Dan Gough Painting

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Dan arrived when he said he would, did a good job and cleaned up after himself. He was 50% more expensive than what I had paid in the past. My reason for saying I would not use him in the future is because of his recent reviews on here.

I very much wish that I had re-read Angie's List before continuing the contract with this company. Far from the A scores in place when I hired Dan McGough's company in May, the recent scores sadly reflect my experience in the end. In a word, this job was a disaster. Clearly, Dan Gough Paining has fallen apart. From the A ratings prior to this summer, this company has earned consecutive F ratings (see other reviews). I write this review in the hopes that no other member/home owner is saddled with this dishonest, unprofessional outfit.
Here are the sad details:
5/24: I contracted with the owner, Dan McGough, to have the job begun on August 15 and finished by August 24. At his request, I paid $2100, a third of the cost of the staining and carpentry.
August: When I hadn't heard from Mr. McGough by early August, I placed a call. He explained that the weather had him behind a bit. We agreed that we would talk later in August.
9/15: Receiving no contact, I called on 9/9 and 9/11, emailed on 9/12, and finally heard back via email on 9/15. Mr. McGough again assured me that the work would begin soon.
9/27: After several attempts at contact, I finally heard from Mr. McGough, saying that the work would start (now a month and half past the contracted start time). There was movement on the job into the first week of October. The shutters came down (left on the lawn to kill the grass) and the house was power washed (on closer inspection, leaving the screens and windows dirty). A couple of the carpentry tasks were completed.
10/3: I received a rare call from Mr. McGough, who was ready to talk about paint colors. We talked later that day and agreed that he would bring by some samples.
10/7: Mr. McGough called to say that on he would bring color samples to the house, and we would discuss a painting schedule. He also requested a second payment on the work at that time. He brought his foreman with him (who was ready to go and seemed competent), was charming to my family, spent an hour discussing the project, and in a moment of monumental miscalculation, I handed over a check for the next third of the staining and carpentry work ($2000.00). He assured my wife that the "weekend crew" would be there to start work.
10/14: By the end of business on Tuesday, nothing had happened at our home, nor had I heard from Mr. McGough. I called to say that I needed this week to be the pay off for my trust and patience. I heard nothing back, and no one came to work on our house for the remainder of the week.
10/18: I called at the end of business on Friday and expressed my concern and disappointment and asked for clear commitment to a schedule.
10/20: Having heard nothing, I finally sent the following email:
Hi Dan,
Please consider this email a written request to end work at our home. There are multiple reasons for this:

1. We are nearing 8 weeks past our contracted completion date;
2. We are 10 days past your last visit to our home, with no further contact, including failure on promises to continue carpentry work the next day and to begin painting over that weekend;
3. I have left two clear messages about needing to speak with you about a plan to begin painting, and neither have been returned;
   
4. As a result of being delayed two months, we now find ourselves in a situation where our shutters are off, our stain is stripped, and work is inevitably postponed until next spring due to dropping temperatures;
5. Lastly, several recent Angie’s List reports on your work have echoed our experience and have resulted in a complete loss of faith in your business.

Dan, I hope you appreciate that this is a very serious situation. Our contract with you has ended in failure. As such, the return of our deposit is mandated (minus power washing and carpentry completed). I am acutely aware that your business and livelihood are struggling in significant ways. I’d actually like to be able to help by writing to Angie's List, BBB, Yahoo Local, Yelp, etc. and say you came clean, stepped up, and made good in a bad situation. It’s America, and everyone likes a story of redemption.
Please call me Monday to arrange for the return of my deposit. I can be reached by phone at 413-XXX-XXXX.
Thank you.

