FIRST AID PAINTING INC

No show, lost deposit. Does not pick or return calls has disappeared with deposit. Brad seemed like a good person but not a positive experience.

Worst experience we've ever had with any remodeling project. We hired this company to paint our family room, paint the kitchen cabinets, install hidden hinges on cabinets and convert the existing desk in kitchen to a cabinet.  The owner of the company, Brad, said job would be done in 3 days and took our deposit of $1100. He actually acted like he was scheduling a crew to start work while sitting in our kitchen. On day 1, a painter showed up, along with the owner, and stated they "would be dedicated to us completely until the job was done" and that they would complete the entire job in 3 days. 

Things went downhill quickly. The "crew" Brad supposedly had lined to work in our house really only consisted of 1 person at a time. The painter didn't completely cover the furniture or countertops so there were paint spatters on everything, including my family room furniture and kitchen granite countertops. A few days later the owner shows up with the cabinet doors that were supposed to have been spray painted and hung them with the hidden hinges. The hinges weren't installed correctly and the painting was awful. A couple of the doors literally fell of in my hands. There were visible brush strokes and chipped paint everywhere. They never showed up when expected and only responded to us after repeated texts and calls from my husband. There was little to no communication about schedule and when they finally did start installing the cabinet to replace the existing desk it was off center and Brad lied over and over about when the new doors would arrive.  
  
Finally after 3 weeks and continued nonresponse, we told him that we didn't want him to return to our house, that we would agree to let him leave the work unfinished and that we would not be paying the balance. We received a short reply where Brad agreed and apologized for all the delays. Clearly he never intended on coming back to finish the work. He had no idea how to install the cabinet, had no qualified subcontractors and had been lying to us during the entire process. 

I want to do everything I can to make sure no one else falls for this inept contractor and his inability to do anything he says he can do. 

Lorne did a great job and in record time. I was having issues with a Twongo deal and the painter who was supposed to do it. Once I got Twongo to honor the deal with Lorne he was quick to follow up and schedule. He was very courteous and professional.
P.S.  I think Brad owns the company but he was not very responsive to my calls and I believe is the owner of Twongo also. 

very difficult to schedule services.  Merchant does not return phone calls or emails.  Finall service was scheduled with requested painter.  Painter arrived with crew of 2 others.  After a few minutes the requested painter left the other two who did not speak english.  They were left without a ladder and could not properly complete the job.  They painted the lower trim areas and got paint on windows, missed spots and did not have the equipment to complete the job.   The merchant would not call me back or refund my money.

We needed to update the paint.  The online scheduling was nice and easy but unfortunately there were scheduling issues.  There are apparently only 2 crews and the night before our originally scheduled service we got a call saying the crew couldn't make it, then on the day of the reschedule I waited 1.5 hours and called because the crew had not shown up.  I finally got a call back and their vehicle had broken down and I had to re-schedule again.  On the date of the service they did arrive on time and did a nice job.  So given the value and the workmanship I would use them again but i would be hesitant if I had a strict time line.

This was the worst experience with a handyman service I have ever experienced.  We purchased a coupon through Twongo.com and made an appointment.  The workers did not show up.  We made additional arrangements, still no-show.  Finally, after multiple phone calls and threats, the workers showed up at 9:30 AM for a 9:00 AM appointment on a Saturday.
It took an hour and all 3 workers to hang 2 pictures and a mirror.  Then we showed them what we needed in the garage.  The worker said that they can't do what we asked.  He was informed that we had all the materials for the shelves - we clearly indicated to the company that we needed shelves built.  The company had agreed to perform the services before we made the appointment. 
The worker called Brad to explain the situation - we called Brad to get to a working point.  However, Brad could not be reached.
We were wasting time waiting for Brad so we decided to forgo the shelves and have the workers fix the peeling paint in the garage, kitchen and hallway ceiling.  The first words were "we can't do that."  After negotiating for 20 minutes, the workers agreed.  There were 3 men, so while one was priming the garage wall, we tried to have the other start in the kitchen.  The worker refused.  Even though, two were sitting on their behinds watching the one worker, the head worker refused to allow his men to go and complete the necessary prep in the other areas.
After some disagreement, the workers decided to leave.  He said we should discuss the situation with Brad and left.

