Tom Englehart Custom Painting
About us
Add a little color to your life! Owner-operated. 3 employees. No subs. Charges by the job.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Interior & exterior painting, commercial & residential, drywall repair, furniture refinishing.light carpentry, high-end new construction, painting sliding glass door frames and window frames ..dark bronze or white. ., popcorn cielings removed aqnd finished slick or texture staining doors and clear coat or varnish, staining
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
---|---|---|
47% | ||
13% | ||
13% | ||
7% | ||
20% |
Personally, I think that Tom is too old to be working....He is 76 and he doesn't have a professional crew to supervise, so when you hire his company, it is really only him and Donna. He is too old to be doing this stuff. Maybe when he was younger he was quite amazing, but at this stage in the game, he is old and bitter and blind.
Take your chances, but I am giving you a heads up on how he is.
At first, we were impressed with the work he did at my father's house and we expected the same quality. We were very disappointed in the unprofessional job he did on my house. There were numerous bare spots on the walls, it was obvious that only one coat was done as the old paint showed through in the majority of the job. There were paint roller marks and significant drips and runs in the paint. Mr. Englehart stated he had hired a person to do this job. In my opinion he should have checked the work before he put his name to it. Furthermore, he was told about the poor quality of the work approximately one week before it needed to be ready for us to move in and he was reminded that it was to be done by the 12th of December (he had since Thanksgiving to do it). I went to the house on Saturday, the 14th, and the many areas were still not touched up. I called Mr. Englehart and he stated he would be out on Tuesday. He was again reminded that we would be moving in the next day and that the job was to be done. He came over the next day, Sunday, and it ended up that he was still painting when furniture was being moved in.
At the outset we knew it would be messy, but they assured us everything would be covered and taped, and once completed, we would not have any serious mess to contend with. We had not moved much if any furniture in the house, so we decided to go ahead. This job created a huge mess, we had popcorn debris on everything and dust was everywhere - in our cabinets, closets and every nook and cranny of the house. Even now, months after it is finished, we are finding popcorn debris still stuck in places.
We lived in the house while this was being done. HUGE mistake! Don't try it. Find somewhere else to stay and move anything you care about to another place.
We must have had some miscommunication in the process, because we were never sure what days they would come and work and which days they would be on other projects. They did sheet off large areas of the house, and work in those rooms, but they left it in a disarray for a few days while they worked other jobs. We had planned for them to do the bulk of the work while we were out of town, but we suspect they were working on another job during that time, because there was not much progress during that time period. Most of the work was done when we were there.
Based on their estimate, we had planned for the job to take 2 weeks; it took much longer. Near the end of the 2 week period, when most of the popcorn was gone, but none of the ceilings had been painted, they asked for final payment. We did not feel comfortable doing this, especially given the shifting schedule we were encountering, so we suggested they finish the job first. They ran out of paint and primer that day, so came back the next with the task of spraying all of the ceilings with paint and primer in one day. It was too much for one day and the job turned out splotchy at best.
In defense of the painters, they offered to come back and redo the painting and I believe they would have. But we had had enough. We had been living with plastic tarps and dust and dripping paint and debris for 3 weeks and decided that I could finish up the painting on my own.
My advice, if you hire these guys, and they are very nice, be very specific about what your expectations are and the timing of your project.
"we started this job to remove popcorn cielings after a few days they asked us to remove crown moulding and trim which we did.after about a week they said they had to go out of town for abouy a week and did not want us to work in the home while they were gone, two days later they called and said they wanted us to go ahead with the work.the problem is we went to another job we did not want to waste a week while they were gone when they returned they said they thought we would be close to finished and they tried to rush the job.ther is a order to your work no matter what the trade when you get out of order things start going wrong,one of the problems is you cannot mix wet joint compound and wet paint and thats what they wanted us to do when it did not work they became upset the drywall trade requires drying times between coats and cannot be rushed."
The house was completely power washed. The work was complete and thorough, including soffits and gutters. Following this, the house was sealed with material to help the new paint adhere to the surface.
The re-painting work was completed in three days and the work was neat and accurate. The front door came out beautifully.
There were no extras or surprises as the contractor honored the price quote exactly.
We think the work was performed with excellence.
The work was started promptly and the contractor was aware of and honored our schedule to move into the house. The work was done on time and in accord with the approved budget.
We should note that throughout the project there was attention to detail and care was taken to keep the worksite clean even though we were not living in the house yet. We were provided good advice on color ranges and Tom painted a test area for each color. In one case, we ended up changing the color because of the way it looked on the wall instead of the color charts.
At the conclusion of the project, all the window and door hardware was re-installed correctly and the inside of the house was transformed.
We will be asking them to provide us with a cost estimate for the exterior of the house in early 2013. We recommend them highly.
However, he recommended his brother as a carpenter for some minor repairs.
The experience with his brother was very negative. I had to call him twice to
get him to finish.
Then, he gave me bill for 30% more of the original price stated.
That was unacceptable and not good business practice.
But Tom Englehart does a good job!
Licensing
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