Mera Painting & Home Design

November 2020, I settled with Mera for some long-awaited work on my 125-year-old house. I worked with Chris before and was very satisfied with the work his team completed a few years earlier. Unfortunately, there were signs of trouble early on. A few months later, Chris had his assistant send out an email stating the pricing would need to revise upward $11,500 considering an accounting error one month before the work was to begin. After some back and forth, the original pricing was honored. Three weeks late on the scheduled start time, Chris’s team removed all the Aluminum siding on my second level, porch decking, and stairs as expected. Chris visited after the demo then sent new carpenters to review and provide new pricing. What? We settled on the contracts over 6 months ago and he accepted down payments. Multiple carpenters reviewed the job with little or no info about what was required or previously agreed to rebuild months earlier. At this point, my property was the embarrassment of the neighborhood. A few days later after meeting with his new carpenter, Chris attempted to increase the pricing by an additional $30,000 combined for both previously contracted efforts. The conversation was heated. I pointed out in detail that the disputed work was included in the contract for the porch, but Chris would not honor it. The porch was dropped from the work later to be added back after we settled on a lower number. Work began but the new team destroyed multiple pieces of lumber using a learn as you go approach as well a portion of my porch wall. Shortly after, I dismissed the latest team and removed the porch for good from the work. I later learned he did not order the decking material or have a carpenter available to start. I asked him for a receipt for the ordered material, but he refused to provide or pick up my calls. Although the porch was dropped from the work, the wood under the previous siding needed a lot of attention. Chris found another carpenter, gave him a brief background and sent him over. He is very hands off with his contractors providing no supervision or follow-up to their questions. This put me in the position to repeatedly review the scope with this week’s carpenter or ask them to stop work as discussed above. After 15 plus contract revisions, arguments, and $11,000 out of pocket to Mera. I told Chris not to send any more workers. Imagine not being able to use either of your front doors, wraparound porch you purchased the house for or leaving your back door to retrieve your mail for months. Luckily, I found another contractor. $40, 000 dollars latter, my porch looks beautiful. But don’t take this point lightly. The work did not complete until after Thanksgiving that began on May 7th. Last year was exceeding difficult for contractors to staff and material pricing increases are very real. It was very difficult finding a contractor to repair the work another did incorrectly. I was lucky. I lost quite a bit a sleep wondering when my repairs would complete or if I could find someone competent to do the work. Life is not HGTV. Unfortunately, my nightmare continues. A few years prior to hiring Mera, new roofs were installed on all three structures across my property. Last week, I received a $9000 quote to repair damage on the porch roof. One of Chris carpenters drove nails through the porch ceiling, roof decking, and shingles in addition to incorrect use of a ladder on the same roof tearing up multiple shingles. Thus far, I’m $51,000 out of pocket to repair the porch correctly and monies paid to Mera. As a multiple property owner, I’m embarrassed I hired someone with such little care for their customers and hired staff. As of today, or 140 plus days after Mera’s demo, my scheduled property repairs and paint are still not complete. I have the pictures, emails, and text messages to further detail all above but take no pleasure in posting a review like this. I hope this saves someone from the nightmare I experienced with Mera Home design This this spring, early summer the house paint and remaining carpentry will be complete almost two years after hiring Mera

Drip marks on vinyl siding, porch cement stairs and driveway; Owner hung up on our phone call.

We are very satisfied with the work that was done. We worked with Christian for estimates, Gravin and his crew, and Alfredo and his crew for the actual work. Our laundry room needed to have drywall removed and new drywall installed Gravin and his crew did a good job. Both teams met the deadlines that were set. The work was done neatly. There were no paint splashes where they shouldn't be. Our questions were answered, and our concerns acknowledged in a professional manner. All of the men were responsible, polite and very pleasant. I would highly recommend Mera Painting, Inc.

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Christian, Hector and the team did a great job. Christians father does the wood repairs prior to painting and he did an amazing job even in areas we did not notice. Small issue with daily trash but a quick call resolved this and from there on it was smooth sailing. The workmanship was top quality and we could not be happier with the results. Our home is 140 yrs old and needed a lot of attention and the team did all they could to bring her back to glory. They have several jobs in town at all times and word has clearly spread. Nice job, guys.

