Pattersons Painting.Com

When Mr. Patterson wrote the estimate, he added an extra $2,000 for the carpentry work explaining that this was needed because extensive repair work was needed when some areas of the old wood trim were removed. I agreed to this but insisted that I be informed of any such work as it arose. Mr. Patterson did not inform me about any extra repair work done until well after the fact. There were sections of carpentry work that looked very good, but more that did not. Half of the miter joints were tight but the rest were sloppy with gaps of a quarter inch or more. There were similar size end gaps in the trim and siding. The agreement called for the drip cap above the skirt trim around the entire house to be replaced but was not replaced above the skirt trim on half of the corners of the house. Mr. Patterson frequently claimed to be a perfectionist and when I talked to him about these problems he assured me that they would be resolved. But when they weren't fixed, he first tried to convince me why they weren't really problems, then said that he had already used the additional $2000, complained that he was losing money and refused to fix the problems. I hired Mr. Patterson on 8-12-10. There were many days in September that neither Mr. Patterson nor his crew showed up. In the first week of October, Mr. Patterson informed me that it would cost an additional $6,000 to $8,000 for the actual painting of the house depending on whether I chose latex or oil based paint. On October 12th I talked to him regarding the discrepancy between his charges and the other estimates I had previously obtained. I respectfully requested that he show me a rough but reasonable breakdown of the costs. He refused to do so and walked off the job. I was lucky enough to find another painter to finish the prep work for which Mr. Patterson had already been paid. The new painter did a wonderful job. In hindsight, I can see several things that I should have done to avoid these problems.

It went great! It was essentially a one-man job. Mr. Patterson carefully prepped the walls, including repairing gouges, nail holes, and poorly taped sheet rock. He taped off all wood trim and the kitchen counter tops. He has a great eye for color, and helped us use some killer colors that made just the right places pop. We were amazed at his freehand brushwork -- he could cut in a line that was perfect from top to bottom. When he started, he took care to cover our carpeting and drape our furniture with drop cloths. At the end of each day, he cleaned up the workspace so we could access all the areas of our home that we needed to. And when the job was over, he painstakingly went over all his work to make sure it reflected a high quality. What we were especially impressed with were his attention to detail, level of skill, knowledge of the profession, desire to satisfy us, his commitment to a job well done, and his readiness to make changes from the original plan when we had those "wonderful new ideas" as the work progressed. He was a self-starter, and always followed through on his word. There were times when he was in our house when we couldn't be home, and we found him completely trustworthy. He also accepted our Labrador retriever into his work plan, including letting her outside when necessary, and playing tug-of-war with her during his breaks. He was wonderful to us and we definitely would use him again.