This guy Joe told me he was an expert at refinishing wood doors so I hired him but he wanted to paint the whole house to make it worth it. He then sent two Hispanics. Only one of whom spoke English . They painted the house left a huge mess then painted my mahogany doors with primer. The next day they painted them brown thus ruining about 5000 dollars in doors .I was at work in the four hours it took them to ruin my doors. Never leave anyone alone without watching. That was my mistake. The owner Joe refused to fix them and was such a crazed person shaking and starting to cry so I paid him 4000 dollars to go away. A week later that ugly brown paint bubbled up. Again I texted him the pictures and asked him to fix them. He refused . I plan on taking them to small claims court. He is not what he says he is. He actually didn't touch my house he has no idea how to refinish wood doors. Please come by and see my awful paint job at 615 SE 26th Ave. Ft. Lauderdale ,Fl 33301 Observe closely the brown paint over white primer showing through. So embarrassing.
I managed commercial construction projects for many years, have built and remodeled several properties, and never once have I encountered any of these scams. The tone of this article is deeply troubling. The author seems to be saying that ALL painting contractors are inherently dishonest, and that has not been my experience. The underlying advice here is sound: get it all in writing and cover as many contingencies as possible--so pointing out potential pitfalls like coat coverage is helpful. But do that in the spirit of clear communication of expectations, not with the expectation that the person you are hiring will try to cheat you at every turn. Not every contractor takes outrageous advantage of change orders; not every contractor will sneak past necessary preparation and/or repairs. Contractors of all sorts get a bad rap as it is; reinforcing a stereotype with articles written from this point of view just seems unproductive.
