Thomas Restoration Painting

great job, and I'm writing this review 10 years later (sorry, Pete), to say that the paint job Pete and his crew did for me on my 100 year old house is holding up well, only needing a couple of minor touch ups, which is expected, given Chicago weather. Thanks, guys!

Amazing! One of the best experiences I've ever had with home repair. Pete and his team were a dream to work with. I would hire them again in a heartbeat.

Painting looks great! Also repaired wood damage in several places. Excellent craftsmanship. Painting crew was polite and cleaned up well afterwards.

Very well. Pete Thomas's crew arrived as scheduled on the morning of Monday, July 24, and worked every day until the job was finished on Friday, July 28. They were polite, professional and helpful. In addition to painting the house, they replaced a cracked window pane and also replaced a bit of water-damaged wood siding and some boards on the floor of the front porch. They also repainted the trim on my garage. Everything looks great.

I can't say enough about how nice it was to work with Peter and his crew. I was very satisfied and was very glad he convinced me to use the approach that we finally used.

Work proceeded on time, except for weather delays, & with relatively little inconvenience for us. Scraping, cleaning and painting were done conscientiously. Workers were polite and often went out of way to be helpful. Minor problems were discussed with Pete Thomas, who oversaw touch-ups, recommended solutions, and promised additional steps in spring. Good friends had painting done earlier in the year by Thomas and were pleased.

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We got 4 quotes for painting the exterior of our home, and Pete's was in line with the others and even a little cheaper for the higher-quality thorocoat quote for stucco.
We set up a start date, and his crew arrived right on time and began immediately. I cannot say enough good things about the workers. They were polite, respectful of our time and property and worked non-stop even in the summer heat. Pete consulted with us at various times throughout the project to discuss how colors would work and which parts of the trim to paint in each color to make the final product as beautiful as possible. 
The best way to describe Thomas Restoration's work is to say that they treated our home as if it were their own home, putting in the extra effort on each detail to make sure things were perfect. Our windows are 100 year-old wood and needed a huge amount of work to sand, scrape, strip, and even cut open the painted shut frames, and by the time they were painted, they look like new and function again. The work is impeccable and our house looks like new!
Because they were doing such a nice job and working so quickly (8 guys painted our house in 6 days), we asked them to paint our garage as well, which they not only did, but also replaced many rotting boards for us at very little cost. 
Even though they ended up putting in some extra work, Pete stuck to the quoted price. The project was done and cleaned up in about a week, and I the finished product is better than I had imagined going into the whole thing. Definitely worth the price we paid. I highly recommend you go with Thomas Restoration Painting.

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This is the second time Thomas Restoration has painted our house. The last time was in 2002. Anyone who owns a wood frame house knows that a paint job that lasts 12 years is a job well done. I had other quotes, which were higher and lower, but went back with Thomas because I knew what I was getting.
Peter Thomas, the proprietor, delivers what he says he will. I contracted them late in 2013 for them to come in the fall of 2014. They showed up in Sept and spent about 10 days - lots of guys (up to 10) scraping, priming, replacing bad wood, etc. Omar and his crew were fast and hard-working. Very methodical and they got through the job quickly.
They found quite a bit of rotted wood (not surprising in an old house) - especially around the porches and rooflines, which I knew was the variable cost of the project. But they didn't gouge me on the extra cost. It was clearly needed and their carpenter rates are reasonable.
I clearly recommend Thomas Restoration.

Peter's crew did a great job in less time than we expected it to take. They did all the things we expected - power washed and recoated all the stucco, scraped caulked and painted all the woodwork. They also did things we hadn't even thought of to do, from painting the frames of the window sashes the appropriate colors, and varnishing the boards under the eaves. Their carpenter did a good job repairing our wooden front stairs. At every step we were impressed with the crew's attention to detail.

Price was quoted which was pretty close in the end -- and that was with me changing a few things mid-stream. Once I saw how great the woodwork looked after they stripped it down I wanted that look in some other high traffic areas. Everthing from start to finish was excellent. No train wrecks, paint spills, fire alarms, just excellent honest work. They kept their timeline and believe me it was a worthwhile investment. The new color has no flaws or existing shade bleeding through. My friends in Oak Park recommend them to me and I could not be happier. Paint looks great today as it did 18 months ago.