10/21: Dan texted me on Monday, saying that he would contact me at the end of the day. That did not happen, so I sent the following email that night.
Hi Dan,
I received your text today, assuring me you would call at the end of the day. As that hasn’t happened, and you are not picking up your phone of late, I will use this email to communicate expected next steps. To reiterate, Dan Gough Painting returning the unused portion of our $4000.00deposit is now the only option in which I am interested. I would have discussed with you the estimated costs of the carpentry and power washing, had you called in the past 10 days. Instead, I am now going to calculate the value of the work actually accomplished at our home by market rates of power washing and by the percentage of carpentry that appears to be completed. I put that figure at $500.00.
I am sorry you are experiencing such trouble. I really am. And I’m certain you appreciate my need to protect my interests. My wife and I saved for a long time for a well-researched painting job, which ended in failure, a need to find a new painter, an unprotected home going into the winter, and a year’s delay. All while trusting you and your reputation with four thousand dollars.
You have the option to bring this failed project to a fair and reasonable end by delivering a cashier’s check for $3500.00 to my home, office, or mutually agreed upon location. If that request is not honored by EOB Wednesday, 10/23/13, I will be forced to file promptly in Small Claims Court and to report this process to every available outlet.
The end of this story has not yet been written, and I truly hope that you choose to make it one of stepping up and reclaiming your professionalism and your integrity.
10/23: I received no call or contact, and I did not see any of my money returned.
10/25: I called to ask for a mailing address, to which to send Small Claims Court paperwork. Predictably, this call was not returned.
At this point, I am filing in Small Claims Court for the return of the majority of my $4100.00 deposit. I post this with scant hope that Mr. McGough will return my money but in hopes that no other Angie’s Lister has the misfortune of working with this deceitful, unscrupulous businessman.

Here is a chronology:
Sunday
Called D, left VM to confirm scheduled painting the following day. I told him the color names and numbers for each room. Also
emailed him this info. D called back and said that the painting would be
delayed until Tuesday at 6AM but that he would have 12 guys working on
it and that it would definitely be done by the time the painters came on
Thursday.

Tuesday
Called D at 8 AM and he told me that his crew (3 guys) would be there in
an hour. I asked him what happened to the 12 guys and he said that he
was trying to save himself some money. The crew arrived at 12 PM and
left at 5 PM. My friend went over (as I was recovering from a broken
leg) and saw that every room that had been painted was painted the wrong
color. The kitchen, which was to be painted a pale yellow, was painted a
medium blue. Called D and he told me that he had painted the rooms
the colors I had told him. I forwarded him the email I sent him on Sunday.
Wednesday
Crew arrived late. D laughingly admitted that the rooms had been painted the wrong colors. Painting
continued until D told me that they had run out of the pale yellow
paint. He said that he would be back the next morning very early and
that the paint would be dry by the time the movers arrived at 9 AM on
Thursday.
Thursday
The movers arrived at 9 AM. D had still not arrived and was not replying
to my VMs. My friend moved the painters’ equipment so the movers could
do their job. D and a helper arrived at 11 and painted the kitchen. When
they left, I reminded D that we had agreed that the other side of the
duplex was to be painted on Friday. He swore to me that he would be
there first thing in the morning. D did not show up and did not call on
Friday.
The kitchen looked light green to me, but I thought it might look better
when it dried. I called D and left a message telling him that the
kitchen was a light green, not the pale yellow that it was supposed to
be, I thought because the medium blue was showing through.
Friday
D did not show up and did not call. I had a carpenter building steps to
my deck who told me that a ladder he had left at my house had
disappeared. He strongly suspected that D or his crew had taken it. I
left D a message re the carpenter's concerns and told him I would leave
the door to the other side of the duplex unlocked on Saturday so he
could paint.
Saturday
I left the door unlocked unlocked and left the house at noon. When I returned around 5:30it appeared that someone was
working on the other side of the duplex. Exhausted, I went to sleep. I
was awakened at 8:45 PM by a call from D saying that he was at a
café/pub ½ block from my home, that he wanted part of his money because
his car was in the shop, that he had
taken a cab to my house to finish the job, and that he needed money to
take a cab home. I told him that I would put some clothes on and give
him some money. he did not arrive for 45 minutes. He told me he would
return the next day to complete the (green, supposed to be yellow)
kitchen. I asked him to call before he came to make sure I was there.
Sunday
I took a close look at the work . There were paint smears and drips on
the trim and on the floors. It was streaky in several places in the
hallway. I took a look at 2 almost empty paint cans that D had left.
They were 2 different colors of yellow and had 2 completely different
formulas printed on the lids.
For me, this was the final straw. I left a VM for D telling him that I
did not want him coming to my home and that I was going to use the $300
balance to pay another painter to make the kitchen the yellow color that
I had told him I wanted it (which I ended up doing.)

