I had a very disappointing experience with Collen of Contreras Builds when I hired the contractor…read morefor touch-up and painting work on part of my exterior walls.
In the painting project, I provided high-quality paint and caulking, and Collen's quote was higher than another I received. I chose him expecting better-quality work, as he promised. Unfortunately, the opposite happened.
The painting was done unprofessionally and resulted in extremely poor quality. The contractor rushed through the job, painting two colors simultaneously without taping, which caused colors to overlap along the dividing lines. He also skipped the sanding step entirely, leaving uneven surfaces with rough patches, missed spots, and areas overloaded with paint that formed drips and bulky textures. Many gaps between wood beams were left unsealed, as shown in the photos.
The contractor also made a careless mistake on the entire west wall--staining the narrow sides of the beams with the wall color, ruining the intended original color pattern and making the beams look flat and mismatched compared to the rest of the exterior house walls. Yet, Collen refused to fix the mistake.
I also had Collen quote $310 to replace a water-damaged wood beam at one damp exterior corner of my house with a composite board for better water resistance. After removing the original wood beam, the wood board behind it also showed some water damage with two soft, wet spots. Collen instructed his worker to cover the damage with the front beam.
Proper repair steps should include either replacing the damaged part or removing loose wood, treating it with wood hardener, and filling holes with epoxy or wood putty. Collen refused to replace it, so I scraped out the soft wood and let it dry while his worker was on a break. Later, the worker said that Collen instructed him to only put thin tape over the damaged board, leaving the holes unfilled. Collen also used a cheaper OSB board, which has poor water resistance and was not the agreed-upon water-resistant composite material--essential for this moisture-prone spot.
During the two days they worked here, I provided boxes of water, baked a pizza, and asked if anyone needed a snack. I was friendly with the workers and thanked everyone throughout. However, Collen was often rude, disrespectful, and insulting--sending messages such as, "you wanted cheap work on a pile of shit house." He wanted me to replace all the exterior trims and parts (so he could make a bigger profit).
On the second day (their last day on site), he repeatedly pressed for payment before the project was finished, even though I had already paid a deposit before work began.
In the middle of painting that morning, Collen suddenly pulled the crew off the site. He then texted me a series of unprofessional and intimidating messages, including:
"If the invoice can't be paid at 3 p.m. being reasonable, we will leave then do what we need to do."
"I will take this to court which will cost a lot of money and my invoice will be out the door new pricing."
Despite my assurance that he would receive the remaining balance once the project was completed, he continued to threaten me:
"You can pay your remaining invoice right now but we are not doing anything more. If it's not paid then I will pursue with my report with my lawyer."
"I will have my lawyer reach out and worse comes to worse we will file a lien with the city."
Three hours later, Collen sent two workers back to rush through finishing the painting. I paid the invoice in full at 5 p.m. They left without the promised walk-through and did not complete the contracted work, including painting the soffit.
The painting project only involved the west side and part of the north side of the house exterior. Although it was originally agreed to complete the north wall up to the garage door, Collen had his worker stop two-thirds through and demanded an extra $750--on top of the $1,870 already paid--to finish the job. This demonstrates his manipulative tactics and lack of integrity.
Collen's claim that I was "hostile" is completely false. During the less-than-two-day project, despite Collen's unprofessional, rude, and bullying behavior, I remained friendly with the workers, thanked them throughout, and reminded Collen to be positive and constructive. After I posted my honest review, Collen retaliated by posting a false and defamatory review on my business site, claiming my home is "completely rotting"--which is untrue, as I regularly maintain and repair it. His statement that "Your neighbors did in fact reach out to us to let us know you cause problems with almost everybody" is entirely fabricated and clearly intended to damage my reputation.
The above examples reflect only part of the unprofessional conduct and poor workmanship I experienced in this case with Collen. I hope no other customer has to experience the disappointing service I did.
