets sorted by what each item needs. Some are a return trip by one trade. Some wait on a replacement part being shipped. Some need a material to cure or the room to settle before they can be corrected properly, and doing those too early only means doing them twice.
The list stays open until it is closed. You get the written version, so you are not tracking it from memory and nothing quietly falls off it.
The other thing that walk-through does is separate the punch list from the care list. Some of what you notice is not a defect at all. It is how the material behaves. Knowing which is which at the start saves everyone a call later.
Workmanship, or the house moving
The distinction that matters after a remodel is between something built wrong and something behaving normally. They can look similar at first, especially in this climate.
Workmanship is ours. A tile that sounds hollow because it was not fully bedded. A cabinet run that is out of level. A drawer binding because the box is racked. A shower pan holding water at the wrong end. A door that never closed properly. A finish applied over surfaces that were not prepared. Those are installation issues, we come back, and we correct them. You should not have to argue for that or prove anything.
Material movement is a different thing. Your house sits on a slab on clay that swells and shrinks with the weather, and the air here carries moisture most of the year. Wood takes that moisture on and gives it back. So a solid wood door can bind in a humid stretch and swing clear when the air dries out. A hairline can show in grout along a line where the floor flexes. Caulk at a change of plane can part slightly. A wood floor can open small seasonal gaps in the dry part of the year and close them again. A panelled cabinet door can show a thin unfinished line where the centre panel shrank inside its frame.
None of that means the work failed. It means the assembly is moving the way it was built to move. What matters is whether it is within normal range, and that is a question to ask us rather than sit on.
Manufacturer warranty versus what the installer covers
Two different promises cover a finished remodel, and they cover different things.
The manufacturer covers the product. A faucet cartridge, a dishwasher, a range, a water heater, an engineered floor, a quartz slab, a cabinet finish: each comes with the maker’s own warranty, on the maker’s terms, and those terms vary a lot between brands. Manufacturer coverage usually depends on the product being installed to their written instructions, and for some appliances and heaters on being registered and maintained. Keep the paperwork. We hand over model and serial information at the end of the job so it is in one place.
The installer covers the installation. That is the labour, the substrate preparation, the waterproofing, the fastening, the setting, the alignment and the connections. In this trade, a workmanship warranty is a written commitment from the contractor to come back and correct defects in the work itself for a defined period. It normally excludes damage from misuse, from work done later by someone else, from events outside the contractor’s control, and from ordinary wear and maintenance.
The two overlap in one place worth understanding. When a product fails, the replacement part usually comes from the manufacturer, and the labour to fit it is a separate question. Ask how that is handled before you buy, not after.
Our approach is to put all of it in writing. The coverage, the period and the exclusions for your job are set out in the scope for your project, so they sit in the same document as the work itself.
Why caulk and grout are maintenance items
This is the most common misunderstanding after a bathroom or a kitchen, so it is worth being plain about.
Caulk is a flexible joint. It goes where two different materials meet or where a surface changes direction: tile to tub, counter to backsplash, base to floor, the inside corners of a shower. Those are exactly the places where movement concentrates. Caulk is used there because it flexes so the tile does not have to. Flexible materials fatigue. Caulk at a wet inside corner will eventually part, discolour or pick up mildew, and when it does, the fix is to cut it out and lay a fresh bead. That is upkeep, the same as changing a filter.
Grout is the opposite. It is cementitious and rigid, it fills between tiles, and it is not waterproof by itself. The waterproofing in a shower is the membrane behind the tile. Grout is a wearing surface. In hard water, which is what comes out of the tap here, it picks up mineral deposit and stains, and a hairline can appear at a stress point.
What is not maintenance: grout crumbling out in quantity, a long crack that runs straight across a floor, tile that sounds hollow, or water showing up where it should not. Those point at the assembly underneath rather than the joint, and they are worth a call.
Sealing helps with staining and does nothing about movement. Reseal when water stops beading on the grout.
Stone, hard water, and honed versus polished
Houston water is hard. That is a mineral load, not a cleanliness problem, and it changes how stone and glass look between cleanings.
Polished stone has a reflective surface. It shows water spots, film and streaks readily, and it shows etching more obviously. Honed stone has a matte surface. It hides water spotting and light scratching much better, and it shows oil and fingerprints more. Neither is better. They fail visually in opposite directions, which is why the choice matters more here than it would in a dry climate.
Marble and other calcium-based stones etch. An acid, which includes lemon, vinegar, wine, tomato and plenty of bathroom cleaners, dissolves a microscopic amount of the surface and leaves a dull mark. That is not a stain and it is not a coating failure. It is the stone reacting, and no sealer prevents it. Sealer resists staining, which is a liquid absorbing into the stone. It does nothing about acid.
