FX Painting

Darrell Johnson and his team did an amazing job on our house.  He first completed the exterior trim on a brick house and did such an amazing job that we hired him to do the entire interior.  His assistance in the color selection made all the difference.  He is creative, hard-working, flexible (with me when I changed colors after the room was done, yikes), and has an amazing team.  I wouldn't let anyone else work on our home and I would highly recommend his company.

I hired FX Painting at what seemed to me to be a premium price, the highest among the three estimates I considered.  I was disappointed in both the management of the job and the results.
I was told that the work would require a week and a half.  Since the house is small, the length of time to be taken encouraged high expectations as to care and attention to detail.  The specific dates--Monday, June 24, to Wednesday, July 3--were determined by my having been able to arrange to house sit for a friend during that period.  When, at about mid-week, a question came up about a possible repair, I was told that the repair would have to be postponed by a full week.  This, I was told, was because Mr. Johnson, for my convenience, had added a third man to the crew, so that the work on my house could be completed on Sunday, rather than, as originally planned, on the following Wednesdsay.  I question whether my convenience was the reason, since Mr. Johnson knew perfectly well that my house sitting commitment would last until Wednesday; it would certainly not be convenient for me to try to live in two houses at the same time.  Mr. Johnson also made clear that he had, without previously informing me, committed FX to begin another job on Monday.  It's pretty clear whose convenience was paramount.
The abbreviated time frame and the competence of the additional person put on the job may account for some of my dissatisfaction with the product.  More than once toward the end of the project I pointed out how careless and unprofessional some of the cut-ins at door, windows, and baseboards were, the worst of them of about the quality to be expected of a child with a box of crayons.  Those that I pointed out and some others were redone; many of the less obviously positioned ones were not.  The same principal of "out of sight, out of mind" apparently was applied to the cleanup.  Moving a dresser away from the wall after I dropped something behind it, I discovered an abundance of sanding dust, along with small bit of clotted drywall compound stuck to the carpet.  The same was true, I discovered, behind almost every piece of furniture in the house.  This kind of thing, whether it is FX's general practice or the product of haste in this particular instance, does not occur without at least the tacit approval of the person in charge of the job.
Mr. Johnson, it is true, did invite me to get in touch if i found any problems with the completed job.  Apart from the fact that I believe he should have taken a more active interest in the work as it proceeded and in reviewing the final product, I decided not to give him that opportunity until my main concern was attended to.  This main matter of concern was about damage to my kitchen flooring, installed only two months earlier.  Mr. Johnson did not demur when I pointed out the damage--a small but conspicuous area that obviously would become worse with wear--and acknowledged that carelessness by a member of his crew had caused it.  A single vinyl sheet, the flooring could not be patched or repaired.  In a letter, I requested compensation for the damage.  This request has been ignored.  At the same time I reported that a radio of mine that the crew had been using for entertainment was missing, obviously taken by a member of that crew, perhaps the person added to speed up the process for the convenience of Mr. Johnson.  I pointed out that I was less concerned about retrieving the radio than about this breach of the trust involved in my turning my house key over to him.  I regard Mr. Johnson's failure to respond to either of these concerns as a serious lapse of professional responsibility, requiring the F grade posted in the appropriate category above.

Added on10/4/13: I feel obliged to lower my earlier low grades.  The original cracks reappeared within a few months after the completion of the job.  As a result, compounding my earlier judgment of haste and/or incompetence, I have learned that NO tape was applied in the drywall repairs that FX made.

Was flexible to our changing plans. Would recommend

The owner Darrell was very responsive. Met with us twice before we committed. We had 3 additional estimates. Came by job site daily and worked if needed. He worked well with our changes during the job. Very pleased with his employees. Would recommend to friends and family.

They were on time and performed in accordance with the bid. The trim looks good. They cleaned up well and there was no problem at all.

Darrell was great. Very professional, extremely helpful in choosing the best colors, and he and his crew did a fantastic job. Darrell quickly responded to my phone calls, was always on time and completed the job faster than expected. I would fully recommend FX painting and would choose them again.