Our experience with this company started off great - Dale, the salesman, came across as a likable, sincere guy. However our experience dropped sharply soon after we signed the contract. Dale, the likable and seemingly sincere salesman was out of town when the crew started work a week earlier than scheduled.
Less than 24 hours after they finished the job, large pockets of bubbling and/ or peeling paint began to show.
The crew began with taping - no cleaning. Anyone who's ever read the back of a paint or varnish can knows that the #1 important preparation step is to thoroughly clean the surface.
The crew did not speak English nor did the owner who stopped by a couple of times during the job, so communication with Dale gone was very difficult. We finally convinced them that the contract we signed with Dale included cleaning before painting - very strange that we would have to convince them of that fact given what a vitally important step it is! The crew then brought out 'wipes' to clean and prep the dirty siding with. Not only that, but they used them in just few places. Large areas of dirt and grime on the house were still there after they 'cleaned.'
In other words, the crew primed and painted on top of siding that hadn't been cleaned for over 15 years.
The crew was completely disengaged and 'checked out' much of time - About 1/2 way through the paint job, the unsupervised crew started painting the trim the main house color. They seemed confused and argued with me when I pointed out the problem/ discrepancy.
They also varnished over areas that had been previously painted and then argued with me stating instead that the surface had been previously varnished. Then finally, after over a day of back and forth, showing them pictures etc, they admitted their mistake but then tried to talk me into keeping the surface varnished.
Truly an unbelievable experience with a company I'd checked reviews and CCB complaint history of prior to hiring- I certainly was not in any way expecting the disaster that was unfolding.
I won't get into the 5 month long back and forth about what happened from there. But in short, the closest to taking responsibility for the numerous issues with the crew (and the shoddy work they did) the salesman came was that he admitted that 'mistakes were made.' He did this however in our face to face conversations, never in writing. In writing, he took zero responsibility and made excuses by blaming the problem paint job on the house's pre-existing paint,
Brushour' a proposed fix:
Dale the salesman offered to patch paint the problem areas for 1 year if we first scraped them - not helpful or acceptable given the enormity of the problem painting over dirt and grime had caused. He also suggested we sell the house before the problems got worse. He said people don't notice "things like that" when they're buying a house. When I responded by saying that, ethically, I couldn't pass on a problem paint job to a buyer without disclosing what was wrong, he again insisted that 'they' don't notice things like that.
Boy had I gotten a wrong read on Dale when we hired Brushhour.
Unfortunately, the professional opinions of the paint companies we've had come take a look at the job are all of the opinion that the lack of cleaning before painting, coupled with the 'shoddy' workmanship, have now created a much larger problem by painting over them. So much so that to properly correct, it will require complete removal of the paint they applied, proper cleaning and re-painting.
Despite months of trying to work out an amicable solution with Brushhour, they continue to be more interested in avoiding responsibility for their crew's shoddy work than in fixing the problems they created and moving on.
I highly recommend looking elsewhere for a painter. read more