They did a phenomenal job, the house looks brand new. They took a lot of time preparing the surfaces for painting so that they wouldn't crack in the future. They knew how to repair small cracks in my popcorn ceiling too. They were totally professional and quickly responded to phone calls or texts.

They were prompt and the price was good. I thought they did an excellent prep job. They got the job done in about 2 weeks and they usually sent several people out to do the job each day. The cleanup was excellent and they left everything clean which was nice.

Had a great foreman, They were efficient. would recommend. Resaonably priced , had several other estimates. were not cheapest, but seemed best overall

My 1920 three level Four Square was meticulously sanded 95% to the bare cedar shakes, power washed, and painted with one coat of primer and 2 coats of Benjamin Moore latex paint. I have almost 50 windows and an open front porch with wainscoting and 10 posts and bases entailing a good amount of trim work. Christian Mera's crew was at my home every day by 8 am and rarely left before 5 pm. They were respectful and friendly. They were attentive and addressed any complaint or question I had and did their best make me happy. The preparation work and painting was done with patience and they did not cut any corners. The carpentry work entailed 10 new bases under the porch posts, replacing damaged cedar shakes where necessary, replacing some window sill molding which had rotted, patching my foundation in a few areas with cement, replacing several boards in my porch floor and adding new glass pane in a cellar window. The paint job was $7,350 and the carpentry work was additional. A language barrier made communicating with the carpenter (Christian Mera's father, Luiz Mera) difficult. The post bases were not installed to my satisfaction and had to be redone. Luiz came back and made them perfect without complaint. My one major complaint is that they did not replace my storm windows and screens and my windows will not go up and down. Christian Mera and his foreman on my job assured me they would return to make sure the windows are not painted shut which would be a big concern. If they do return, I give them a glowing review and have very little negative to say about the entire experience. If they ignore this, I consider this a big negative since i can't open and close many of my 50 windows. I will add to this review when I see if they keep to their promise. All in all, the finished job looks beautiful!

The work was done by a pleasant crew. In hindsight w are not sure why Direct On Metal paint was used for our woodwork. There were minor incidents, like a knocked over can of oil paint, the drop cloths sticking to the freshly painted floorboards (doesn't make them look as smooth as they could) and the sanding of the ceiling being done when the oil paint of the woodwork below was not 100% dry. But the issues came after the work was done. We are in the habit of paying our bills immediately. We had to pay $200 as down-payment (check) and then paid the inside paint job with a separate check from the outside paint job (so all in all three checks). Once the work was done and all the checks cashed, we received a call from the owner to settle outstanding charges (he requested an extra 277$). This prompted us to review and recalculate the agreed work that was done and our payments made. It turned out that our $200 down-payment was never taken into account and that some of the work he claimed we had not paid for with our 3rd check was actually already paid for with our second check. The total amount due for all work contracted (inside and outside) was 2,493.10$ (incl. 7% tax), our 3 checks totaled to 2,590$ which resulted in a difference of $96.90 (owed to us). We tried to go over the items during several phone calls but could not get the owner to see that we did not owe them any money, but instead they owed us, so we agreed that we need to meet in person (though it would have been easy to just add up all the prices for the work contracted and compare with the total of all 3 checks cashed). Christian Mera did not come to the first agreed meeting, we then suggested a second date. He confirmed this date on the same day in the afternoon to my private email (I was working and don't check my private email at work on a regular basis) and so I did not manage to come home earlier to meet him. We agreed a third date and he again he did not show up. We suggested a fourth and last date and did not get any response since. In addition to the nuisance with the billing, we now found that the paint is cracked and flaking off the foyer ceiling after less than 2 months. Of course we are not pleased with this and requested him to review the damage and make a suggestion on how to deal with it. He has not responded to any of our emails, nor has he responded to any Better Business Bureau attempts yet to clarify and resolve this issue (we had requested payment of the overcharged amount plus a refund of the cost for the foyer ceiling job). Update: Just noticed that the paint of the balcony railing (part of the outside paint job) is cracking and flaking off in several areas after less than 1/2 year. Therefore changed 'quality' to D. As of today still have not heard back from the service provider. Update 2: Yes, provider came back (after Angie's List intervention), agreed that the paint job of the railing wasn't done well and offered to fix it. That seemed like great news until we saw that the "fix" was somebody coming out for 2 hours and just adding another layer of paint onto some of the pain points. As is to be expected - and discussed with the owner - the paint is cracking and flaking all over the place (funny enough this is not affecting the two areas where he pointed out some rotting wood). They just wanted to get rid of us (and Angie's List mediation service) and at that stage we just let it go (far too much stress involved). We'll have to have it all redone, albeit not by Mera. Therefore changed overall experience to D.

