From description of this company: ATE Painting specialize in old and historic homes. From Amrou: 1. we done 60% of home in Melrose; 2. When the work is done, you can put it on magazine (please see the pictures attached to see if it can be put on magazine). All above are bragging, not mentioned lying. Most of previous review mentions Amrou is knowledgeable, that is true. Amrou calls himself consultant; and typically, the consultant's job is to make sure to get client's contract; not necessary to make sure to do the job right. i had the feeling that Amrou himself is good, but he did not do the work, i did not live at the home at the time, and problem comes from there. I am going to review in details. The company contact: the company phone listed on the truck is unreachable, i called there many times, nobody answers, that is unprofessional. The painting /drywall work: please see attached pictures for details. In overall, the painting looks OK. But i had 3 estimates from 3 contractors: ATE is the most expensive one; i selected this company with the high expectation: you get what you pay for; but i did not get what i pay for. The painters washed their brushes in my new sinks: there is paint left over there so that i had to clean them; The painters took the shortcuts so i have to remind them to do it right; but i did not stay at home all the time, so how many shortcuts did i miss? i do not know. Professionalism: This is review for Amrou himself. There is a big gap between what he said, and what has been done, both during process and final product. Amrou did NOT watch his crew work, did NOT bother to check the quality of his crew (they are all young by the way). He did ask me to check the work and if i missed any, he can get away with it: that is absolutely unprofessional: instead of providing the highest quality he can do, he is betting on the standard of the homeowner, if the homeowner is easy, he can do less work therefore more profit to him. In fact after he asked me to check (walkthough time he calls), i pointed a lot of things NOT been done, plus some low quality work; those can be easily detected by Amrou if he did bother to look. How disappointed i am. The window work: i paid $1800 to install new simple window plus trim work; Again, i know it is expensive but i was willing to pay that price with expectation that the work is done correctly. By the way this is done by his sub-contractor: the work inside done is beautiful, we love it; but the outdoor side of the window is totally wrong: there is no aluminum cover the bare wood;and the bare wood itself looks very BAD; i guarantee that the outdoor side can not survive this winter. How could the same carpenter can do opposite things at the same time: indoor work done correctly and outdoor work wrong? My bet is he told his sub-contractor to do inside work only so that he does not have to pay much. I did not supervise the outdoor work because i had to leave the house to visit my new-born son in hospital. The only work was done good is staining the stairs, that work done by Amrou himself. But i have to pay extra $450 more to original estimate to make it looks good; some might say that is price i have to pay but i am not professional; i do not know how many coats of stain needs to be done to make it look good. When i had accepted the original estimate, i want it looks good without paying more, but in the end i have to pay more. My message to homeowner and soon-to-be homeowner: If you need any reference, please send me E-mail at
[email protected]; i had hired electrician, painter, floor contractor, and Mitsubishi miti-split contractor. I had some experience how to communicate with contractor. I have learn a lot of lessons. Also, i will push Angie's list to have a homeowner forum in which all homeowner and soon-to-be homeowner communicates, asks questions, like on Amazon.com; The review itself is very passive, it does not help much. My final message to fellow homeowner: never trust your contractor, put aside all other work if you can, and spend any your time left to check on the work of your contractor. That will save you a lot of trouble later
Description of Work: Remove wall paper, repair drywalls, paint entire house (3 floors), stain stairs, polish trims, install custom window. Please note that this work is done on July 2st 2016; just in case the contractor backdate the work