Unfortunately we had a dismal experience with Pgh Painters in Dec 2023. The contract was not…read morefollowed for anything - preparation, protection, 2 coats of paint, etc etc etc. They didn't use drop cloths properly - or sometimes at all - despite my repeated requests from the first day onward. Some of the excuses for why they didn't use paper or drop cloths: 1) the guys were confident in their painting abilities, 2) that they were worried I'd slip on the drop cloths, and 3) Diego (Project manager) told me that he was new & had come from Liturgical work with stone and didn't understand how to protect a residential area. If they did use a drop cloth on the floor, they didn't also cover nearby things - ex: painted directly above a bookcase without covering the bookcase - of course all the books have splatter & overspray. All the hardwood & tile floors have spots & overspray that I'm still cleaning off. All of them. The carpets got paint on them and I'd have to clean it off. They opened cans of paint on carpeted areas without using drop cloths.
On the third day I told Diego that I had to speak with the owner, Skylar. Still nothing was remedied on the 4th day and I had to start laying paper on our hardwood floors myself after they'd started working again without protecting the floors. When I told Skylar later that day that I'd had to start laying the paper myself, his response was "we appreciate the help". No acknowledgement that this shouldn't have happened, and no apology for the lack of respect for my home.
They didn't tape off edges so there is paint on ceiling edges, trim, etc.
The crew didn't use low-adhesive painters tape - they used regular masking tape - on a fireplace mantel and the hardwood floors. The finish on the hardwood floors was damaged where the masking tape was used. No one from Pgh Painters ever seemed to notice any of this stuff and make sure it was remedied.
I also tried to stay out of their way, so I wasn't right there observing every wall or piece of trim, but it's obvious that in many areas there was only one coat of paint used because you can see areas where the old paint shows through.
The paint on trim is flaking off in a lot of spots - basically wherever it gets bumped, a door shuts, etc. I don't know if they didn't use the right paint, or if the trim needed to be lightly sanded first or what. They did not remove damaged caulking and reapply as needed as per contract.
Both windows and doors were painted shut and had to be remedied.
Skylar did send Kirk to our home near the end of the job to try to remedy some of the problems, and he seemed very good, but it was really too little too late.
I had to fire the crew leader myself and ask him to stop working because they were still painting in a carpeted area without a drop cloth. This was after Skylar had been here at least twice and I'd had about million conversations about the contract and so forth with everyone involved.
We were "locked out" of our master bedroom & bath the first night because the wall repair that they did outside the bedroom door kept the pocket door from sliding open. As I was trying to stay out of their way and let that repair area go undisturbed, we didn't realize the door wouldn't open until later that evening. I tried to alert Diego but didn't get a response until the next day. We weren't able to access our room/bath until the next afternoon. My husband had to go to work in the same clothes he'd come home from a trip in the day before, we didn't have access to glasses, meds, clothes etc. Just nuts. Of course we understood that it was an accident that it happened, but if I was the owner of a small business that had created that kind of an issue, I would have been on the phone to the client right away.
When I asked Skylar why this crew & Project Manager did such a poor job and didn't follow the contract, he told me that he thought they were overwhelmed by the job.
In the end Skylar offered some money off the bill so that I could pay to have repairs made where things were damaged or to have things repainted that were unsatisfactory, but I asked for more off than that. They had many, many opportunities to make sure that the job got corrected and then continue on the right foot, and I was more than willing to have them follow the contracted procedures & application, but it just never happened.