The vendor damaged our home. They left dangerous material in our children's play house, and trash and cigarette butts on our property.
We contracted the vendor to power wash our house. After the power washing was complete, the vendor left trash on our property, including cigarette butts and containers of cleanser. They also left tools, personal items and packages of cigarettes inside our toddler's play house. Finally, they damaged the siding to our home, peeling it back from the corners of the front windows. I immediately called to report the damage and was assured by the owner that he would be back that day or the following to repair the damage. He did not show up up. I emailed him photographs of the damage and asked him to appear. He promised to come and rectify the damage on four different occasions. Finally he came by while we were out of town, over two weeks after the damage occurred. He attempted repairs and removed the offensive material from my child's playhouse. However, during this time period, there was heavy rain, and I am concerned that the moisture damage to the exposed wood may have been significant. Furthermore, these 'repairs' were inadequate, as the siding is still not flush as it was before the power washing began. I contacted the vendor via phone and email and was assured that he would "personally" come up to the house and rectify matters. Despite multiple emails and phone calls he has yet to materialize, now over a full month after the original damage occurred. While we were initially pleased with the actual power washing, our inspections of the property since our month-long and futile attempt to get the vendor to repair the damage he caused have revealed that even this was sub-standard. Additional bleach damage to our window screens is evident. The vendor required that I pay by check before the service was completed, which I did, as I trusted that the vendor would complete the work in a satisfactory fashion and would not damage my home. Had the vendor billed me for payment after the fact, I would have refused to pay until the damage was repaired
I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, to which the vendor has yet to respond, despite being past deadline. I am probably going to go to small claims court to get a refund.

Here is a chronology:
Sunday
Called D, left VM to confirm scheduled painting the following day. I told him the color names and numbers for each room. Also
emailed him this info. D called back and said that the painting would be delayed until Tuesday at 6AM but that he would have 12 guys working on it and that it would definitely be done by the time the painters came on Thursday.

Tuesday
Called D at 8 AM and he told me that his crew (3 guys) would be there in an hour. I asked him what happened to the 12 guys and he said that he was trying to save himself some money. The crew arrived at 12 PM and left at 5 PM. My friend went over (as I was recovering from a broken leg) and saw that every room that had been painted was painted the wrong color. The kitchen, which was to be painted a pale yellow, was painted a medium blue. Called D and he told me that he had painted the rooms
the colors I had told him. I forwarded him the email I sent him on Sunday.
Wednesday
Crew arrived late. D laughingly admitted that the rooms had been painted the wrong colors. Painting
continued until D told me that they had run out of the pale yellow paint. He said that he would be back the next morning very early and that the paint would be dry by the time the movers arrived at 9 AM on Thursday.
Thursday
The movers arrived at 9 AM. D had still not arrived and was not replying to my VMs. My friend moved the painters’ equipment so the movers could do their job. D and a helper arrived at 11 and painted the kitchen. When they left, I reminded D that we had agreed that the other side of the duplex was to be painted on Friday. He swore to me that he would be there first thing in the morning. D did not show up and did not call on Friday.
The kitchen looked light green to me, but I thought it might look better when it dried. I called D and left a message telling him that the kitchen was a light green, not the pale yellow that it was supposed to be, I thought because the medium blue was showing through.
Friday
D did not show up and did not call. I had a carpenter building steps to my deck who told me that a ladder he had left at my house had disappeared. He strongly suspected that D or his crew had taken it. I left D a message re the carpenter's concerns and told him I would leave the door to the other side of the duplex unlocked on Saturday so he could paint.
Saturday
I left the door unlocked unlocked and left the house at noon. When I returned around 5:30it appeared that someone was
working on the other side of the duplex. Exhausted, I went to sleep. I was awakened at 8:45 PM by a call from D saying that he was at a café/pub ½ block from my home, that he wanted part of his money because his car was in the shop, that he had
taken a cab to my house to finish the job, and that he needed money to take a cab home. I told him that I would put some clothes on and give him some money. he did not arrive for 45 minutes. He told me he would return the next day to complete the (green, supposed to be yellow) kitchen. I asked him to call before he came to make sure I was there.
Sunday
I took a close look at the work . There were paint smears and drips on the trim and on the floors. It was streaky in several places in the hallway. I took a look at 2 almost empty paint cans that D had left. They were 2 different colors of yellow and had 2 completely different formulas printed on the lids.
For me, this was the final straw. I left a VM for D telling him that I did not want him coming to my home and that I was going to use the $300 balance to pay another painter to make the kitchen the yellow color that I had told him I wanted it (which I ended up doing.)

