COLLEGE WORKS PAINTING - Missouri

Garrett Miles painted my fence and patio. The experience was awesome and he was a true professional from beginning to end.

Beautiful! My house is transformed and my painter(s) was friendly and responsive.

Kind of slow, but when made aware of problem areas took care of them. Fence ended up taking a couple more gallons.

Clay is a really nice guy. Very responsive and easy to work with. We really loved the color and he listened very well to our needs. We would use them again.

Everything went great!

Garrett and his crew with College Works painting did an outstanding job from initial contact to completion of the project. They were professional, timely, organized, respectful and went over and beyond our expectations. The quality of their work , communication skills and timely completion of the project makes them one of the premier choices for anyone looking for interior or exterior painting and/or staining projects. We can't say enough great things about our overall experience with Garrett and his company!

the entire experience was terrible. they did not prep anything, power wash, or use drop clothes. they ended putting more paint on the windows, trim and soffits then they did on the actual house. they skipped painting all the trim work. (They also used the wrong paint from what was quoted) the crew needed to return to the house 4 or 5 time to complete the work. I would walk the painters through the issues and come back after they said they completed the items only to discover they did not do anything. when talking to the supervisors they promised compensation but never took action. I actually had to show the painters at my house how to hold a paint brush and how to smooth out drips. The painter said they did not receive training and was promoted that this was on the job training (which is the opposite of what is promised.) none of the painters on our project had any experience. I have been trying to get a Lien Waiver for 6 months now but no one returns phone calls of emails, anytime I call College works I am sent to the 'supervisor's' voicemail.

The painter, Zoe, did a thorough job and double checked for perfection when done.

Quinlan Moll and his crew were prompt and communicative. Responded to specific requests. Helpful in selection of exterior color. Knowledgeable re: paint products. Quinlan had a well organized crew. Duration of job was remarkably quick.

Perfect. Quintana Moll was our contact person and painter. He was prompt, courteous, professional, and through. I would highly recommend him and College Works Painting.

Terrible. Spilled and splattered paint on brick and soffits. Had to hire someone to finish.

All of the painting was completed in a timely manner. Montana even held off painting around two windows on my request due to that fact that the windows were to be replaced just a few days after painting. Montana came back out and completed painting the window trim after the windows were replaced. There was also some issues with the painting on the front door so Montana repainted the front door until it met with my approval. Montana worked with me on times and dates that would work for both myself and the painting crew.

We found out about College Works through Facebook, and they sent out Zane Heflin and he came out and bid the project and ran us through the materials and how they were going to get our house painted. I listened throughout the day and heard him directing his crew in a very professional and mature manner for a college kid. Our house looks fantastic and we would definitely recommend CollegeWorksPainting for anyone needing a a great paint job from a hardworking college student. Great Job Guys!

Painting crew kept in contact before project started to alert of status of start. Started when they said they would. Were on time, professional and stayed as needed to complete the project. Was receptive to comments and walk throughs for satisfaction. Zane Heflin led a quality crew and made sure we were happy at the end of each day and reviewed the progress to verify all aspects were covered. End project looked fantastic.

unknown

We purchased our home last year and are the second owners.  The house is about 8 years old and is still in it's first coat of paint.  It is in pretty good shape but the paint was definitely faded and starting to break down in some locations.  We took about 6 bids from different companies.  Of those, College Works Painting stood out as the best.  They weren't the least expensive (actually on the more expensive end) but their professionalism, dedication to communication, and desire to please set them apart.  
The crew came out and took about 3 days to finish the job.  They had to deal with some inclement weather but prioritized areas of the house so that they were still working, even if it was raining.  There were a few things that we were concerned about during the process but they took time each day to do a walk around the house with us to explain what they were doing and to ask for areas of feedback.  Each time we pointed out something we had noticed as sub par, they fixed it the next day and revisited the area in our next walk around.
In the end, the house looks great.  We had great communication throughout the project to make sure that we were all on the same page and that we were getting our money's worth out of the project.  I would recommend College Works Painting highly to any of my neighbors and will most likely use them again next time we have an exterior painting project.

