ABLE PAINT CONTRACTORS

This was a tiresome experience and not one I will repeat with John. What I thought would be a 2-3 days job [oh how naïve I was] took 5 days to complete. Removing wallpaper is tedious work and John spent about a day and a half to complete. Since I didn't have to do this myself, I was thrilled and pleased to think one more day [and maybe a few hours extra] of painting and we're done with this project. However, I never expected that prep and painting would take 3 additional days to complete. John works EXTREMELY slow and doesn't respond well to being rushed along. If you try he just starts spouting about how everything is a numbers games, certain stages need to dry overnight, and if I don't believe him just call the paint store and ask them myself. He finished removing the wallpaper by mid afternoon on day 2, did a small amount of prep on the walls then packed up and left. Only to come back for 2 hours on day 3 day to caulk. Yep, all he did on the 3rd day was spend 2 hours caulking, then left. I get that caulk needs to dry, what I don't understand [and we had words about this] is why he didn't caulk on day 2 so that it could dry overnight. Then paint the next day [maybe two] and voila the job is done. His way added a full day to this project and dragged it out longer than it needed to be. The paint job is okay and John is pleasant enough. My comments here are not about the paint job itself, but the total number of DAYS that it took to complete. John operates on a time and material basis. So 25 hours is 25 hours, but he spread those hours over 5 long days. Wish I had understood up front that this was a much longer time commitment than I anticipated.

I really wish I was writing a better review for this, because my overall experience with John was very positive, right up to the point where I got the bill.  When we initially discussed the project, he gave me an estimate of $1,050 (he says his estimate was $1,150, but that's not what I had written down) and told me it might be "a bit higher or lower, depending on how things go."  I had asked him to paint a stripe along the wall in my office, and he was up front that he wasn't sure how that was going to go, so it might be a little more.  It took a solid two (2) weeks to complete the project, including a few days with another contractor to provide some Sheetrock patching ($375) that I chose to do based on John's suggestion.  I also asked John to paint an extra piece of trim between the dining room and the 1/2 bath, so I expected the project to be slightly more than the $1,050 we discussed - however, I was not AT ALL prepared for a final bill of $1,545 - that is 50% higher than the original estimate, and completely unacceptable to me.  Unfortunately, I foolishly agreed to this project without a written firm estimate and trusted that John would honor his verbal quote and notify me if things started to get to the point where we would be exceeding the quote - it appears my trust was misplaced.  John truly is a very nice man and he is an excellent painter - the quality of the work is outstanding; however, nothing can excuse the fact that his final bill was 50% higher than the estimate.

I am choosing to give an overall rating of "D" for John, even though the only thing that went wrong with this project was the price; unfortunately, that price went REALLY wrong.  I had a good conversation with John after he presented the bill, and told him this was completely unacceptable to me.  We had talked about doing several more rooms in the house (in fact, I was hoping to have the whole house repainted in stages over the next 6 months or so), however, this is not going to happen.  I told John how disappointed I was in the pricing, and that because of that I would not be using him again and I would be writing a negative (but honest) review on Angie's List about his service.  I am extremely disappointed in how this turned out, as I truly enjoyed working with John and was looking forward to hiring him for more work.  Unfortunately, I believe that when you give a verbal quote you are giving your word, and a man is only as good as his word.  John made the choice to charge me far more than the agreed-upon price and as such, he will not be getting any additional business from me.

He did an excellent job. I had tried to paint the living room myself and really messed up the accent wall with to much paint coats trying to correct my mistakes. John knew exactly what was needed to correct . He is very detail oriented. Dependable, great at communicating with me via phone and in person. When he took off the interior doorbell plastic cover, he took the time to clean it. He is very neat and organized, I never came home to a mess after a day of painting, his supplies were always neatly stacked in corner. One day I had blocked off room for pets and forgot to move cat litter box , John heard cat meow and figured out what she needed and helped her, that really meant a lot to me . I am extremely pleased with my newly painted living room! I remember when he came to give estimate, I was unsure about my paint color choice, John suggested that I paint a small area of the colors on the wall and then decide, he could always paint over. I am so glad I did that, as I did not like my first paint choice once seeing it on the wall! I will most definitely call John with Able Paint Contractors again when ready to have another room of my home painted !

He is very detail oriented. He knows everything about painting.The price was a little high, but you get what you pay for.