Looking for advice, both from customer perspective and contractor perspective. We want to be fair and reasonable but not sure how to proceed. We are aware that if there is a problem with a contractors work, you are supposed to give them a fair chance to come back and fix it. We’ve done that.
Recently hired a paint contractor that was recommended by our realtor. We are planning on selling our house in the next year or two. Estimate was to paint the outside of the house. 2/3 of the x-ray of the home is brick the rest is a combination of stucco and wood/redin trim kind of Tudor style. The job did not include painting the three garage doors or the service door on that side or a big section of the back of the house that we just had completely renovated and redone and painted two years ago.
The estimate was for $5500. The owner of the paint company was here Painting for 2-3 days with a young colleague. We had paid the deposit ahead of time which was half the job cost. We were not going to be there when the job was finished and based on the confidence we had because of how long we’ve known our realtor and how the job was going so far, I gave the owner the check for the balance before I left on the last day.
We were not there when the job was finished. He quickly cashed the check.
We came home to find a number of areas of the house, not even painted. Most especially trim on the back of the house. It was so badly peeled, which was the first reason we decided to get the house painted in the first place. Also, they had damaged our landscaping, one of those expensive fabric garden hose and nozzle. They left cigarette butts and open cans of paint after work each day. They would just wash off the paintbrushes right in the landscaping.
Notify the owner that the job was unsatisfactory.. He texted he would make it right. 2 to 3 weeks go by and we don’t hear from him. Reach out to him again and he agrees to come out by himself and spend an entire day fixing everything. We are leaving to go out of town the day he does that but we meet with him in the morning when he shows up to work.
We come home days later to find so many problems. They agreed just bad areas that he said he would sand and needed to be primed and repainted just had paint slapped on them. They look like somebody who needs to hire someone to have their house painted. He did repair some of the paint that had splashed onto a copper roof and onto several window windows. Some of the same areas that were missed on the first trip didn’t get painted on this trip. And he left three cans of paint open on our back porch were because of the temperatures the paint could just dry out and deteriorate or be spilled if an animal walked by and knocked it over
I reached out to the realtor. She said to ask for half the money back and let the contractor know that we have shared the pictures with her and have informed her of what happened. She’s a very very, very high achieving successful Realtor in our region. She shared with me that his needing to come back and finish things that were missed was starting to happen on other jobs and he always blames it on the younger employee.
My reaction as he is the owner of the company he was there the entire time. It was up to him to look over the job and see if it was done properly, and if it was done according to contract.
We are retired and of the age that there is no way we can get up to the second story of our house and even see some of the sections that they probably cut corners on. So we have to assume that the inconsistent job in the areas that we can see is probably what those areas look like also.
It’s really a mystery because some sections of the house were so neatly painted. And unwell and then other areas completely missed. When he came back the second time he said he was going to sand all the areas of the peeling paint. He absolutely did not do that at all. Forget putting a primer on. Didn’t even sand it smooth.
When I reached out to talk to him, he told me that he had given us a deal, now had a personal emergency he was dealing with it, but, but that he was planning to come back next week and redo the job addressing all the problems. He didn’t even address all the problems and didn’t even address the damage to the landscaping and other things on the property when he came the second time.
I’m really baffled. I’m so mad at myself for even giving him the second check before inspecting the job myself on the first go round. That was so stupid of me and I was incredibly trusting because of the recommendation and it looked like everything was going well at that point.
I asked the realtor about the comment where he is now saying he gave us a deal. We haven’t had any past work with this contractor don’t know him personally…. not aware that we would’ve been given a special deal for any reason at all. Maybe he’s regretting the price he bid on the job I don’t know. He seems very experienced and based on the truck logo, etc., and the recommendation from the Realtor this isn’t his first summer Painting.
We are prepared to be fair. Of course we’re worried because you never know how contractors are going to react or if they would become hostile or anything like that. But this is also not right. The job was not done according to the contract terms. I’m not sure that I would ask him for half back but definitely now we have to hire somebody that we can trust to go up there and sand all those areas that he put paint on and properly prime them and then repaint them.
I don’t think anybody’s gonna come out and do that for 500 or $1000. It’s all second story work.
Sorry for the long post I just wanted you to understand what really went on. Thanks so much for any tips or advice I really appreciate it.
Update: as far as Realtor recommendations this Realtor is also a close friend and this Painter had painted her own home her mother’s home and her daughter’s home and a number of other jobs. She has very high standards and is equally shocked at how his work has diminished recently.
