I hired Ron to paint the inside of my condo: kitchen, living area, 2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms...about 900 square feet. His price was $5085. I knew that was high but I wanted to support a local business. I vetted him and what I found was a little suspicious, but I thought I would give him a chance. I am an easy-going person. I found him here on Yelp so I thought this would be the best place to post my review and my experience. I paid Ron half, up front, with the other half due at the completion of the job.
RESULT: He did show up. He was mostly on-time. Some of his work was good. Some of his work was sloppy. I found texture spray across my kitchen cabinets and texture spray on my bathroom fixtures. This was a result of plain carelessness. I found paint smudged on the brand new floor. I didn't say anything at the time because I figured there would be a general clean up and touch up before/after the final walk through. He painted the outer edge on some of the door frames but not the others. I had to ask him to put back my bathroom fixtures. He removed the mirror in one bathroom to paint the wall behind it. He did not remove the mirror in the other bathroom and just painted around it. I let that go because I plan on remodeling the bathrooms next year. He tried to just paint around a large mirror on an accent wall in the living room and argued with me when I said, "You need to remove it so the wall could be completely painted." He (His crew) was slow. The crew (2 guys) was pleasant, but it took them 9 days to paint a living/dining room, 2 bedrooms and 2 small bathrooms. And this doesn't include the kitchen. They did not clean up well after their work. Again, I thought they were going to do a final clean up after the job was completed.
A red flag went up when the quote stated Behr paint, specifically, and he brought in samples from Glidden. To make it worse, when I questioned him about it, he told me that those were just the containers that the samples were put in.
A red flag went up when he asked for partial payment before the job was completed. When I questioned him about it, it turned into a full-blown argument. He kept saying, "I'll be back. I'll be back". Out of good faith, I went ahead and paid him. That was a mistake. After the argument, I was leery if he really would show up to complete the job.
He did show up this morning to complete the job: the kitchen. He was to apply the second coat of paint to the kitchen walls (which he denied that there was only one coat painted until I pointed out all the underlying paint that could still be seen) and to prime/paint the kitchen cabinets. And the red flags continue: When I asked him if I needed to move anything so he could reach the 2 small cabinets over the W/D in the back of the kitchen, he told me, "Those are not included. They will cost extra". He said they were not considered the kitchen. And this is after he mentioned nothing about that when painting the walls in the back of the kitchen by the W/D. I said of course they are part of the kitchen. After arguing with me about that, I said, "Fine, whatever, I will paint those cabinets." At that point, I just wanted him to finish the job, clean up everything, do the final walk-through and leave. He then he told me that part of the kitchen wall was going to be flat (without texture). He didn't bring his tool to finish it. He told me that he left his materials (quick-set mud, etc.) at another job site. I said, "No, the wall needs to match the rest of the wall, per the proposal". (Common sense, right?) He then brought up the payment. ???? Not only was he paid exactly according to the proposal, I paid him most of the balance before he even completed the job. When I reminded him of that, he called me a liar. Let me repeat that: HE CALLED ME A LIAR. And I know you know what's coming ..... He walked off the job. I honestly, don't think he ever intended to do the work. He left the kitchen walls half texturized and half painted, he left all of the kitchen cabinets (with LATEX paint on some doors) unpainted. He left his mess all over the condo. for me to clean up. And now, I have to hire another person to finish this project. I was swindled. read more
