My wife and I had hired Pedro to work at our house twice before--once in 2009, when he worked for a…read moredifferent painting contractor, and again in 2015, running his own outfit.
This past summer we hired him to paint the trim of our 3-story house, and also to repair our small cedar deck.
The trim painting went well, quickly, we were very happy with the job.
But repairing the deck seemed to open Pandora's box for a number of unforeseen additional jobs and costs.
First he convinced us to power-wash and reseal our cedar siding. He asked for money up front for that.
He told us the deck repairs would require much more work and materials than he had originally anticipated. Again he asked for money up front for supplies.
Next he told us our copper gutters needed to be cleaned, reseated on hangers, and fitted with gutter guards. Once again we would need lots of expensive supplies.
Then he decided our old growth hardwood trees were causing the gutter clogging, so he strongly endorsed hiring his friend and neighbor, an arborist, to come to our property and do major tree work. He quoted us $9,800 for that work, and asked to be paid up front, which we did.
Of course, at this point we're just irritated, and going broke, but not really seeing the red flags yet.
Valentin's Tree Service came to the house and worked for 2 days, climbing and pruning large maple, hickory, and oak trees. They did a great job, I would absolutely recommend Valentin for any tree service you might need.
BUT, about 3 weeks later, while we were still waiting and waiting for Pedro to finish sealing the cedar siding, clean and tend to the copper gutters, including adding the gutter guards, and repair the cedar deck, I got a phone call from Valentin. He wanted to know who was supposed to pay him.
Now the red flags went up. I asked Pedro about this, and he tried to spin his way out of it, but his story made no sense.
I contacted Valentin again and asked him how much he quoted Pedro for his service. He told me $3,800. Now I'm livid, and my wife is even more outraged. We had paid Pedro $9,800 up front for Valentin's $3,800 tree job.
I don't want to go into details as to what exactly is going on in Pedro's life, but it is not good. My wife and I met him in our backyard and let him know in no uncertain language just how upset we were with him. Once he realized he might be in legal trouble, he began doing what he could to try to make good on the work we'd already paid for.
He eventually got the deck repaired, although he used cheap knotty cedar instead of the A stock. It's a hack job, but at least it's safe enough to use.
Other things were either never done, or not done completely or properly. We asked him to put furniture back where it belongs and told him we would call it even.
It's a shame. Pedro really is a good painter. But as others have said here, he takes on more than he can do, and makes lots of promises he can't possibly fill.
My advice--if after reading my review and all these others you decide to hire Last Detail Painting, hire them ONLY TO PAINT. And do not pay till the job is done!!
PS. I'm keeping the deck the way he left it, as a reminder to be more careful in the future!
