TLDR - We hired CertaPro to paint the trim in two rooms. In one room, we had already done prep…read moreourselves (scraping old paint, sanding, removing the glossy finish on the previous paint). In the other room, we did not do any prep prior to hiring the painters as the contract stated that they would do the necessary prep. Ultimately, the one star review is mainly due to the lack of prep work that the painters did, and some sloppy work as well.
We believe prepping these surfaces required sanding and chipping to remove previous paint drips and old chipping off paint, and a coat of primer to make the texture of all painted surfaces even before applying the coats of paint. A very brief light sanding was performed prior to painting and that was the extent of the preparation that we observed Ishmael do. I was initially surprised when I was told that it would be completed in one day.
Mid-day when we had our concerns, we told the painter that we wanted the window surfaces to be smooth and we wanted to be able to open the windows when they're done (at least in the small bedroom). He said that they would re-sand them and we left them to their work. We reached out to the owner and were responded to quickly which was appreciated.
When doing the walk-through at the end of the day. I asked the painter to touch up several places as we went along. However, there were many places where the paint was showing through. I did not say anything about every place because it would have been too many spots for him to touch up at that time.
I did notice that one side of a window frame was not painted at all and I asked him to paint it. He said it would come out wobbly because the paintbrush didn't fit. It seemed to make sense to me to just get a smaller paintbrush or one with a shorter handle. I asked him to do the best he could. Wobbly line aside, the cover was still very sheer. We later noticed that there were several sides of trim that were left unpainted. They are largely not noticeable at first glance, however, you can still see the green from the front of the trim.
The next day, we started noticing additional drip marks (beyond the painted over old drip marks). We also noticed that the windows in the house were painted shut. With some box cutting, we were able to get them open again, however, some of the freshly painted white is coming away because additional old flakey paint under it needed to be removed and primed over prior to painting. We also noticed that brush marks are very apparent throughout the trim that Ishmael and his partner painted. We assume this is because of insufficient prep, sanding, and lack of priming.
After informing the owner of these issues, he responded sympathetically, especially about the windows being painted shut. He offered to have another person come out. It sounded like Rich was planning on having this person come out for another full day.
When the second person came out, some of the sheerness was helped because another coat of paint went on, and he scraped away some of the drips that the other crew created. Still, there were some new drips created, and this second person created more brush marks and more paint on the glass of the windows than was there with the first crew. Still, there were places on the window frame that were left unpainted (probably because they required a smaller paint brush). I honestly wish Rich had just given us a few gallons of paint for us to do it ourselves.
I didn't mind spending $1195 for professionals to paint the trim in two rooms, however, because I'm dissatisfied with the results, I can't help but feel like the funds were somewhat wasted.
Customer service was excellent and the painters wore masks, but I am so dissatisfied with the work that I will not be using CertaPro in the future.