You are better off hiring a chimpanzee to paint your house than to call these people. After scheduling my first 2 appointments online, I was satisfied. Then, a few minutes before midnight, just 8 hours before my 8am paint job was supposed to start, and after I had arranged furniture and purchased paint for the job, I got an email from Brad Haferty saying the rain messed up their week and they couldn't make it and I needed to reschedule. By that time, there were no open appointments until later that month.  Brad's email said that he would double up on the number of painters and have them there the whole day to make up for it. I scheduled the first appointment. It was only a half day with 2 painters. Both spoke almost no English.  One was like a dinosaur, spending most of his time watching, and ever so slowly removing light switches and tape.  They spent a lot of time on their cell phones calling their families, though.  I kept explaining which walls to do but they still never quite understood. By the end, the paint job wasn't finished, and they left 30 minutes early.  I called Brad and got no response. I emailed and got no response. I then called Brad's wife, who happened to be the one who called me to let me know the painters had arrived.  She was actually helpful. She said that they still owed me time.  Brad didn't think so.
I scheduled the next appointment, reminding them to bring a tall ladder.  The painters never arrived. I called and got no response from Brad. I emailed, but no response. I called the wife, and was told that the painter couldn't make it.  It would have been nice had they called.I rescheduled again for a weekend appointment.  I was out of town and left early to be back in time for the painters. On the way, Brad texted me saying the painters couldn't make it because of a soccer game. I emailed and asked him to call me and asked him again if the painters had long ladders.   I scheduled another appointment. An hour after the appointment was supposed to start, the wife called and said that it was raining, so the driver got a flat tire and sent the other painters to another job. I reminded the wife to ask the painters to bring a tall ladder. Finally, the painters showed up for the final appointment, but the wife called to say that they ran out of materials and I had to buy plastic drop cloths and painters tape.  I had paid for painters and materials but whatever. I got the dinosaur again. 
Ever so slowly, most of the paint job was finished, including the half-painted wall from before.  They brought a tiny stepstool.  As a result, there is an unpainted corner of my ceiling.
Bottom line: Brad never returns calls or emails. This company never keeps its schedule. The wife, who is apparently a housewife, not employed by the company, is the only reliable person in the entire company. The painters just dump your belongings into the bathroom sink if they are in the way, no matter how delicate and expensive those things are.  And the stress, missed work, rescheduled appointments, and purchased materials don't make it worth it to use this company, even and especially if you are using some type of daily deal or voucher. Stay away. Any other company on the planet is more reputable.

Do not use First Aid Painting!! My experience with this outfit was the single worst contracting experience I have had in almost 20 years of home ownership. F is not low enough. I would rate them 0 on a scale of 0-100. The fiasco began on the first day. I instructed Mr. Halferty to contact me to make sure I was home when they pressure washed my house because several of my windows were known to leak. I arrived home one day to find a crew pressure washing my house with no prior notification. Of course there was water running down my interior walls which created a big mess. And none of the crew spoke English so I could not communicate to them what they were doing wrong. The fiasco continued the first day the paint crew was on site. The contract specified a Premium Sherwin Williams paint (I paid extra for that) but the (again non-English speaking) crew was using cheap builder quality paint. Over the next month, the mistakes made and short cuts attempted were so numerous there is not enough room to list them all but I will try. 1) Damaged two trim pieces by dropping something heavy on them (they did a cheap repair job vs. replacement of the damaged pieces, 2) Did not paint the top dimension of the window frames that I could not directly see or the bottom dimension of the 1st story window frames even after repeated notification by me, 3) Sub-contractor hired to replace the double-hung window cancelled 2 appts and did not bother to call after skipping the 3rd appt, 4) Crew tried to get out of applying the gutter de-greasing (crew member huffed when I showed him it was in the contract) and the final result did not restore my gutters to a "bright baked-on finish". The application of the de-greaser was rushed and I couldn't tell anything had been done), 5) Damaged my gutters when replacing a portion of the fascia (gutters replaced ay my expense), 6) Crew kept painting right up until a rainstorm started that washed off a good amount of paint. I had to check everything this outfit did because they could not be trusted to perform the contracted work items and certainly not with any degree of quality workmanship. I found the crew to be lazy and prone to cut any corner they could and I found the on-site supervisor to be incompetent. Run away from First Aid Painting!

