Chu’s Painting Co

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CHU'S "painters" did THE WORST PAINT JOB THAT I & MY NEIGHBORS HAVE EVER SEEN on a house. Chus DID NOT EVEN WASH THE EXTERIOR/SIDING BEFORE OBVIOUSLY OVER-SPRAYING IT -- they sprayed paint onto obvious dusty/dirty portions of siding and EVEN SPRAYED PAINT OVER DAMP LEAVES TEMPORARILY CLINGING TO SOME PLACES ON THE EXTERIOR WALLS near trees. They DID *NO* PROTECTIVE MASKING at all, using NO MASKING TAPE ANYWHERE, not even on my windows. They even PAINTED MY BAY WINDOW *SHUT* with the messiest paintjob imaginable, worse than what one expect from children having a painting-race. (NOTE: I have hundreds of cautionary photos available.) While I thought they were outside "prepping" my exterior, they had ALREADY begun hastily over-spraying onto the exterior walls, so sloppily that big globs of excess paint were obviously dripping down the aluminum-siding walls -- long large drips & globs quickly starting to dry on my siding in the sunlight. Believing that Chu's was "prepping" my house's exterior as promised, I left to run errands, mistakenly trusting this painting contractor (who advertises a lot). However, my next-door NEIGHBOR SOON BECAME ALARMED BY CHU'S "PAINTERS" RAPIDLY OVER-SPRAYING GREEN PAINT ONTO MY UNWASHED SIDING & SLOPPING IT ONTO OTHER AREAS THEY HADN'T EVEN TRIED TO PROTECT. He (Mr. V.) wanted to get Chu's "painters" to stop their drippy over-spraying of my siding (before it would be too late), but they ignored him. Because Mr. V. did not know my cell-phone #, he could only await my return in a few hours. Meanwhile, Mr. Chu & his assistants KEPT ON OVER-SPRAYING the rest of my house's unprepped exterior, with the same awful drippy results. While one of them was SLOPPILY PAINTING OVER OLD & PEELING PAINT and PAINTING MY WINDOWS SHUT, the other one was DRIPPING & LEAVING GREEN PAINT SPLOTCHES ON MY NEWISH LIGHT-GREY TREX PORCH and PUTTING OBVIOUSLY UNEVEN/STREAKY GREEN PAINT ON THE WALL RIGHT NEXT TO THE FRONT DOOR. And Mr. Chu himself was PAINTING THE GARAGE DOOR THE WRONG COLOR (dark green instead of the light trim color) and he'd even NEGLECTED TO PUT ANY OF THE NECESSARY GLASS-PRIMER ON THE GARAGE DOOR'S TWO LARGE WINDOWS BEFORE PAINTING THEM OVER (THE WRONG COLOR), DOOMING THEM TO SOON START TO PEEL HIDEOUSLY. At this point I returned home and interrupted Mr. Chu's garage-door snafu, insisting that he redo it the right way, which he falsely assured me that he would. In reality he just quickly slopped the light-color paint on top of the still-wet dark-green paint, and he still PUT NO GLASS-PRIMER ON BEFORE PAINTING THE GARAGE DOOR'S WINDOWS -- and big swaths of the odd mix of two colors began peeling off the garage door within 3 months. My alarmed next-door neighbor, Mr. V., soon also alerted me to the appallingly obvious over-spraying that CHU'S had just "finished" doing so sloppily on the siding on the entire west & north sides of my house (near Mr. V's own house & visible from his back deck). I PLEADED WITH MR. CHU & HIS ASSISTANTS TO "IMMEDIATELY CORRECT THIS MESS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE" but Mr. Chu claimed there was "nothing wrong." When I (ACCOMPANIED BY MY NEIGHBOR) POINTED OUT THE MANY AREAS OF LARGE DRIPS & OBVIOUS OVER-SPRAYING THAT WAS DRYING IN THE SUN, Mr. Chu assured me that they would "fix everything today." But they did NOT -- CHU'S DID NOT CORRECT *ANY* OF THE OBVIOUS MESSES THEY MADE -- THEY JUST LET THEIR GROSS OVER-SPRAYING'S DRIPS & GLOBS & UNEVENNESS JUST DRY & HARDEN ON THE (ALUMINUM) SIDING. MR. CHU EVEN PRETENDED TO SEE "NOTHING WRONG" WITH CHU'S HAVING DONE NO PREP, OR SPRAYING PAINT ON TOP OF DUST & LEAVES, OR FAILING TO REMOVE OLD PAINT FROM TRIM, OR PAINTING WINDOWS SHUT, OR LEAVING OBVIOUS DRIPS TO DRY ON MY FRONT DOOR & PORCH, OR MIS-SPRAYING SPLOTCHES OF GREEN PAINT ONTO LIGHT-COLOR TRIM (EVEN ONTO WHITE GUTTERS). After I began PHOTOGRAPHING all of CHU'S SNAFUS, with my neighbors looking on, MR.CHU JUST SHRUGGED & SAID THE SNAFU "CAN'T BE FIXED BECAUSE THE HOUSE IS OLD" & SAID HE WAS "DONE" AND DEMANDED TO BE PAID THE REST OF HIS PRICE FOR THE VERY BOTCHED JOB. When I insisted that I would NOT pay him until AFTER Chu's performed the paintjob "AS PROMISED IN WRITING" -- and that Chu's had to repair the damage done in the botched job -- Mr. Chu stormed off. Then he returned and said that he'd "send someone" to "fix things tomorrow". But Mr. Chu sent NO one to fix ANYthing the following day. That same day, however, I gave him a WRITTEN list of [1] what