Painting 3 bedrooms & closets, kitchen, 1 1/2 baths, linen closet, coat closet; repairing & painting family room; performing carpentry & painting outside shed; staining front door
We are thoroughly happy with the quality of their work and recommend ABL Group for painting and handyman work. We hired ABL Group because it was highly rated by Angie List members, has verifiable worker's and liability insurance, an up-to-date verifiable EPA lead paint certification (checked at www.epa.gov/lead), 5 year warranty (labor and materials), and a good price. We received estimates from 5 companies.
Our ranch style home was built in 1962 so it was important that we hire a painting company with EPA lead paint certification. In my presence ABL tested each room to be painted for lead, thankfully none were found. We expected above average preparation of the walls and ceilings (according to another company's estimator, our expectation was above average), repairing many wall and ceiling cracks and blemishes, patching unused picture and curtain rod holes.
Howard Lipsky, the owner, came to our home to give an estimate. He was friendly, knowledgeable, listened to our requirements, and made suggestions. We gave him a printed list of our requirements. I'm a retired computer programmer and very detail oriented. His proposal was the most detailed of the 5 companies' proposals we received. ABL willingly added additional information to the proposal to clarify and add omissions. We knew exactly what we would get when we signed the proposal. Before the project began, Howard visited again to give us a complimentary color consultation, suggesting paint types, sheens and colors for the rooms and shed.
Inside the house, workers prepared the walls and ceilings, protecting the floors, furniture, cabinets with plastic tarps and cloths, removing electric outlet and light switch plates, scraping loose paint, repairing cracks and holes, caulking, applying primer over bare surfaces, cleaning areas daily. At the end of each day I checked prep work, pointing out issues that they happily corrected the next day. They applied two coats of Benjamin Moore Regal paint, allowing the first coat time to dry before painting the second coat. After painting was done, they caulked top of backsplashes in bathrooms and kitchen. A worker lightly sanded front door and applied 3 coats of Zar Ultra stain. Again, they fixed any concern I had about a specific area, e.g. applying third coat of stain to front door to achieve uniform appearance. We thought that the workers' supervision, provided by Billy, project supervisor, and Balentine, foreman, was good, Billy checking in daily. Both men listened to and satisfied our concerns and answered our questions. The workers came early, worked hard and put in a full day of work in order to meet the schedule in the proposal.
Pleased with the painting project in progress, we entered into another contract with ABL for the family room, fixing water leak damage to one wood paneled wall and adjoining ceiling. ABL took off wood paneling, removed all plaster on the wall, plastered wall, patched ceiling, applied coat of primer paint, and painted 2 Benjamin Moore coats on all walls and ceiling.
In the backyard, workers worked on the shed, replacing rotten wood trim on the outer sides, replacing one door, prepping the surface, adding new wood trim boards around bottom of all sides, painting primer on new wood, applying 2 coats of Benjamin Moore paint.
On the last day of the project I was impressed that Billy, the project supervisor, told us not to hesitate to contact him to fix any painting imperfections that we may discover later. A few weeks later I called Billy to send someone to take care of some issues. The touchup work was done expertly, the small repainted areas blending invisibly with the surrounding painted wall.
We can attest that ABL lives up to its warranty. About 3 months after the project was over, some hairline cracks appeared. I called ABL and within days a worker came to fix the problem to our satisfaction. read more