Over the last four years, I have hired Scott on five occasions for different painting jobs.
First he did one contrast wall, about 4.5' by 8' in matte and a desk and shelves in gloss to go on that wall. Next he painted a desk and bureau. Scott's work needed to be supervised pretty closely, ("hey looks like a second coat is needed") but the end product is good. On the third job, I decided to hire him for something larger and more complex which was repairing and repainting the wood front and back exterior doors and transom windows, and some ceiling repair in a lower unit. On this job, Scott brought in a fellow named Alex who might be a little OCD, and it's amazing! Alex's precision and drywall repair is perfect and he made things look really good. The next time I needed painting, I emailed Scott and he sent over Alex for some ceiling repair that went perfectly. The funny thing is you hear Scott managing workers well, in the same way you need to manage him if he does it himself, saying things like, "Do you think we need another coat, seems like it right?"
I had Scott in recently with the request to have Alex paint an entire lower unit, which is a one bedroom with four closets and a bathroom. He gave me an estimate for three days of work, and said that unfortunately he was trying to use Alex less but had new helpers. I never saw any helpers at all, it was just Scott, but I did miss day three onsite and Scott said there were helpers there then. On day four (of three, mind) he was done with the bedroom and inspected early in the morning. There were over 20 spots that were missed in the room. I realize that painting flat white walls is not interesting but there were missing spots on the walls, an entire closet door was not done in the gloss that the doors and trim were being done in. I pointed them all out to Scott. Friday morning early I inspected again, and it was better, but it was still not complete and there were obvious problems. There were some spots on one of the walls, and I had to take pictures because the carpet guys were coming later in the day and I didn't want Scott to blame them (he did, so good thing).
Friday late night, my husband drove down from Connecticut and early Saturday we inspected. The spots where Scott had to paint the bedroom wall because he had missed he had gotten spots of flat paint on the gloss trim. However, the main room was even worse. Some of the doors and trim are gloss. Some flat. No rhythm or reason which, but there you go. My husband's assessment was have him finish out what he can do that day and then not have him back. We were supposed to leave Sunday afternoon anyway for three weeks, which is part of the reason it was inconvenient to have the job go over. We're figuring out how much we need to redo, and doing the last bit/spots missed on our own when we find the free time. Unless Alex is reading this, in which case, call me!
Overall, I would use Scott for:
Smaller jobs that you can easily manage (or larger jobs if you have lots of time to manage or work with him!)
Creative jobs - he painted a dresser and desk exciting colors and put cool knobs on. I had to tell him that more than one coat was necessary, but he seemed more inspired.
If he is managing others.
Large, uncreative jobs that can't be closely supervised I would find someone else. Scott is a really nice guy, and great for showing up on time and sending the estimate and billing in a timely fashion.
Now for the worst part, I told my husband all this beforehand and didn't have the foresight to not use Scott for this final job! On the 4.5' by 8' four years ago, Scott missed a corner painting. I asked him to touch that up (easy) and he failed to tape the ceiling so that there was then blue paint on the ceiling. He then painted that over with mismatched/too thin white. read more