Quartz behaves differently again. It does not need sealing, but the resin in it does not like heat, so a pan straight off the burner can mark it permanently.
Day to day the routine is simple. Wipe spills instead of letting them sit. Use a pH-neutral cleaner rather than a general purpose spray. Squeegee glass shower doors after use, because the mineral film that builds there is far easier to prevent than to remove. Keep felt under anything that slides across a stone counter.
Cabinets, tile, and movement joints
Plywood cabinet boxes are what we prefer here, and the reason is humidity rather than snobbery. Particleboard is fine while it is dry and sealed. Once water gets past the edge banding, under a sink, behind a dishwasher, at a toe kick, it swells and does not come back. Plywood tolerates the same event and can usually be dried out.
Plywood is not immune. Water sitting under a sink still does damage, so a weeping supply connection or a leaking disposal is worth catching early. Look under your sinks now and then. Doors and drawer fronts also shift slightly with the seasons and can drift out of alignment. Hinges and undermount slides are adjustable, and that adjustment is normal upkeep rather than a defect. Clean the boxes with a damp cloth and dry them. Avoid oil soaps and anything solvent based on a finished door.
Tile floors here need somewhere to move. A tile field bonded to a slab that expands and contracts has to be able to relieve that stress, so the field gets a soft joint at the perimeter, at changes of substrate, at doorways, and at intervals across large runs. Those joints are filled with a flexible material instead of grout, and they will look slightly different from the grout lines around them. That is deliberate. Left out or grouted over, the field has nowhere to go and relieves the stress by cracking or lifting instead.
If a movement joint starts to fail, tell us. It is doing its job, and it is meant to be renewable.
When to call, when to wait, and how to reach us
Call straight away, without waiting, for anything involving water or safety.
- A leak, or a stain that is spreading.
- A shower letting water through to the room next to it or below it.
- A drain that backs up.
- Anything electrical that is warm, arcing, or tripping repeatedly.
- A gas smell, which is a call to your utility first and to us after.
Also call for anything that looks like the assembly moving as a whole: tile sounding hollow over a large area, a crack running in a long straight line, a cabinet run pulling away from the wall, or a door that has gone from binding to not latching at all.
Wait and watch, through one turn of the weather, for the small cosmetic things that track the season. A door that binds only in the humid months. A hairline in caulk at an inside corner. Small seasonal gaps in a wood floor. Take a dated photograph so you can compare later. If it returns to normal when the weather turns, it was movement. If it keeps getting worse across the year, it is something else, and then it is a call.
Either way, you are not bothering us by asking. It is far easier to look at something small than to unwind something that grew.
MS Home Remodeling, 1530 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston TX 77077. Call (281) 235-6971. Licensed and insured, with more than twenty years of remodeling experience.
Common questions
What is a punch list?
It is the written list of everything left to finish or correct at the end of a job. We walk the whole project with you in good light, write down everything you point at, then sort it by what each item needs. Some are a return trip, some wait on a part, some need a material to cure first. You get the list in writing, and it stays open until it is closed.
There is a hairline crack in my grout. Is that a defect?
Usually not on its own. Grout is rigid and the slab underneath moves with the seasons, so a hairline at a stress point is common here. What concerns us is grout crumbling out in quantity, a long crack running straight across the floor, tile that sounds hollow, or water appearing where it should not. Those point at the assembly rather than the joint. Send a photo and we will look.
How long is your workmanship warranty?
We do not publish a term, because coverage is set for each project and belongs in that project’s paperwork. The period, what it covers and what it excludes are written into the scope you sign, so it sits in the same document as the work itself. Ask about it before you sign rather than after, and read the exclusions. If anything in it is unclear, we will explain it.
An appliance you installed stopped working. Who do I call?
The manufacturer first, for the product itself. Appliances, faucets and water heaters carry the maker’s own warranty on their terms, and some require registration. We hand over model and serial information at the end of the job so it is in one place. If the problem turns out to be the installation rather than the product, that is ours. Call us and we will help work out which it is.
How often should I reseal stone and grout?
There is no fixed schedule, because it depends on the material and how hard the surface is used. The practical test is water. Put a few drops on the surface, and if it stops beading and darkens the stone or grout instead, it is time. Sealer resists staining. It does not stop etching on marble and it does not stop movement, so it is no substitute for wiping spills.
Related reading
- Living Through a Remodel
- How We Work: From First Call to Handover
- Humidity, Hard Water and Choosing Materials That Last Here
- About MS Home Remodeling
Services this applies to
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Tell us the room and the goal. We measure on site, look at the slab and the existing rough-in, then quote.
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We look at the slab, the existing rough-in and the room, then give you a scope you can compare against any other bid.
MS Home Remodeling · 1530 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77043 · (281) 235-6971