Hired Dale and 'crew' to drain, acid wash, prep and paint our pool. The draining and cleaning went…read moregreat, so I agreed on allowing them to prime and paint the pool. I shelled out $500 for the cleaning which was worth the hassle of doing it myself, and then $800 for materials necessary to paint.
On the morning they finally showed up, his 'crew' painted the pool. They were almost finished when I came home, I inspected and asked why they didn't prime it first. The worker said, " the primer is IN the paint" in a way like I was stupid for asking. I remarked that I purchased primer, which goes on first and needs 24-48 hrs to dry....then the paint. He again states, " NO, the primer is in the paint... I added it" I also notice they didn't mask off the border tile before painting and sloppily got paint all over the tiles around the pool. They didn't even attempt to try and miss the tile (have pics of this too) If that wasn't enough, they spilled blue paint in many spots ON the cool-crete! And on the brick patio base a few feet away! While surveying this mess, the painter offers ZERO apologies for spilling the paint. All I said was, "I guess I am going to be repainting the cool-crete now"
So I call Dale to come by and check on his crews' handy work. He arrives, sees what happened, then hangs his head and says, "why did you paint it first??" The guy painting gets angry and barks out "IT'S IN THE PAINT!!!!" They go back and forth, finally opening the second large can consisting of primer.... Dale tells his guys to start applying primer OVER the newly painted pool. They did so and Dale went and purchased 2 more gallons of paint. I had to leave for a meeting but upon arrival I was surprised to see Dale gone and his crew painting already. Despite the primer being wet and tacky still, they painted and walked throughout the pool surface, making large imbedded boot prints in the surface, while also 'lifting' areas of layered paint, making craters in the surface. They ran out of paint, pool halfway done. I called and texted several times before Dale replied, asking when the job would be finished. He indicated he ordered paint and it should be here within a few days.
I voiced my concerns about having Dale do the work exclusively, and not allowing the other two back. He claims he fired the painter (his brother) for costing him money (second time that he 'fired' him during this job) Yet here he comes again and is painting with Dale supervising. He said, "I'm giving him another chance". I then asked if he had sanded the footprints off the surface before painting again, he said yes. (I left a power sander as well as an air compressor for them to use to make it easy) after they left and the paint dried, I went into the pool and inspected their work. The deep boot prints were merely painted over and the craters on the surface were not repaired... and stuck out like a sore thumb!
Long story even longer, I texted numerous times, called numerous times without reply. He finally gets back to me explaining he was in the hospital. I asked if this is how he was going to leave this job, and a day or two later, he calls and leaves a message that he is at my home. I tell I'm at work, he needs to let me know when he is going to show do someone could be there. Since then, NOTHING. I mainly wanted them to come back and get the paint off the tile, because that is a major PITA. Meh, I'll just get the paint off the tile myself, there's no telling what other damage they will do in trying to correct that!
In the end, I bought more paint, sanded the areas of damage caused by them, filled in the craters, and painted it. Funny side note, while here one day Dale tells me that one of my neighbors approached him in my driveway and was complaining of the service Dale was giving him, he just chuckled and said "I told him to find another pool service, I'm not doing yours anymore". How's that for customer service? LOL.
At this point, all I can consider is legal action for the damages. I have pics of the pool surface before they started, pics of them painting, the subsequent priming, paint spills, paint over tiles, etc. I have pics of them standing in the pool, Dale standing there as well... So they cannot say they weren't here or didn't do it. Dale Hutton and William Hutton are the guys doing 'Dive in with Dale'