Dan and his workers started the job aprox. 6 days after the "official" signed contract finish date. They came late, left early and never finished the job. After scraping, Dan pressure washed the house. I only saw the job after he finsihed but the scraping job was so bad that our yard had lead paint chips all around the perimeter. The paint job overall, from a distance is good. The house was very much in need of this paint job. But we can definately see areas where there is not as stated in the contract "1 coat primer and 2 coats paint". Dan's responsiveness to our phone calls was severely lacking and he actually was angered when I asked for an update on the job status, basically telling me to mind my business and that he knew what he was doing. The workers never bothered to use plastic or drop cloths so my rooves and porches have paint drips and spray all over them. We just replaced all the windows in our house and now most of them have paint on the screens and window frames. We are still waiting for the replacement screens to come in. Gee, I wonder who will be paying for them. The absolute disregard for our personal property is unacceptable and the complete lack of contract full-fillment will force us to seek legal advise. We are completely perplexed by the "A" rating he has received on Angie's list. We will never use this company again nor reccommed him to anyone we know. This has been a very disappointing experience. Someone on his work crew is a fine painter as the lines between colors was very sharp - not sure who that was.

At first they were fine. The workers were very personable. I always open my house for the contractors to use my bathroom and so forth. They were very personable workers. Some of the guys were very good workers. Their work ethics weren't what I expected. They would come in late and leave early as far as I was concerned. They started on the work six days later than what the contract stated. They were supposed to do three coats and there are some areas in the house where I know that they did not do that and there were some areas in the house that they didn't scrape before they put the new paint so it's coming off. They actually got residue on my brand new screens that I'm still waiting to get repaired and broke a couple of my screens to put their extension cords out. I had a couple of items in the house that are missing that I had before they were here. It's just an assumption. They do not return phone calls whatsoever.

On Time,On budget,professional workers. Highly recommended to coworkers

Extremely well. Dan and his co-worker were on time. They were efficient and the spaces were left clean.

no real details, he was reasonably priced and did a great job with no drama

My experience went fine; otherwise I would not have had them do the rest of the work. Their demeanor was very professional. It was an outdoor job so they were at the mercy of the weather but they did what they could do and as promptly as they could. They did a really good job. I am having them do the rest of the house this summer.

Took doors away to paint and came back twice for touch ups after installation by contractor. Look great. Wall was a dark color and looks fab.

Overall, it was a very smooth job. He came on time, did the work within a reasonable amount of time, and left quickly. Thank you Dan Gough. I found him via Angie's list.

