We contracted with Paul back in March to paint our entire house which we were closing on at the end of June. We picked a color for the whole house (approx 1400 SF). Paul had said he preferred Sherwin Williams so the color we picked was SW. The day he started the job, which was on time, he came to the house and said he couldn't get SW paint. He said that this had been an issue for awhile due to the freeze in Texas. My first thought was "why is he telling us this now", but he tried to match the color in a Ben Moore. We all acknowledged that it was slightly different, but at this point we needed them to get started so we agreed with the color. Things went fairly smoothly with the interior painting. We had contracted with Paul to do the entire interior AND the front porch and wrap around deck. When the interior was complete, Paul asked for the balance due on the interior and told my husband he'd be back "in a couple weeks" to do the exterior work. We were upset because we were originally told the entire job would be done in a couple of weeks. Now it was three weeks in and the outside was being put off. We expressed our displeasure and paid Paul the remaining balance for the interior. Paul agreed to start working on the exterior and he power washed the decking the following Monday. Allowing time for the deck to dry, he returned approximately one week later. He worked on the porch until about 11:00 am and left. It was hot and humid so we understood the half day thing. He came back the next day . We asked him if he could switch his focus to the deck because another contractor had showed up to fix something on the porch. We were both working from this house during all of this, so we were distracted. As many of you may know, in Cape May you never know when you're going to be able to get a contractor to show up. Paul was angered because he had set up his things on the porch and had to move, but he did. To shorten this very lengthy review, Paul ended up walking off the job because he got mad at my husband when my husband questioned the type of paint he was using on the railings of the deck. He was using a stain. It looked like chalk. We wanted something with a slight sheen and wipeable, which he had used on the front porch posts.He had never asked us what we wanted on the railings, only the floor boards. Since it was only the first coat, we asked if he could do the second coat in the latex. He was visibly angry, but said he would and left with his worker staying to continue. Shortly thereafter, Paul texted my husband and said he was done. He said our "relationship was damaged". His worker left. HE WALKED OFF THE JOB.
The clincher is that we contracted with Paul because his exterior estimate was very low. His interior was $2500 more than the other estimates we got, but we figured the low exterior estimate offset the interior. The bottom line is Paul was very unprofessional. It was hot but of course it was. It's July in Cape May. He knew he wasn't making a lot of money on the exterior so he took the easy way out. He seemed like a nice guy, but you don't do this. read more