DFW 5 Star Painting

From my experience with Chris, he is a sloppy painter. He didn’t follow the detailed paint schedule I provided, and only tried to correct his work (not entirely successfully) when I noticed and I asked. He did not remove switch plate and outlet covers before painting entire walls a completely different color—in one room, he sprayed paint right over them and a cable connection (he replaced those only when I mentioned how the cable connection had been rendered useless by his paint job; he first tried explaining to me that he thought they “looked bad” and *should* be painted!); in the other complete room, paint was cut in close to the switch and outlet covers, but the previous paint color showed through on the edges. Some glaring areas of poor paint coverage had to be pointed out for him to fix, too. He didn’t use drop cloths, and only minimally used the brown paper, plastic, and tape I provided on site, resulting in hours of clean up work for me as I am continuing to notice paint on floors, light fixtures, and paint spatters on various surfaces. He was dishonest about saying that his overspray on unpainted shoe mold was from “prior painting” when he suggested that they should be painted after I had clearly instructed him that they should not. He didn’t follow instructions about using hoses attached to timers onsite, and instead opted to use the kitchen sink, putting scratches in the bottom and washing sediment down the drain in the process construction clean up. He left the job site with a broken vanity and scratched toilet seat which he takes no responsibility for. I would not hire Chris again. Chris called me on the same day (Monday) that I sent out online inquires for extensive interior painting and drywall patching, interior painting, and a little exterior painting and other miscellaneous work. He came out the next to look at the work, and said he could start the next day. I was in a bit of bind since I wanted to put my home on the market and had planned to use another painter I had used before, but the necessary painting had been delayed for weeks because that painter had gotten sick (thankfully not with COVID—he is better now.) I took a chance on Chris, though I was careful to read reviews and talk to his references (the two previous reviewers on Home Advisor). The preceding the review I wish I had seen before hiring Chris. I honestly don’t know how he got such great reviews so far, and I was confused by some of the very positive descriptions of his work I heard from his references over the phone. I found that Chris does not pay attention to detail, was not good about cleaning up after himself, and needed supervision throughout my project. A note on the job cost: Chris’s labor cost for painting seemed reasonable, and we agreed that the cost of materials would be an extra cost to me. Since I had some of the paint needed for this job on site already, I had not expected an additional 20-25 percent to be spent on materials for the job and Chris came in $200 more than the other painter who included materials in his quote. I had chosen better quality paints because ordinarily, less paint is needed for better coverage. Chris opted to use a paint sprayer which is messy and uses more paint. (The sprayed finish was also glossy for a matte paint, and it did not touch up well.) Examples unsatisfactory corrections that Chris made on his work: the cleaner he used to remove over-sprayed paint on the shoe mold left a greasy/sticky residue off; the shoe mold still has an undesirable white cast to it. The painted-over light switch cover for which he replaced the switch (I provided the new cover) peeled paint from the wall in a jagged pattern above the cover, and instead of smoothing that put, Chris just painted over it so that the jagged edges can still be seen. It would have been much better if Chris had just done the job right the first time. To his credit, he did forego payment (he requested in cash) on the day he expected to be paid after I pointed out that many items on the extensive scope of work that we agreed to had not been done yet. He had also thrown in some “free” work and he came back for a few hours the day after he was paid to finish a few remaining items. He did work steadily and was fast, but was not good.