We chose Dan primarily because the estimate was detailed, he was responsive, and local. Our large house was in desperate need of washing. When we asked to have an additional estimate for doing the deck too, his response with estimate was immediate. The work was completed over 2 days because of a dramatic temperature drop after the first day. His foreman, who did the actual work, was thorough - there's not a speck of gunk left on the siding! The shining start is the deck, however. We knew it needed cleaning but didn't think it was that bad; after treatment by Dan Gough it's like new! Granted it is still a 20+year old deck, but it is CLEAN!!! You can see the wood color again! Additionally I find Dan to be honest and straightforward; he didn't try to "upsell" any service we didn't need.

We were very pleased with the work. Dan's estimate was very reasonable and his thorough explanation of the work he was proposing was appreciated; as was his willingness to change the scope of work at our request. The on-site supervisor was very professional, responsive to added requests, and a pleasure to work with. The few minor problems that were noted were quickly corrected and resolved. I highly recommend this painter!

We rarely hire companies to do work that we normally can do ourselves. Dan's price and availability made it worth while for us and he is amiable and helpful with questions. We expect to hire him soon for indoor work.

The job was started about 10:00 o'clock on Sunday morning, It took about 3 hours to do the job. The person doing the job

was very professional. the work was done to my satisfaction. He answered any questions I had to my satisfaction. I would hire this company again. The house is alluminum sided maybe 50 years ago.

Dan provided a very detailed quote. It was very specific and I could tell that he had thought of every step that needed to be done. His was not the least expensive, but he did not miss or gloss over anything. The work was done as quoted, on time and excellent quality. I am extremely pleased with the results.
Dan is a professional and also very cheerful when working which was an added bonus. The people who work for Dan also meet his high standards of professionalism and quality.

Dan is very prompt and professional. The work proceeded at a good pace, was done on time as promised. I was very pleased with the quality of his work including caulking all seams for a very high quality job. Dan went the extra mile to ensure my house looked great - and it does!

I'm really happy to report that our experience with Dan Gough Painting was wonderful and totally professional from start to finish. I called Dan in mid-May of 2012, got a call back the same day, scheduled an appointment for the following morning to look at the house, and received a detailed estimate via email later that evening. The estimate explained everything my husband and I could possibly want to know - a HUGE difference from the 6 other quotes we'd requested. Dan's quote included: what kind of prep/cleaning to expect, how many coats of stain would be applied, how many gallons of paint would be purchased, which areas they would patch/repair, what the payment terms were, etc. It was such a nice surprise to receive an estimate that didn't leave us with a long list of unanswered questions.
Another nice surprise: Dan and his crew were originally scheduled to start work on our house during the week of July 9. They actually started on July 2nd. The crew ranged from 3-5 people, and Dan was always on site working alongside them. (They were all really nice guys, too. Very polite, tidy, and hard-working.) The job took 6 days total, and it COMPLETELY transformed our home, which we bought in 2011 and waited over a year to paint because we weren't entirely comfortable with the other companies we'd talked to (their estimates were either suspiciously high, suspiciously low, completely lacking in detail, or the owners/reps were slow to return calls or show up when they said they'd show up). Several of our neighbors have come over to say that it looks like a totally different house now, which it really does. A funny side note - our next door neighbors are an elderly retired couple, and they apparently spent long periods of time watching Dan and his crew from their window. We didn't really expect to have community watchdogs working on our behalf, but that's essentially what they did, and they had nothing but good things to report every night. Both the husband and wife told us how impressed they were with the crew's constant attention to detail, so much so that they even hired Dan to paint their chimney.
In addition to doing a wonderful job on the house, we found Dan to be really easy and stress-free to work with. He responds to calls and emails promptly. He sticks to his estimates, but is still flexible (he painted a PVC radon pipe at our request). He's also a very fair guy, and he hires exceptionally nice, trustworthy people.
If you're on Facebook, and would like to see pictures of our house, go to:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dan-Gough-Painting/268472033177557
Ours is the one that started out light blue (photos posted in May 2012 and on July 15, 2012), and the finished house is dark gray with a yellow door (photo posted on July 11, 2012).