John The Painter

Our house is brick with some areas of painted siding and trim. We met with several painters and liked John at first, he seemed to know what he was doing and was responsive during the estimating process, we also liked his price. We contacted him and told him we wanted to hire him and he said he'd call us back in a month to schedule as he had several projects ahead of us. We were fine with that. 5 weeks later, after we've called him, we met, paid our deposit and he says he can start in couple weeks. Fine, okay we agree. Couple weeks go by, still no one has shown up to the house. We call again, he says he'll send someone out tomorrow. Guess what? No one showed. So after several calls back and forth and him saying someone will be out on this day or this day and no one showing up, about 2-3 weeks after he said he'd start we got one guy out at the house who started caulking and scraping a little. This went on for a while with phone calls back & forth until we could get a crew out to the house to do the work. He always had excuses as to why he couldn't get out there: other jobs were taking longer than he thought, one of his guys quit on him, then it was his van had broken down, problems with his ex-wife, he didn't have money to pay his crew, etc. We found it very unprofessional. We were planning on replacing the side door into the garage as the wood was very damaged. He agreed he could do it if we bought the door and they would install it and paint it along with the house. We purchased the door and John's handyman guy who came out to replace it did a terrible job the first time around, it was crooked and uneven. So he had to re-do it, taking up a lot of time. John did not charge us for the extra time, thankfully. But it did speak to the competency of his crew. After finally getting the paint job done, we at first were happy with it, it was fresh and new and looked better than the old paint. But then after a month or so, we noticed the paint starting to crackle in places and we think it's because they didn't do enough prep work before applying the new paint. We may have gotten what we paid for I guess, as the price was lower than some other estimates we had. I would say the paint job is average-quality. Also, we had discussed replacing a window in the garage and he was going to provide an estimate to do so, after waiting and getting no response, we asked him to just come out and paint the window trim as he said he would and not worry about replacing the window. We had unfortunately already paid him the balance of his invoice (before starting work we paid 40% down) after he had painted the rest of the house, saying he really needed to pay his crew. We thought we could trust him to come back and paint that one window's trim like he said he would if we decided not to replace the window. He was also supposed to come out and paint the exterior part of the back door they couldn't paint when we weren't home (a small thing). After repeated calls and attempts to get him to come out and finish out the work, and his repeated excuses, we finally gave up and wrote it off. We overall found his conduct to be very unprofessional and frustrating to work with and we recommend against him to our neighbors and friends.

It was really good. He is excellent at taking the old wood floors and making them look wonderful.

