College Works Painting - Washington
About us
College Works Painting is not only the #1 ranked internship program for college students, but also provides professional, high-quality painting services to homeowners. Our skilled student teams handle everything from exterior painting to detailed interior projects, ensuring a 5-star experience. Homeowners can trust our commitment to excellence, with services that enhance curb appeal and increase property value. While our interns gain invaluable business and leadership experience, your home receives the care and attention it deserves. Call today to discover how College Works Painting combines professional service with community impact.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Comprehensive Residential Painting Services, Contractor Work, Customized Scope of Work Creation, Deck Painting, Deck Painting & Fence Painting, Door Painting, Drywall Painting, Exterior House Painting, Exterior Paint Colors, Exterior Paint Job, Exterior Painting, Free Estimate, Home Improvement Renovations, Home Painting Color, Home Painting Project, Home Repairs / Remodeling, Interior & Exterior, Interior House Painting, Interior Painting, Paint Selection, Painting, Painting Business, Painting Prep Work, Painting Techniques, Power Washing, Pressure Washing, Residential Painting Project, Scrapping and Sanding, Siding Painting. Specialty Design Painting, Water Damage, Water Damage Repair, Wood Painting, Wood Replacement
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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69% | ||
10% | ||
0% | ||
5% | ||
15% |
"Your feedback is greatly appreciated! We are glad to hear about the positive experience you had while working with our company. Please let us know if we can assist on any future projects you may have. Regards, College Works Painting"
"Thank you for your feedback! We are pleased to hear about the experience you had while working with us. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. Regards, College Works Painting"
"Your feedback is greatly appreciated! We are happy to hear about the experience you had working with our company. Please let us know if we can assist on any future projects you may have. Regards, College Works Painting"
"Your feedback is greatly appreciated! We are pleased to hear about your satisfaction with the final outcome of your project. Please let us know if we can do anything else for you. Regards, College Works Painting"
"Thank you for your feedback! We are pleased to hear about the efficiency and timeliness of the job. Please let us know if we can assist you with any future projects. Regards, College Works Painting"
"We very much appreciate your feedback and are glad to hear about the experience you had working with Jared! Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you in the future. Regards, College Works Painting"
Tianna, the supervisor was excellent, she kept us informed of on what was happening, when it was happening and of any possible delays.
Timeliness/accountability
Do you want someone to tell you they?ll come by tomorrow and then just not show up? Amra is your guy. Time and time again I was promised, ?I?ll come by tomorrow and take care of?? only to have that not happen. In some cases he?ll let you know late that night that he couldn?t make it; in others there is just a no-show. Fear not, there is never a call during, or ahead of time, to tell you that he won?t be able to make it.
Excuses
Oh the excuses. I couldn?t make it today because this other job had x happen. Our ladders won?t reach that part of your house. Your house is sucking up a lot of paint. My favorite, ?painting your house is really hard.? No kidding. That?s why I didn?t do this job myself.
Poor quality
After prep-work had occurred and paint had been applied it was clear that a spot was missed during prep work. (Paint was bubbling up). First solution, lightly scrape and repaint. Fail. Second solution, lightly sand and repaint. Fail. Apply more paint. Fail. The other prep work was done well, but for whatever reason, after realizing that they had missed a spot it was impossible to recreate that same level of prep. I finally elected to just do it myself. Sand it down a lot, apply some wood filler and paint. It now looks great and took less than 30 minutes to complete, but I had to do it myself.
No documentation
Let?s walk around the house to talk about what next steps need to be done. Note, you will mention maybe six things that need to be done, but since Amra doesn?t take any form of notes you?re left to only having whatever he happened to remember being fixed. In very general terms this will equal about half of the things you had agreed needed to be fixed. Also, often times he will send someone else out to fix whatever you?d had previously agreed upon, so even more details can
get lost in the translation. It is a fantastic system indeed! Be prepared for numerous return trips where you?ll get to restate your wants.
Bad estimate
I leave the greatest for last. Colors were selected, an estimate was done, a deposit paid; we?re ready to go! ?Oh, that estimate will leave your trim looking crappy.? I kid you not; Amra said that our signed contract would leave my house looking ?crappy.? Fear not, there is a solution: Pay more money to have a second coat of paint applied to your trim. I talked to his manager, noting that you typically can?t feed someone a contact that will knowingly leave their house looking ?crappy,? but he wouldn?t budge. Oh, he offered to reduce the cost on the second coat, but any amount was still greater than our signed contract. After a total time of nearly two hours arguing with Amra, his boss Kali, and finally College Works corporate they agreed to paint the house to a non-?crappy? level at no additional cost.
The Better Business Bureau will be hearing about this case of attempted consumer fraud.
So in conclusion, if the above sounds good to you, by all means sign up with Amra, Kali and College Works Painting.
Alex, the intern, showed up at our house in May and asked if we want to have our house painted. We were thinking about it so we asked for an estimate. We had asked for hand washing the vinyl siding, pressure wash under the eaves and fascia boards, and paint the eaves and fascia. Alex did a hard sell and emphasized the use of College Works Painting will support college students. Since the bid was in line with other painting companies, and I had a soft spot for college students because I also supported myself though college by working, we signed the contract with Alex.
After a few reschedules, the job started in late August. Alex showed up at 6PM and pressure washed under the eaves and fascia. It was dark by 8PM and he was done. I questioned him as to the effectiveness of his job because he did not use a ladder at all, even with the 3-story side of the house. Alex said the pressure is adequate even with the 25-foot roof. That was the first hint of many integrity issues that followed.