Overall, I would give this service a "C-." The guys who did the work were hard workers and friendly, and our contact was wonderful to work with (FAIRLY responsive, punctual, always willing to help). The price is somewhat on par with similar painting services, though we did appreciate the discount when we signed the agreement and their general friendly nature. The guys were more than adequate at what they did and efficient as the weather would allow, always picked up at the end of the workday, and were always willing to address any concerns we had. Plus, we wanted to help out some college kids.

The quality of the paint was great (Sherwin Williams), and our main contact did and excellent job expalininng pricing, options, schedules, etc. HOWEVER, I would not recommend this service to anyone. For the price, the quality of the job us sub-par?mostly because it was not done by professional painters. Plus, they were sloppy: paint on shingles, streaks, paint on cement. 

The marketing materials are murky on this fact and hint that college workers will be teamed up with experienced, professional painters. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. And, judging by price estimate I received, their cost wasn't THAT much cheaper (again, somewhat competitive). 

Because they are not full-time painters, they struggled somewhat with the surface of our house (stucco)...and it was later revealed to me that none of them had ever painted a stucco house. As such, the paint job is fairly "streaking" in spots. This probably wouldn't have been an issue with a more seasoned crew. Also, I was disappointed in some of the smaller repairs (e.g. rotted wood that needed patching) would have been fixed in a more professional manner...or that they might have brought in someone who is used to fixing those things. 

Lastly, because it was a rainy late spring, weather hampered the job a little...though not to any great extent. What was frustrating is, because these are college kids and their company caps them at 40 hours of work a week, they cannot put in additional hours to catch up on a job when the weather is dry. Again, these are hourly college workers, not professionals who do what they need to do to get a job done. I imagine we missed out on a solid day-and-a -half because of that. I need to stress that this was not the fault of our crew, but rather an unrealistic company policy.

They were very friendly and professional and showed up on time. They seemed to work very hard and seemed to want to make sure that we were happy with their work.

I'm updating this review (August 2014) to reflect the fact that many areas of paint peeled off our house within months of the job.  It has been very difficult to get College Works to repair the work.  A young man came to our home yesterday and his "repair" work made our house look worse.  DO NOT use College Works.  The young students mean well, but do not know how to paint houses.  Wish we would have paid a bit more money and hired a professional.

Painting & caulking is of very low quality & incomplete. Damage to patio, driveway, window & door trim, garage door, plants, roof, flashing, and siding. Contracted w T, business undergrad & intern of College Works (CW), to be a project manager for team of skilled, experienced painters–NOT our chief painter. As work progressed, lack of experience in applying caulk, operating a paint sprayer, raising a ladder, and generally performing task of house-painting became more & more clear. Manager, Dan, gave on-the-job sprayer training to T & other multiple CW employees on our property. T was then left to spray paint without an experienced painter remaining on site. T received “ladder safety training” the week prior to our job. While on job, T waited for Dan to be on site to give him instructions before raising extension ladder for the 1st time. Summary of problems that we are aware of as of this writing: 1) Cedar siding painted unevenly, too thick in places & too thin in others, some boards have little-to-no coverage at all. When the issue of uneven, sloppy coverage was raised w T, he had no answer. When we asked manager Dan the same question, he tried to explain away concerns w/ statements like "it’s because we're using red paint" or "it’s because you have cedar siding.” Red paint & cedar were known requirements when the job was bid. 2) Caulking is incomplete, uneven & very sloppy. 3) Deck is partially finished. 4) Trim areas are untreated. 5) Damage to garden after team told multiple times not to enter site from that side of the house. 6) Masking process damaged trim & prevented visibility for 4 days. 7) CW red paint on: patio, vinyl trim, driveway, garage door, plants, roof shingles, flashing, and skylight. 8) Corner piece of siding missing. 9) St. Louis manager Dan was disrespectful, combative, deceitful, and threatening. We had to call the police to get him to leave our property. To underscore the inexperience and lack of supervision: The CW team painted portions of our home past dark – as late as 8:00PM. Note that our home is surrounded by trees and dark comes early. They did this completely of their own accord. The College Works website answers the question “Will they be practicing on my home? Are they just learning to paint?” with the response “Each Branch Operator is put through an extensive training program during the spring months so they are completely prepared to take care of your home. The experience of the painters varies, however we will not leave inexperienced people to paint your home. We guarantee that you, like thousands of others, will be happy with our work.” Contrary to the College Works quoted claim above, our College Works Intern, T, and his assistant were clearly “practicing” on our home, these “inexperienced people” were left by themselves to work, they clearly did not receive “extensive training”, and we are not “happy” about that. After the damage had been done and conflict began, T apologetically told us he was “required to paint his first home.”  Unfortunately, this was our home.  Manager Dan focused only on deflecting responsibility away from the obvious inexperience of his painters and was unable to address the issues in a respectful and businesslike manner. We do not trust that College Works can deliver.   We have tried in good faith via written documentation to get this resolved thorough Sean, VP for College Works. This has been unfruitful.