The following is a detailed narrative of our experience. The short version is: 1. erratic, unpredictable work schedule 2. sloppy painting with numerous mistakes and poor attention to detail 3. work performed mostly by untrained helpers with high rate of turnover 4. honest with receipts, held true to estimate, willing to correct mistakes John arrived on time for the estimate as promised, was professional, and seemed enthused about the job. When asked directly about who would be doing the work (ie: did he use other workers), he responded that he would work alone on the interior and would supervise a helper with prep work on the exterior. He provided an initial estimate on-site but explained that he had a few jobs to complete first and to expect a written contract in the mail in a few days. Overall, he appeared a bit disorganized, and he did not deliver the written contract until he was wanting to start the job a few weeks later. He asked for a 40% down payment at this time. He began the job by working on exterior trim repair. On the first day of work, he damaged an antique molded gutter drain by not cutting the gutter above the drain, but I saw this as an honest mistake and advised that the remainder of the gutters be removed in a different fashion. At this time, he had one helper (T), who was pleasant but worked very slow and spent a lot of time on her cell phone. Overall, they made slow progress, working approximately every other day. Once the gutters were removed, he assigned T to begin prepping windows - she worked alone for extended periods of time while John was giving other bids or performing work at other houses. Shortly thereafter, he hired T's boyfriend, who began by painting the rear door. He was horribly messy, resulting in several paint splotches on our brick and mortar. John later had him clean the brick, but even now we have paint splotches and a haze from the paint remover. T and her boyfriend were fired sometime later, after she and John had a heated argument (which apparently occurred at our home). John's team grew, despite his earlier promise of doing the work himself, to include other various workers, many of whom had very limited painting experience. The exceptions to this were a handyman, Travis, that did a very nice job painting some exterior windows, and another helper, Randy. John did very little of the exterior painting. When confronted about the discrepancy between his description of service and the large, untrained team that had been assembled, he explained that this was a requirement resulting from him being overstretched, "too big, too fast." The exterior work remained sloppy, with numerous paint splotches on brick and mortar and very poor prep work (did not scrape much as had been listed in contract). Overall, the rate of work remained erratic, occurring in spurts, with overall slow progress. In the meantime, John began interior work. He and Travis painted the master bedroom over a weekend. The quality was decent - some of the window trim later had to be cleaned of yellow paint splatters with denatured alcohol. Also, paint splotches were tracked down the wooden stairs and into the hallway (most likely from paint on a shoe). John cleaned these with denatured alcohol, removing the finish at places and leaving spots lighter than their surroundings. Also during this time, he textured the dining room (did a nice job), although he was somewhat messy and did not place any protective covering over the wood floors, explaining that there was no need as it would easily be cleaned. He painted the first coat on the dining room, covering the hardwood floors with a plastic drop cloth (as later used on every interior room) - there were a few paint drops on the floor, which he attempted to remove with denatured alcohol, again removing some of the finish. His helpers painted all of the living room (again, getting spots of paint on poorly protected floors). At this point, due to the growing number of paint spots, he offered to refinish the floors at the job's completion with a plan to lightly hand-sand the paint/finish away, as long as we purchased the finish. He worked erratically on the sunroom, entryway, and on the dining room trim. During this time, he had asked for numerous advances towards the remaining balance of the contract. He was disrespectful to my wife when she attempted to point out mistakes or when she inquired about their work hours for planning purposes. The work continued to demonstrate slow progress with poor overall organization and questionable quality (paint on doorknobs, porch, trim, faucet, etc...), with his workers performing the large majority of the painting. After TWO MONTHS, with growing concerns about the piling mistakes and damages (paint on floor, paint on antique furnace grates, paint on original hardware switches,paint on brick/mortar, light spots on floor, haze on brick), we provided him a letter outlining our concerns and threatening to dissolve the contract should the poor quality and slow progress continue. He was given a ten day deadline to complete the job. It was only then that the rate of work increased. To John's credit, he fixed much (but not all) of what we had pointed out to him. Unfortunately, with each attempt to correct a mistake, sloppy workmanship often created another problem. At the day of the deadline, he had a full crew at our home working to complete the project. Although they completed on time working late into the evening, the quality was again poor (though I did not realize this at the time). He asked repeatedly to be paid the remainder of the contract ($1300), despite a few smaller elements of the contract needing to be fulfilled and a need for touch-ups completed, saying this was the only way he could pay his workers and that one of his workers was depending on it to feed his children that night. I capitulated and payed him after having them remove obvious areas of paint on the floor and perform a few touch-ups. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection the following days, an even greater number of mistakes was identified, including stray paint on custom drapes, touch-ups performed with the wrong paint color, miss-hung shutters, damaged shutters, paint drips on enamel from hurried painting, etc. John called a few weeks after completion of the job to arrange a time to put a second coat of enamel on the shutters as had been agreed upon at an earlier time. However, we were so disappointed in both the quality of the work and this experience that we declined. The overall time to completion for this project: 2 months and 10 days.

Good

The men did a very thorough professional job of painting at what we thought a very reasonable price. They always cleaned-up after each days work and were very easy to work with. I would recommend Jon's work to anyone!

The end result is good. HOWEVER, the process of getting my home painted was a complete headache. John is a great painter and very skilled and knowledgable. Unfortunately he does not have reliable help and has some personal issues that prevented him from completely my home in a timely manner. He would often call and either not show up as promised or come much later than planned. The job stretched on for much longer than the original estimate because of this and by the end of the job I wanted him out of my home so I could go back to living my life. Also the crew is made up of a bunch of random people which made me somewhat uncomfortable. Also I wish he had been more organized in painting- completely finishing a room/area before moving on to the next one. For example my study sat completely taped and prepped with blinds removed for over a week before it was started- which meant I couldn't go in there at night as there were no window coverings so all the world could look in on me. Overall, I'm fairly happy with the work (some touch-up work still needs to be completed but I have decided we will do that ourselves- I don't want to deal with John coming back though I know he'd be willing to) and the price was unbeatable by many other painters. But during the process it was very difficult for me and I often wished I had hired someone else. I had to threaten him a few times to come finish the job or I would be doing just that, and I shouldn't have had to do that.