We have used this company for several projects in our first year in a 1906 Gunderson in Oak Park, IL and have been pleased-to-delighted with the results. Initially, they quoted for exterior painting on 3/4 of the house, excluding a front porch which needed restoration before painting. The exterior stripping and painting was handled very well. We have had a half-dozen contractors through our home doing significant work over the last 18 months and these guys were the best - punctual, cordial, friendly, respectful of our home, meticulous, professional. The exterior painting also involved a number of small-to-medium carpentry tasks as the removal of aluminum siding had revealed a dozen issues that needed creative solutions. Their lead carpenter (and lead of one of the painting crews) proved to be excellent as well.
So, we approached them to do interior work and to bid on rebuilding the large front porch. The interior work included some tricky grasscloth wallpaper, some stripping and repair of very, very old areas that had been repainted and recovered many times without stripping. They killed it. Handled the toughest stripping work without damage to the underlying woodwork, properly handled repair of plaster walls that were cracking, re-mudded new plaster ceiling brilliantly. The wallpaper in the dining room was incredibly difficult to work with, considering the pattern and the texture, and they nailed it again.
SOOoo, we asked them to bid on the porch. Pete expressed reluctance, because it was a large, uncertain job with uncertain budget and timeline. We understood that risk and pushed and he accepted and Francisco and Manuel started in the late Spring. They got us through permitting challenges (it's in a historic district and is a state landmark) and worked well with other contractors needed for the foundation and electrical work. We sourced our own materials and had an architect do the drawings, but ultimately tasks like this come down to the skill and creativity and patience and diligence of the carpenters and Manuel and Francisco are professionals, simply put. The porch is like a hand-crafted piece of heirloom furniture. You can look at joints and connections and structural details anywhere on it and I can only imagine how it was figured out to handle things they way they were handled.
We could not be happier with the results and the work was award-winning as the Village awarded Pete and his guys the Historic Restoration award for the work for 2012. The nomination for the award came from within Village staff. The process of having work done on your home is hard, and gets harder with the size of the job. And when the process is going to be hard no matter what, that's where Pete's affability, diligence, punctuality, communication are critically important. Too many people buy contractors on price and too many contractors compete on price, including these guys, and I've told Pete to work harder up front to identify the uncertainties in medium-to-large projects. It's not that Pete would ever hide the ball on what the real costs are going to be, and he'd certainly never plan to run-up a job like another review in here implies. That's just not who he is. More likely, his fault is in not pointing out how ridiculous it can be to try to bid certain jobs with absolute precision and in not educating clients on the real challenges of this work. On smaller jobs, I'd be shocked that anyone could finish a job faster and better than these guys. On larger jobs, I'm certain that Pete eats cost uncertainties with regularity, and frankly, that's not fair. Anyone will tell you that if you're hiring a contractor, be prepared for frustration. And you should be prepared. But with Thomas Restoration, you'll be pleasantly surprised and even the frustrating parts of the process will be frustrating because it's HOME REPAIR WORK! Like parenting, working on your home WILL be maddening at points, but the better contractors will leave you ultimately happy you did the work. With these guys, I've been more than happy. I walk around relishing the work they've done.
There is a reason that you keep seeing their signs around town in people's yards, that they've done everything from a couple rooms inside to massive exterior restoration projects. You just don't get as much quality work as they get for as many years as they've been doing it, without doing it right. They have the resources and skills to pull it all off. The guys in his crews have been with him for many many years in most cases, and I've decided that's how I'm hiring people from now on.
I joined Angie's List to write this review, is how much confidence I have in this company, certainly compared to competitors and other contractors, and we've had our share of experience with all sorts. I was not asked to write the review, for the record. I'm disappointed and surprised to see nearly anything negative about them in here, but I'm sure there's stories behind every job, too. Buyer beware is always the bottom line, I guess. I'd certainly ask Pete about any negative reviews you see, I'd like to hear what he'd have to say and then make a decision.

Workmanship came out great in this project creating a great playspace for my kids in the basement. Complete with cool paint colors and awesome chalk board paint. The room has added value and space to our home. Great company and good people, more importantly.

They cleaned up so well every day and never left my yard looking messy. We were so impressed with the detailed and thorough workmanship and professionalism that we asked them to come back and do a bunch of interior work.

Painters did good work and they were very nive, trustworthy guys but the job was very unorganized and many items fell through the cracks. The owner was not very reponsive to suggestions and did not follow through. Although I got a fair price, I will be completing the touch ups myself.

As always, they do a great job from working with Pete Thomas on estimating through working with his crew and through final clean up. They do an amazing job. I will never use another painter for my work. They have painted some complex projects for me and nail it every time.

They did a great job including helping out with color choices and matched stain on two different types of wood (pine/oak). We have used them twice now and would definately use them again.

The guy Thomas is the owner. They are very competitively priced and they did a great job. They did it on time and they did what they were supposed to do. I spent $13000 for their services. I don't think it was quite that high or low. I will absolutely use them again in the future if I need to.

The work, performed 6 years ago seemed good at the time, but it hasn't held up with normal wear and tear. The kitchen floor finish lasted about 3 years. The marble counter top is separating at the seam.

Work by sub-contractors was mixed. Some were excellent, others were so-so.

At the beginning of this job, he was responsive, but towards the end, it took them over a month to do things that should have taken a couple of days.

I have called repeatedly to have more work done, (hopefully better), but Mr. Thomas never returns the calls. He has promised to show up a few times but never did. I have since had other painters/contractors and they are much better.

Really happy I found Thomas. From the start meeting Pete and having him into our home and then working with his staff, they have been nothing but patient, professional and courteous as they took up shop in our home. Pete takes his time explaining things to you, getting to know what you like and providing his professional opinion. He even helped me visualize a kitchen re-model even though he was just painting, appreciated his professional opinion. I highly recommend these guys to undertake any type of painting project. I plan on having them back in the spring to do some work on the outside of my home.