Did not do prep work described in contract and promotional materials.  Painted right over old, flaking paint.  I thought something did not look right so when i looked at high areas on a ladder, they had only painted the really bad spots and did not even paint large areas that were not in such bad shape to start with.  The "college students" looked more like escapees from a prison work release program.  
I tried several times to get them to do it right but with no success.  I finally had to throw them off my property but, unfortunately I had already paid them much of the contracted money.

They said they had experience painting, they did not. They said they were not college kids and they were. They did not do a good job and we had to fire them. We lots our initial deposit of 2,500.00.

This was the first time I have used their services. It went okay; I do not think they did some little things they said they would do like clean up the paint chips. I really had to supervise to make sure they did not miss things. But they were on time, friendly and courteous.

We contracted with Jake, a college student working as an intern for College Works. The contract was signed in April and at the end of September I contacted College Works at their 1-800 number as we had not been scheduled or contacted concerning the painting. The customer service rep assured me I would be contacted within 24 hours. Jake called the next day and set up the painting schedule. Because our job ran past the end of the summer most of the summer students were unavailable so Jake contracted with a professional painter. We were informed the job would take a week but the painting ended up taking almost three weeks. Jake finally finished the painting himself working on the weekend. The paint colors were matched well and the finished product was very professional. We had to be patient with the schedule and the elongated time to complete. The price was very reasonable.

THE WORKERS ARRIVED RELATIVELY ON TIME. THEY WERE POLITE, BUT THEY DIDN'T DELIVER THE PROMISED WORK. THEY DID NOT USE PRIMER ON A BARE WOOD DOOR FRAME. THEY DIDN'T TAPE OR DROP CLOTH OR PROTECT THE BRICKWORK FROM SPRAY. AS A RESULT THE PLANTS SURROUNDING THE HOUSE ARE COVERED WITH PAINT SPRAY AND DRIPS. THE BRICKWORK AND THE FRONT AND BACK PATIOS AND SCREEN DOOR ALSO HAVE SPRAY AND DRIPS. THEY DID NOT RECAULK ANYWHERE, SO WITHIN A WEEK, LARGE CRACKS REAPPEARED WHERE THE WOOD MEETS THE BRICK. THEY DIDN'T SCRAPE THE RUST SPOTS OR SPACKLE ANY HOLES. ALL THE PAINTED SURFACES WERE SHADOWY. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS POOR QUALITY PAINT OR THEIR HANDIWORK. SIX WEEKS LATER, MANY PHONE CALLS AND EMAILS LATER, THEY ARE FINALLY OUT HERE TO REPAIR THE ORIGINAL SHODDY WORK. THEY PLAN TO SCRUB THE BRICKWORK AND REPAINT, RECAULK, AND USE PRIMER. HOWEVER, THE COMPANY HEADQUARTERS WON'T NEGOTIATE ANY REFUND FOR DAMAGED PLANTS OR PROPERTY, SAYING I SIGNED AND PAID, SO THEY'RE NOT LIABLE.

THE COMPANY EMPHASIZED THEIR PREP WORK IN DISCUSSION, BUT DID A POOR JOB OF IT IN ACTUALITY. OLD PAINT WAS NOT COMPLETELY REMOVED, CAULKING WAS DONE POORLY AND A FAIR AMOUNT OF MESS WAS LEFT AROUND OUR HOUSE. WE COMPLAINED TO THE REPRESENTATIVE AND HAD MOST THINGS RESOLVED, THOUGH STILL AT A SUB-PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF QUALITY. WE WOULD NOT EVER USE THEM AGAIN.