A & J PAINTING

We were very disappointed with their service and would not hire them again or recommend them for the following reasons. The initial estimated time to complete our project was 4 days, but it took almost 3 weeks. They did not devote 100% of their time to this project but rather worked when it was convenient for their schedule. Some of the skim coating had to be redone because they did not bring in any work lighting (for the whole project).  When we brought in additional lighting to examine the skim coating, there were many noticeable imperfections. The paint project was an absolute catastrophe.  There were 6 rooms with 3 paint colors.  We emailed them with the paint colors for each room, but they painted 4 rooms the wrong color.  We told them to remove all wall vents prior to painting, but this was not done.  We had them remove all wood trim prior to painting, but they did not remove all nails, and they did not paint close enough to the floor line which resulted in us having to buy wider trim.  The wall paint edging next to the ceiling was very noticeable in that it was darker than the rest of the walls.  The painted textured ceiling edging looked darker than the rest of the ceiling.  The bathroom ceiling respray didn’t have enough texture applied to match the rest of the town home ceilings.  We asked for additional texture but this was never done. At the final inspection, we gave them a written list of unsatisfactory issues that we wanted redone.  Needless to say, not all issues were satisfied including our trust in their service.

On the day A&J scheduled the work to begin, they did not show up.  I finally called around 1030 AM and the owner, Jim, laughed and said he had forgot about me and they would be out the next day.  Either they didn't put us on the calendar as described or they didn't look at their calendar on Monday of a new work week.  Jim commented that it was only a three day project and they would get it done with no problem, with no regard or concern that I might have other pieces of the project scheduled to be completed after the ceilings are complete. I had cleared the work area of tools and taken down all our dust and debris containment so they could begin work.   This prevented me from getting much work completed in the area and the day was lost. Once the work was started, the crew was very nice and pleasant to work with and they respected our home as we had asked.   Once the job was complete, I received a bill for nearly double the amount on the original quote - $1850. I spoke with Jim about the increase and he said they had spent a lot more hours than they actually did on the stairwell and they had not anticipated needing to use primer or sealer on the ceiling before painting.  I watched the amount of work that was completed in the stairwell to apply the additional joint compound and sand it smooth and they spent 5-6 hours in that area. Jim also claimed that we had miscommunicated about the amount sheet rock taping and mudding was to be done on the kitchen ceiling, but he knew I was cutting out the soffits and they would be matching the existing ceiling up to the new sheet rock, so I am not sure what he didn't understand.  I had sent Jim an email 8 days before the scheduled work was to begin and asked him if he was expecting me to tape the corners after the new sheet rock sections were installed.   He chose to never answer my email.  If there was confusion, my question was a golden opportunity for him to address it, but he saw it a a golden opportunity to add cost to his bill. I watched and spoke with the crew during the job and they had commented that they were surprised the old ceiling was not stained as much from smoke as they would expect for a 45 year old ceiling.  But it was because of the stains that were there that they had to prime before painting.  The cost of potential priming and sealing should have been addressed in the quote.   They charged me for a 5 gallon pail of primer when the crew told me they needed 3.5 and they did not leave the extra behind for me.  It only took them an additional hour to spray the primer on the ceiling, so I don't see justification for an extra $675 added to the bill.  Not once during the entire project was there ever any mention that the work being done was in addition to the originally quoted amount.  I assumed sealing/priming the ceiling and new sheet rock would be part of the normal process. On the Friday they did finish, they had only sent one man out to the job in his personal pickup truck.  He had to load and remove all of their tools and all of the waste.  He tried but couldn't begin to fit everything in his truck, so he left numerous trash bags of plastic and empty sheet rock cartons for me to dispose of.  Since this was late in our construction project period, our dumpster was long gone and I had to pay extra for our weekly trash hauler to dispose of the extra thrash. When I complained about the over charged to Jim, he would not discuss the late start or overrun of time that eventually caused be to delay the kitchen counter top measurement.  He would not discuss the fact that the priming of the ceiling should have been included in the quote, nor would he address that fact that his crew left much of their trash behind and never offered to return and get it.  He just kept stating that they were not expecting to have to do that much tape and texturing, when he new what the job was going in and never responded to my email when a question came up. The work his crew did on our ceiling is excellent but the approach of handling the quote and the billing was totally unprofessional by A&J Painting.  Even though I disagree with how A&J Painting handled the process, I paid them in full but I will not be utilizing their services for any additional projects in the future.

QUALITY WAS AN A-. THEY DID A GOOD JOB EXCEPT THEY DID NOT SCRAPE OUR WINDOWS AFTERWARDS. WE HAD TO ASK THEM TO DO THAT. WE NOTICED A BROKEN WINDOW AFTER THE JOB WAS COMPLETED. WE CALLED THEM AND THEY SAID THEY WANTED TO SPLIT THE COST OF THE REPAIR AND THEY BROKE IT. WE DIDNT AGREE AND THEY PAID FOR THE ENTIRE REPAIR. THE OWNER OF THE COMPANY SAID HE WOULD BE ONE OF THE PAINTERS BUT HE ONLY VISITED THE WORK SITE. WE DIDNT FEEL THAT WAS PROFESSIONAL. FOR THE PRICE, IF YOU ARE WILLING TO KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THEM, IT WOULD BE OK.