North America's College Painters

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It went very rough! They painted and stripped our expensive front door many times in an effort to get it right. During this process they used a bad razor blade and scratched deep gouges into all of the glass around the door. We complained and it took Paul Evans the owner almost a year with constant threats from me to come out to access the situation. He then told me he would come back out to rub out the scratches. This did not resolve the issue so instead of fixing the situation he just ignored me. I am in the process of taking them to small claims court for over $800. The painters also missed several areas. The paint has peeled and bubbled in several areas as well and we have been ignored instead of taken care of. We were trying to help out the college kids and give them a chance. We were assured that the onsite manager had years of experience and that we wouldn't have any trouble. We would never recommend doing work with Paul Evans. If you have a problem.......GOOD LUCK!

It was great. The crew showed up when they said they would, they worked hard and were polite. The young man who'd done the estimate for us showed up and checked on the work every day and they accomodated us really promptly when we made changes in the middle of the job. They also finished on time. While I suspect I could have gotten a lower price if I'd shopped around more, I don't thin I could have had a better experience.

Overall, I'd say the young group did quite well. I would suggest that they use real window cleaner to wipe of the streaks instead of squeeging off the water from the house-cleaner bucket. I did appreciate the team leader doing this squeegee job after my request. The team cleaned up outside and didn't leave a mess at all.

