L J Mance Painting & Press

My overall experience with Leon Mance and L&J Painting was awful. He will never set foot in my house again. Mr. Mance came over to look over the work I needed done on March 16, 2011. As we walked around looking at the three different areas with damage, I expressed concern about whether they could be repaired so that we wouldn't be able to see the water damage. Leon assured me that there were several different routes to take and he would do the one that was appropriate for each of the areas. Of particular concern to me was that I wasn't sure I had additional wall paint and if he got white ceiling paint on the walls, it would create problems. He assured me that he would tape and mask everything off so that would not occur. On March 18, he gave me an estimate of $600. I accepted that and gave him a deposit of $150 for supplies. He told me that the first time he did work for someone, he only asked for a deposit for supplies but after that, he would require the entire payment up front. We agreed on a start date of March 28, 2011. Leon arrived at 9:15 a.m. and had one worker with him. While Leon worked on the patch job in the formal living room, his worker Blair masked off the walls. Then Leon painted the ceiling, all except the little area that was being patched. The walls and floor were mostly covered for this. I ran some errands and when I came back, I went to check on the progress. Leon and Blair were sitting in my formal dining room eating lunch. They still had their paint clothes on and had not covered the upholstered hardwood chairs with any protective covering. Furthermore, they had their work boots on my oriental carpet. I suggested to Leon that they should eat at the kitchen table. He acted surprised that what they were doing was a problem. After they left for the day, their lunch trash was still sitting on my dining room table. There was white paint on the back of one of my chairs but I was able to get it off. After lunch they began working on the ceiling in the guest bedroom. At the end of the day, Leon told me that the water damage was going to be harder to repair than he thought. Rather than a patch job as he said would work, he recommended taking the popcorn off the ceiling and then painting it. Our only other option was for him to bring the compressor and sprayer and spray the entire ceiling. He said making it a smooth ceiling would be the best option. We agreed to go that route. On the second day, Blair went home sick about mid-morning. Leon told me he had another worker coming and that that person would be masking everything off and bringing a vacuum for cleanup. I left to run errands and when I came home at 4 pm, Leon was already gone. No other worker ever arrived. I saw that there was drywall mud and dust on the carpeted stairs so I got my vacuum cleaner out to clean it up. It was covered in dust and was clogged. Leon went into a section of my home where he was not working, found my expensive vacuum in a closet, and used it without my permission. I called him immediately. He admitted using it but said he just needed to clean up some drywall dust from the hall carpet. The vacuum was completely full of drywall dust. I changed the bag and wiped down the inside and outside of it but it is still clogged. I think I need to get a new HEPA filter. After I hung up from him, I went upstairs to check on the progress. He was sanding the popcorn off the ceiling but he did not mask off the walls nor did he cover the carpet. He moved items out of the bedroom and had the bed half covered with some plastic but there was drywall dust all over the walls, the carpet and even on the portion of the comforter that was left uncovered. When Leon arrived on the third morning, he brought another person with him and an old vacuum cleaner. I told him that I was concerned that he hadn't covered things up but he said that everything that needed to be covered, was covered. He was not very friendly and clearly not happy with my phone call the evening before. He said he would finish that day. About mid-afternoon, Leon called me up and said he needed to show me something. He told me he had some trouble with the ceiling in the guest bedroom and he showed me that he'd put a bead of caulk all around the edges, where the ceiling and walls meet. So instead of having a 90 degree angle, I've got a permanent, shiny rounded edge. I told him that I didn't think you ever put caulk on drywall, rather you'd mud it. He said there was nothing else he could do. He didn't like me questioning him. He left to take his worker home (who I think was his wife though he never introduced us) and said he'd return in an hour because he still had the last old water damage stain to repair and finishing the patch job in the formal living room. We went out to dinner and he was gone when we got back home. I called him the next morning to discuss the caulk on the ceiling. Both my father (former drywaller) and my brother (former painter) confirmed that you would never place caulk in the 90 degree angle. He was immediately rude and belligerent with me. He said that I didn't know what I was talking about and that my dad and brother clearly didn't know what they were talking about. He said if I had paint, he'd come over and try to paint the part of the caulk that's on the wall, so it wouldn't stand out so much. I told him I didn't want him to do it, that I was going to have my brother try and repair it. He then said "I see where this is headed. You're not gonna pay me! You've had this planned from the start. You've been working me." I told him that I was really unhappy with his performance but that I wanted to pay him and be done with it. He was still saying awful things and I told him that if he wanted to be paid, he'd better give me an address where I could mail the check. He finally gave me his address and I sent him the $450 check that day. I don't think I probably owed him the full amount, given the shoddy results of the work done in the guest bedroom, but I had company in town and did not want to spend any time fighting with him or supervising his attempts at repairing it. I just wanted him to be gone. He called a little while after our first conversation. He said that he was having a bad morning and that he wasn't finished yet and that's why there was still dust around and that he wanted to come back and try to clean up some more. I told him that when he left Wednesday he said he was done and after our earlier conversation, I didn't want him back in my home. In conclusion, I thought it might help to summarize each of the three jobs he did: 1. The guest bedroom - He did not cover the walls or the carpet when he was sanding or painting. Both are covered in drywall dust and the walls have paint splatters here and there. In addition to that, he used paint I provided to touch up the window and door trim and the walls around all of them now have white paint on them. With the ceiling, he didn't sand around the ceiling fan enough and there are bumps of popcorn still there. In addition, there is a portion of the ceiling in the middle of the room where the paint has started to crack and peel away. This was completely away from the water damage area and I think that the mud/tape that he added to smooth the ceiling out wasn't completely dry before he painted it. If I can figure out how, I'll include a picture of that area. And then I have the shiny white caulk - partly on the ceiling, partly on the walls. Probably most frustrating is that this was the room where the fresh water damage was and I needed someone's help to repair it. The second and third jobs were incidental -- old stains that I thought I'd get him to do while he was here. 2. The formal living room - the patch job looks great. This was where his worker Blair had masked everything off and so the paint did not get on the walls. He had to sand the patch job and should've closed off that room with plastic. I think that's why there's so much dust downstairs, even though the sanding there wasn't nearly as much as upstairs. 3. The ceiling area above the kitchen - this wa