Excellent Job

The wall paper removal took a long time - 3-4 days, but the rest of the process went fairly quickly. The texteure took 2 days and the painitng one long day. They we good at the clean up. I would use them again.

The painter was good. The work done was fast as well as cheap. I would use his services in the future too.

John is very good at presenting all receipts for payment. He estimated the job to be done in 3 weeks however it took him six. I believe he overextended himself and had some "help" problems. He did a good job with the paint and he had never done a floor before and it came out really well. I was running out of patience toward the end and he left with some touch up items to do; however, I had a friend that offered to finish up the little stuff so I did not have him back. The amount of work John did do for the price was, I thought, a good value. I was disappointed that it took him so long and by the end I was ready for him to be done and out of the house.

We just trusted him to be there when he was supposed to and he was early.

I think he was very good and I was pleased with him. I haven’t hired anyone for this job yet because I’m still getting estimates. He was very professional, he knew what he was doing, he took measurements and he gave me an estimate. He came at the time he said he would.

It was a nightmare!

Overall we were satisfied with the quality of work and the price. The attention to detail in the painting was good and the painter was very willing to correct any flaws we noticed. However, we were a little frustrated with the painter's promptness which began at the initial meeting for the estimate (we had to call to remind him when he failed to show). Once hired and the job had begun, there were a couple of occasions which prevented work on our home. The first was a day of missed work due to working on another project late into the night before. The more substantial was a 5 day work stoppage due to the painter's automobile problems. While we fully understand unplanned events can impact ability to provide the service, after 2 days of loss work we hoped the painter would have found alternate means of transportation. Bottom line: We were pleased with the work and actually referred his service (although he failed to show for the estimate with the individual we referred him to).

It was a fairly low estimate and I am 90% sure that I am going to use him. He was very easy to get along with. I got the feeling that he really wanted to do it. I think he works by himself unless for few things that he needs to have somebody, but apparently he works by himself and gets the helper. It takes a little longer than the crew working on it because he works by himself. I am waiting for another estimate from another company if I don't get it by today then I am going to go ahead with John. I think he got right back to me. John himself is fine and he did give me a discount.

Very fustrating, he was spread to thin working on other jobs, if he had done the work all himself, I think it would have been done on time, and done correctly, with no problems.  The people working for him, made several mistakes, brought a dog to the job, smoked in house, left quit a mess.  John also has a anger problem, blowing up several times when talking to me. The job was not done on time, and I had to clean up after they said they cleaned up.

John did a fantastic job!! Created beautiful lines along all walls, casings, and the newly painted ceiling. It's evident in the result that he cares so much about the quality of the finished project. He pays attention to the smallest of details. John is an expert in his field and was always helpful and super friendly. We will ask John back for all future paint jobs. He's completely trustworthy and a man of his word. We hired him for a big job and he far exceeded our expectations. We are ecstatic about our beautiful new rooms. Don't hesitate to hire John!

Overall I am very pleased. This is the 3rd house I have used John the Painter on and all three houses I have been very pleased. He is also excellent on redoing wood floors

John showed up when promised and did a beautiful job on the exterior paint on our house. my wife was so impressed w/ the quality of the job and the reasonable price, that she hired him to do the cabinents and lots of interior painting. His work is impeccable and the man himself is honest and trustworthy. It was very convenient to have a contractor that we could allow access to our home without our having to be there. He documented his supplies to the penny. (which I found a little maddening, but speaks to his honesty)

GOOD PERSON , CLEAN NO MESS MAN OF HIS WORD.

I contracted for the work in May, but the job was held up temporarily because of rain. John used a written contract, and did an excellent job of including all relevant details. We discussed where to purchase the paint and supplies (which I did, after some further phoning). After providing the materials, I left town. When I came back two weeks later, the work was in progress. On my return in mid-June, it was all finished and looked great! Overall, it went well and I have no complaints.

The project started slowly at first, partly because of the continual rain. John refuses to paint when things are wet, as this would have compromised the final result. I hadn't seen the house in a week or so, and when I stopped by to check the work I was amazed!