I hired Mera to do some carpentry work and to re-stain some doors. I gave them a deposit in June and after months of chasing them they finally did some of the work four months later in June. Some of the carpentry work was acceptable, but some of the work (exterior trim) was not good quality and I had to hire another carpenter to fix the issues. They also were not clean and left a number of caulk stains on blue stone walkways and my driveway.

This was our first large job on our house and we could not be more pleased with the results. The paint job is beautiful, they did such an expert job sanding and painting I have literally no complaints about the work done. They began by prepping the house for sanding, at all times the workers were professional, dedicated, and so hardworking. They always arrived promptly and the place always looked immaculate. They did a color check once the house was sanded, and then moved onto the painting and carpentry repair. Everything was done beautifully, our house is from 1931 and it's absolutely restored to its glory days. The only downside was that it was sometimes difficult to get in touch with Christian, but we would absolutely put up with that for the wonderful wonderful work and the excellent price.

They were very good; the painters were very careful and the man who did the repairs was very complete. We liked them; they were good and we were very satisfied with the way things turned out. They did what they promised and did some other work after that for us like painting a room. We did not have any problems with anything afterwards. Their pricing was good; we had several estimates and this company was more thorough as far as checking to make sure about any damage and things like that. They were very professional and quick to do what we needed.

Christian Mera gave us the best of three quotes, took a 10% deposit, started when promised, respected the weather to not stain in incorrect conditions, did meticulous work including additional things we didn't expect. Cleaned up neatly and was always available when I called him. I have no complaints and only compliments. A neighbor saw his work and hired him. Alberto his crew chief was friendly and introduced himself to us. I strongly recommend Mera Painting.

Amazing A+++ overall experience with Mera Painting, Inc. and I would highly recommend this company without reservations! I received three other quotes prior to hiring, Mera Painting, Inc. which were either more expensive or comparable however Christian the owner demonstrated the extraordinary degree of professionalism, expertise and customer service I required. I dealt with the owner of the company throughout the entire process, as promised and he was always available, truly outstanding communication and great work ethic. During our initial consult Christian came to my home and spent several hours assisting me with color choices for each room, explaining the entire painting process from prep to finish, time-frame necessary to complete the job, which was done exactly on time and he was extremely helpful in answering all of my questions always with a smile and great service. He has great expertise, is very professional and his customer service is beyond compare all of which made me feel very comfortable using his company and now recommending them. On our scheduled day Christian showed up on time with a full crew and foreman, all of whom were skilled professionals with great expertise and each took great pride in their work while also demonstrating wonderful customer service which made me feel very assured I had made the correct choice for my painting needs. They handled my furniture with respect and great care, moved it to the center of each room, covered it securely and also covered my floors, light fixtures, etc. to ensure everything was more than adequately protected although not a drop of paint was found anywhere it should not have been, as they are extremely careful and they are so good at what they do! Our painting job took 3 full days and everyday the crew showed up on time with the same outstanding degree of professionalism and worth ethic. Christian was always readily available and even after some of the rooms were painted I changed my mind on the color of the focal walls, but even this was well received with wonderful service and they were quick to go out, find the paint, have it tinted darker per my new request and repaint the walls to my ultimate satisfaction despite the fact the original color choices were mine. They were always more than happy to do whatever was necessary to make me a happy satisfied customer and they surely did! The end result was amazing and I am so pleased! I am actually so pleased I am using Mera Painting, Inc. again very soon for more painting so if you are looking for the best, look no further! I may indeed be one of the toughest customers when it comes to painting, as my requirements are nothing short of perfection which is exactly what I got with Mera Painting, Inc. Christian and his crew are true professionals who take great pride in their work, have great work ethics, outstanding skill/expertise and therefore provide the customer with a wealth of experience lending a wonderful job topped with excellent service at a very competitive price.