A down payment and schedule to start the job was made in the spring based on door to door solicitation and follow up discussions regarding details of services and concerns. Coordination of jobs were done so as to allow a team to work on adjacent homes. We were told we would be contacted at least a week before the job began so that we could finalize paint colors, remove deck furniture, remove any house decor, etc. With the start date over 2 weeks past due, we tried calling the main office number and the sales contact numbers on our contract without calls being returned. In response to similar calls from our neighbors, the painting crew started on their house, which provided us an opportunity to approach the crew and sales rep in person. As a result, they started that same day we made contact - essentially giving us same day notice for the job to begin. Although they provided the option to delay starting by one business day (into the following week), we were fearful of not taking advantage of their opeining, especially since it had been difficult to get a response. We had to adjust our work schedule in order to accommodate their start date and address the prep work to the house we needed to do. In addition to the rush to try to to have things ready (planters moved, house decor removed, furniture moved, access to areas cleared, etc.), we were also asked for use of our garden hoses, hose sprayers and water for the painters to conduct their cleaning. However, we were asked after the crew had already removed some of our garden hoses and could not find the length or sprayers they needed - leaving some of our hoses laying in our main walkway to the front of the house. The garden hose they removed from an area of our yard and left in the walk remained there until we moved it after they had left - as it was a tripping hazzard. It remained where we left it in the drive way next to their supplies through the completion of the job - the painters never returned it to where they removed it. As the job continued, we did not observe the use of drop cloths or see the team leader on a daily basis for the daily report indicated we would receive (a committment made on our contract). After approximately 4 days into the job, we had observed a number of concerns and tried calling the team leader in the evening to discuss. When we did not receive communication back, we left a note for the painting crew summarizing concerns and requesting to be called. We were not called. We had to follow up with the team leader regarding our concerns. To most, the response was that the job was not done and the team leader wanted to allow the team the opportunity to finish the job before reviewing the job for concerns. Our home has lap cedar siding - primarily installed in a vertical direction. The team's approach to paint the siding was to roll the raised, wider surfaces, and then using a variety of techniques, try to apply paint to the indented areas between the raised areas. We observed trying to use small touch up rollers, thick nap rollers, and even foam corner rollers for interior smooth surfaces to try to paint the indented areas. And although these attempts generally applied paint to the surfaces parallel to the side of the house, they were inefficent in applying paint to surfaces that were perpendicular to the side of the house. This observation was made on almost all sides/areas of the house and was one of our primary concerns. To elevate this concern, this lack of coverage was existing on sides of the house that were said to have received 2 coats of paint - meaning that one or more members of the crew would have personally worked these surfaces 5 times - once to clean, once to put the first coat on the raised section, once ot put the first coat on the indented sections, once for the second coat on the raised section, and once for the second coat on the indented area.....and we were still seeing surface areas that had no paint coverage. This observation heightened our sensativity to examing the job - and we started to find sections that should have been scraped, and weren't; sections that had holes that should have been filled, and weren't; other areas that should have been caulked, but weren't; and even more areas that didn't get covered with paint at all. I will note that for most of our reviews of the job, it was in the evening where some of the house is not in direct sunlight, and by which time the paint would have nearly dried - which is different visually than when the team was actually painting (as the wet paint is very simular in color to the original paint color). However, to continue to find uncovered surfaces on areas of the house that should have had 2 coats - added to our concerns of the overall job. As the job schedule started into it's second week, it became a daily ocurance of us finding items and discussing them with the team leader, often spending an hour or more walking around with the team leader, and eventually the team members themselves. We found ourselves in the role of overseeing the job, and feeling as if we were defending our concerns to the team leader. We were also asked on various ocassions to work with the team directly with our concerns and review our observations with them. As the team members are not accountable to us in anyway, we did not feel it was our role, or our responsibility to review job performance items with the team directly. Relunctantly, however, after repeating the same discussion covering the same general coverage concerns, we did spend time with some of the team members directly - as we felt we were without other options in which to actually get an acceptable job done. Nearly a third week was spent working on nothing but "touch ups". The team leader commented on having to buy more paint just for touch ups, having nearly half the time estimated for the total job re-spent on just touch ups, and inferred we were being too picky. In addition to the on-going touch up activities, we were also still trying to work through a resolution to a team member having painted a maintenance free, aluminum, sliding screen door frame that was excluded form the scope of work. Initially, the team leader had indicated he could easily remove the paint. However, after spending quite a few hours trying to remove the paint, it was apparent that not all of it could be removed - and he wanted to know what color we wanted it painted. Although the team leader had removed the team member responsible from the team, it was nearly a week later that the team leader supported considering the option of needing to replace the sliding screen door frame to remedy the situation - and it was at our request to have it replaced. During that week, the team leader did try painting it as an option - however, it was very difficult to obtain a finish that didn't look like it was painted with a brush and it did not address the concern of creating something that needed to be maintained moving forward (we would continue to need to maintain the painted surface). I should note that the final resolution was to split the cost of the replacement screen, so even though we will be able to maintain a maintenance free screen door frame, we are responsible for half of the material cost and all of the ordering, pick up and labor to install. It was also during this third week of the job that we started to try to reach the owner of the company directly, and despite leaving multiple message with a manned answering service, we have yet to receive a call back. Our intent was not to escalate our concerns, as although it was much more work and we were way more involved than we should have ever needed to be (and more than a few frustrating conversations along the way), the team leader was committed to resolving our concerns. However, we felt we wanted to offer to discuss the situation and concerns with the company owner - as I expect with the extended project duration and rework invovling both labor and materials, that this was not quite as profitable for the owner as they had oringally forecasted. Although after 3 weeks, much more invovlement than we feel we should have had, and a very frustrating experience, we do feel we ended up with a fairly good end product. And although the team leader was not responsive at times, and appeared not to acknowledge our concerns or understand that we were concerned over the job, versus one specific spot on the house, we do feel the team leader was committed to getting the job complete and our concerns addressed. There, was, however more than one ocassion when the response from the team leader transitioned from a professional conversation to a personal defense, especially when it was brought up that at least one team member was entering the house when kids were home alone to use the bathroom, but in the end, I feel the overall intent of services were fulfilled.

I was overall pleased with the quality of the painter's work. He missed some areas which we pointed out to the supervisor, and most were taken care of. My areas of dissatisfaction involve the lack of follow through at the end of the project. The caulk that was used did not work properly, so in some areas re-caulking had to be done, which was then to be painted. It was not all done, and the new caulk was not painted. Also, paint remaining on the windows was to be scraped off, including paint from a previous job (not theirs), and while some was, some remained because the painter thought it was too hard to do. The supervisor promised to do it himself, and it was not completed. Follow-up calls about completing the last of the caulk work were unreturned.