Horrible

I've taken a while to report on this company. The first impression was great. A reasonable quote, and the promise of great quality. I received however a WAY below average job. The exterior of the house was supposed to be cleaned and then painted by brush. After close inspection the paint wasn't adhering to the exterior, (probably bad preparation of the surface) so I had to have the entire exterior repainted. The repaint had to be sprayed, but at least the house was finally fully painted. There was some wood rot around the front door. He had a sub contractor (I found out later) replace the wood. I found out a few weeks later that the same guy had painted top coat /semi gloss on top of the bare wood, no primer at all. Needless to say the paint started peeling, and it took sereral attempts for anyone to come back to fix the problem. The wood was also left with a slope that allowed water to sit. This also had to be fixed. A year later I had to have much of the replacement wood around my door done by another contractor and it's now finally the way it should have been. Of course I paid for that out of my own pocket. I now have to replace other areas where the wood is now already rotting again. The paint is also beginning to show mildew on the trim paint. I paid for 1/3 up front, 1/3 on start of the job, and 1/3 on completion. If I hadn't held onto that final 1/3 payment I'm sure much of the needed work would not have been done, especially in a timely manner. Over all I paid around 1/3 too much, and the quality of work hasn't lasted very long at all. A picture says it all. I would never recommend this company.

This project was a total nightmare from start to finish. For starters, the owner told us that he personally supervised the work. We specifically asked this when he came to give an estimate because we are paying not only for the paint but for a well-managed project. However this was NOT the case. The only time I saw him after the estimate was for 10 minutes on the day the painters arrived, and he probably only made an appearance then because we had threatened to fire him due to completely inadequate performance during the pressure-washing phase of the project! It went downhill from there. No one showed up when they were supposed to show up. I sat home several days, waiting on crews to arrive, only to have no-shows. No one called to explain these no-shows. I always had to contact THEM to try to find out why I had been wasting my time waiting on unreliable people. We had reschedule after reschedule, and always for a variety of reasons, the only one with any merit being weather. The other reasons given were unreliable people, the owner being on vacation, and their schedule being limited due to their daughter training for the Jr. Olympics. Secondly, the job wasn't done according to specifications listed in the written contract. The pressure washers were supposed to use their own water, but they tapped my outside faucets and depleted my well. Finally, the owner/"supervisor" seemed oblivious about everything. He would call and say he couldn't paint due to weather, but the fact was that he couldn't paint due to the pressure washing not being completed. He didn't know that until we told him, and his call came BEFORE the pressure washing had been completed. He didn't know his own crew hadn't shown to complete the pressure washing! The nail in the coffin was that I asked to see the paint on the day they finally showed up, and he informed me that he was using a different type of deck stain but didn't have it with him. It still had to be purchased. I researched the stain and approved his last-minute substitution, but at the end of the day ended up with yet another uniformed product change: a product that wasn't appropriate for my deck. I wanted a deck stain that was supposed to be good for 3 years (Wolman's Extreme or Sikkens). I ended up with Cabot's Timber Oil, which, if the can is to be believed, is for exotic hardwood surfaces like teak and mahogany, NOT a pressure-treated pine porch! Finally, the paint and stain were applied without preparing the surfaces: no sanding away of rust, no sanding/priming wood, and not cleaning the porch floor correctly. The deck product was applied over DIRT! Nails were not reset on the porch despite this task being listed in the contract. Furthermore, I have paint and stain spills and drips all over my concrete parking area and my brick, and the contract specified that the crew would clean up all spills and drips.