Davila Painting Inc

Contacted Fernando Davila from a business card left in my mailbox. Called cell number on Saturday and owner answered. I requested an appointment for an estimate to repaint front and rear porches on home. Made an appointment for 8:00am on Monday. Unfortunately, he did not show for the appointment. I called cell number around 8:30am and left a message. He called back immediately and was apologetic that he forgot a previous personal commitment. Rescheduled for noon the same day. He called me around 10:00am and said he was free and available to come by. Gave him driving instructions and he showed up 5 minutes later. Walked through the job (850 sq feet of previoulsy painted wooden decking) and he quoted a price that seemed high to me - $1,200. I had planned on painting the deck myself. Figured it was a 2 day job for one person. I had pressure washed the deck the prior weekend and took out the tools and a can of deck stain the builder had left me when the house was built 5 years ago. When the color of the stain appeared to be different and clearly not enough to do the job, I decided to form it out. We spoke about the type of product he would use on the porch and I was still convinced his price was high. I told him I believed his price was high and after a bit of negotiating, we landed on $900 (a number I believed was still on the high end, but a price I was willing to pay to get the work done before the following weekend). He agreed to start work on Thurrsday (3 days later). Thursday morning around 8:30am, a painter (not the owner) showed up and began to sand the porches. I expressed concern about not being painted into my house without an escape path (they were paining the decking that leads up to each of the exterior doors). The preparation went well. Sanding took about 2 hours for 1 person. The painter was neat and courteous. The owner joined the job around 10:00 in the morning. The job required 2 coats on the rear porch due to the southern exposure and only 1 coat on the front. The job was completed same day around 4:00pm. The product they used was a high quality Sherwin Wiliams waterbased deck stain which was included in the price. I was very pleased with the quality of the workmanship. They kept the jobsite neat and clean. While I was put off by the delay in the first appointment and the need to negotiate down to a reasonable price, I was pleased with the end product. For those that would accept an estimate at face value, this may not be the guy for you. I had a number in my head that came from my own estimate of the time it would take me to do the job (2 man days for a non-professional). Figuring $40.00/hour for his time (fully loaded, insurance, etc), I came to $640 less materials. 3 gallons of stain took it up an additional $150.00. I put $850 on the table as my counter and we landed on $900. In hindsight, it took 2 guys 13 hours to do the job. Considering his time to buy the paint to match the existing, my 16 hour estimate was not far off.