AL'S PAINTING

Called and set up an appointment to start in the spring gave deposit of $1000.00 on 12/09/2008. Job estimate at this time to paint the whole house, trim the same color was $4100.00 Eddie the salesman wanted to start in March to replace some of the cupped clapboards. It was very cold. but he said his men could get it done in a day and he would only charge 35 dollars an hour as he needed to keep his crew busy. After a discussion with Eddie, I agreed to replace the whole side as he said that they were to many bad ones and it would be better and lest costly in the long run I gave him a check for $1422.00 They showed up a painter and a carpenter with a pickup truck and 2 ladders and a few tools. During work the first day Eddie called one of the crew to see how it was going. I asked him where where the ladder jacks and planks, he said they were on there way. Three days later these guys are still here and no more equipment. They had to go up and down the ladder with one board at a time, so the time it took, to measure, cut and go up and nail a few nails ,come back down, move the ladder, go back up and nail some more etc: etc: etc: because of no real equipment was at least tripled. Some of the clapboards have 4" to the weather and some are 4 1/4 on the same run. At this point I thought maybe the painting part would be better After all it's called Al's Painting. Again they came with only ladders No staging No ladder jacks I picked out the paint and one of the crew picked it up. I was told that some would have to be primed, so off he went to get the primer. After some time one of the crew said that the primer was a light base and to light and would need two coats of paint to cover. The guy that went the first time to get the primer was called off the job to go pressure wash another job. I gave Al's Painting another check on 5/19/2009 for $2500.00 During the whole time there a crew member would leave, then a couple would show up for a half day or so, I gave another check on 5/21/2009 for $2600.00 The owner never came to this job site to see how it was going, and I only saw Eddie The day they started painting Two or three of the base crew were doing a good job, but i would not hire this company again

Al's gave us an estimate which we thought was reasonable and got started quickly. However, they made quite a mess including getting ceiling paint on floors, lamps, and other furniture. After the first day, they left the house a mess and then didn't come back for a week! We had to call a few times to ask if they were even coming back. When they did come back, they made a mess again and ended the job poorly. There were spots that were clearly not painted well. They didn't put anything back together... left the outlet covers all off, didn't put screens back in or light fixtures back on. They also missed one section and we called many times to ask them to come fix it. They never answered. Finally, my husband drove to their office and called them on his cell phone while sitting in the car. The receptionist looked at the phone and then just didn't pick it up. The man who did our estimate was great, nice, professional and informative, and he communicated very well. I wish I could remember his name, because he himself did a good job. However, the services he promised were not delivered. For example, he said our doors would all be brought to their shop and spray painted. Instead they took over our basement to spraypaint them, which wasn't a huge deal, but why say they'd do otherwise? The painters left their trash around as well, and it was hard to live in the house for the week they took to come back and do the second day of painting. It took my husband and I a total of six hours to sweep up, put everything back together, and throw out all the trash like drop cloths, etc. We still have lamps with ceiling paint splatters though. Really, we could have painted just as well ourselves. If we paint inside again, I'd absolutely look elsewhere. I'd also ask about their clean up procedures.