Two days later, Alex returned with one of his employees and washed the vinyl siding. I provided the brushes and dish washing detergent. He added some Mold Avenger and the washing was done in one day. He would ask me if the washing was good enough whenever he ?finished? one side of the house. I told him ?no? because he skip the siding that were behind the bushes around the house. He was hoping that I would not notice since it was behind the bushed. I told him not to ask again until he finished doing a thorough job.
During the painting, he was not using adequate drop cloth, resulting in drips and splatters of paint on our deck, driveway, patio and plants. Alex was not on site very much because he had to attend to personal business in Bellingham.
Throughout the course of painting, whenever I mentioned missed spots under the eaves, Alex?s standard answer was ?that is a just a shadow effect?. I shined a 1 million foot candle spot light on the areas that the painters missed to prove to him that it was not just a shadow effect. He reluctantly told his painters to spray that area again. Don?t know how many home owners had fallen for the shadow effect excuse.
On the last day, I noticed the 5-gallon of paint was water down so much that the colorant completely separated and floated to the surface. I told Alex about it and he just ignored me. He said that the paint after sitting overnight, just needed a stir. I noticed nobody stirred the paint so I took a picture of it. The painters finished the west side of the house and they left. I mentioned the paint issue to Alex again and he said that if there is water in the paint, it would drip after it was sprayed on. Since it was not dripping, there was no water in the paint.
I contacted Alex?s manager and told him that I would not signed off the job because the paint was watered down and the solvent/wire brush to clean up the spill paint damaged our sheet vinyl deck. I e-mailed him the picture.
Meanwhile, I showed the picture to the Sherwin Williams folks, they said that the paint had to be water down seriously for the colorant to completely separate like that, and what I got was an extremely thin coat that would not match to the color of rest of house. As for Alex?s claimed that the watered down paint would drip, Sherwin Williams said it is not true.
Alex met with me the next day, still denied the water in the paint. I showed him the picture and told him what Sherwin Williams said. He called his painters and came back with the story that the water got into the paint bucket when they were washing down the spray gun. He came back the next day and repainted the west side of the house with good paint. Since I was not able to prove that the watered down paint did not happen prior to the last day, I had to settle for the repainting of the west side only.
After talking with Alex?s manager again, I was adequately compensated for the damage to the decking material. Alex had to pressure washed the spilled paint from our patio and driveway.
Safety on job is not on Alex?s mind, in spite of College Works Painting safety program. He allowed his employee to work on the roof without fall protection, and stood on the top rung of a 24-foot ladder while Alex held the ladder. On the last day, Alex put the tall ladder on the bed of his pickup truck Instead of tying it down, he had his two employees laid down flat on the bed of the pickup and held down the ladder while they drove to the next job.
After Alex and crew left, I found the used paint roller and pads in my landscape, behind some bushed. The two painters were not college students so I was not helping college students except Alex. Oh well, I am glad this nightmare is over and I?ll be watching out for defects before the 5-year warrant is over.
The next day I received a voicemail from a manager I didn't know informing me that they would refund my deposit, and that they would not do the work, explaining that their untrained rep had given me a bad price. When I protested that that was not my problem and that I expected them to honor our agreement the manager eventually agreed. Unfortunately the poor response time led to more delays and the work had to be postponed for 2 months for our trip and the other work already scheduled at our house.
When work began, the same subcontractor reviewed the scope with me again (he had taken no notes before). During this review I agreed to delete a bathroom that was no longer ready (due to the other work under way) and the garage ceiling. In trade I asked them to repair and paint a portion of a wall in another room and he agreed (they ended up not doing that, so their scope was reduced). Next day he showed up with a non-English speaking crew, reviewed the scope in detail with them and left. The crew proceeded to mask off (prior to completing prep work (which seemed like the wrong order to me). This was followed by two fellows with caulk and some spackle who filled nail holes and blemishes. Tarps were also laid and painting began. It was a whirlwind. I left on business and when I returned I found the work progressed but unsatisfactory. I pointed out (to the 12 year old boy they brought as interpreter) spills and sloppily cut in paint, unfilled holes and the like ? and directed them to inspect and correct similar problems.
At 6:30 I asked them what time they would be returning the next day to finish and they informed me they would finish that night! After pointing out numerous incomplete items on the scope of work they agreed that it was more reasonable to leave my household in peace that night. As they left they took up tarps to reveal that they had spilled paint directly on my brand new carpet and tracked it all over! (One section was uncleaned and ruined, costing $150 to patch).
The next day much the same routine occurred, but I was away on business. They were gone when I returned. I inspected their work, and discovered even more missing scope, numerous runs, improperly prepped nail holes (gobs of caulk still clinging to most of them) even more holes that were not filled at all, more paint on adjacent surfaces, etc. I was appalled!
I contacted the contractor and informed him the work was unacceptable, he came by to see for himself and agreed that it didn't meet his standards and that he would send his more skilled corrections crew to fix the next day.
These fellows were English speakers but only marginally better painters. Like the first crew they had to borrow tools from me, didn't come with any proper painter's masking tape (they used the ordinary type which doesn't work properly). They corrected some of the original crew's mistakes and damage but created a host of new ones of their own. I showed the work to the contractor and declined to have them do any more work, preferring to settle up the bill (at which point he didn't offer any concessions).
Now I face correcting the inferior terrible paint job myself (I have no budget left to hire someone else to fix it). As I progress I continue to find more serious avoidable flaws and damage, plus two windows and a door whose trim they didn't even paint (probably a good thing).
I would not recommend this company (or the subcontractor, "The Third Arm Construction") to anyone.
Licensing
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