Chu's had failed do as promised (e.g., failing to prep the exterior for painting) and [2] what Chu's had done that was OBVIOUSLY WRONG & HARMFUL TO MY PROPERTY. I also reminded him that I had photographic evidence of the results of Chu's obviously bad work, that neighbors had witnessed my beseeching him to correct the drippy over-spraying & no-prep problems BEFORE it was too late, AND that I would NOT pay the rest of his fee unless Chu's actually corrected the damage Chu's had done and redid the paintjob in the "professional" way that Chu's had promised in the contract that Mr. Chu himself had persuaded me to accept. In reply Mr. Chu left a note on my porch again promising that Chu's would come back "soon" to "fix" Chu's mistakes. However, all he did was eventually send an unfortunate assistant he'd instructed to try to "touch up a few things" on my porch. That assistant hastily made a too-late attempt to try to even out part of the uneven painting on the siding next to the front door, and he briefly tried scraping [!!!] & some solvent to try to remove the dark-green paint that Chu's had dripped and/or mis-sprayed onto the light-grey Trex porch's unprotected railings & floor -- but doing that just caused discoloration. He also repeated what Mr. Chu had said -- that they "cannot fix" ANY of the trim (like the front door's frame) that they'd already mis-painted without first removing the OLD peeling paint or doing ANY prep at all (not even masking the door's glass window to keep red paint from slopping over there). I asked when Chu's "Painting" would be coming to "correct" all the obvious DRIPPY OVER-SPRAYING all over the siding on my house's west & north walls, to remove the green paint they'd spilled onto unprotected trim & other unprotected places, to finish painting the only-half-done downspouts (since they'd left each one a weird mix of new green & old light-blue), AND to correct the "bare" spot they'd created by ABSURDLY SPRAYING PAINT OVER DAMP LEAVES STUCK ON ONE OF THE HOUSE'S UNWASHED/UNPREPPED WALLS (leaving an odd unpainted patch on the wall when the painted leaves dried & fell off). I also asked when Chu's would return to PROPERLY FIX THE BAY WINDOW (AND OTHER WINDOWS) THAT THEY'D PAINTED SHUT. (Neighbors, too, were appalled by the GROSSLY INCOMPETENT JOB THAT CHU'S DID ON THE PROMINENT BAY WINDOW ON THE *FRONT* OF MY SMALL HOUSE -- using NO MASKING TAPE and removing NONE of the window frame's old/peeling white paint, simply PAINTING RIGHT OVER THE PEELING OLD PAINT, leaving wobbly/smeared instead of clean lines [thanks to no masking tape], leaving red-paint drips on the glass & trim, leaving streaks of peeling old white paint showing through the newly slopped-on red paint -- and finally leaving the windows PAINTED SHUT, no longer openable for summer ventilation.) Mr. Chu's assistant apparently could only repeat what Mr. Chu had already proclaimed: that Chu's "cannot fix" their mistakes because it's "too late". Notably, after I'd again refused to pay Mr. Chu the rest of his price unless he corrected Chu's mistakes & repaired the resultant damage to my house, he tried a new excuse. He claimed that he could not fix what he had botched because my "house is too old" and re-demanded the rest of his price. Alarmingly, his partner/wife repeatedly banged on my door, at NIGHT, loudly trying "to collect" -- which made me start to fear possible vandalism. (Hence the new SECURITY CAMERAS.) Luckily my neighbors knew all about the Chu's "Painting" Fiasco. I later learned from the managers of 2 paint-stores (and several good painters) that IT'S VERY UNPROFESSIONAL TO [1] TRY TO SPRAY PAINT ANY HOUSE'S SIDING WITHOUT FIRST WASHING IT AND MASKING OFF AREAS-TO-BE-PROTECTED; [2] TO LET LARGE DRIPS DRY & HARDEN ON ALUMINUM SIDING; [3] TO PAINT ALUMINUM SIDING WHEN THE WEATHER HAS BECOME TOO COOL, AS IN MOST SEPTEMBERS IN ANCHORAGE; [4] TO TRY TO PAINT WOODEN TRIM WITHOUT FIRST REMOVING OLD PEELING PAINT, (3) TO PAINT DOOR FRAMES & WINDOW FRAMES & THE LIKE WITHOUT USING MASKING TAPE; [5] TO PAINT WINDOWS SHUT; [6] TO PAINT A FRONT-DOOR AREA WITHOUT PROTECTING A TREX PORCH FROM DRIPS & SPRAYS; AND [7] TO PAINT OVER A GARAGE DOOR'S GLASS PANELS WITHOUT FIRST APPLYING A SPECIAL GLASS-PRIMER SO THE PAINT CAN REALLY ADHERE. Unfortunately, they also informed me that there's NO WAY TO UNDO WHAT CHU'S AWFUL PAINTJOB LEFT ON MUCH OF THE *SIDING* ON MY HOUSE -- lots of large drips & globs of over-sprayed paint that Chu's let dry & harden CANNOT BE JUST SCRAPED OFF ALUMINUM WITHOUT MAKING THINGS WORSE. But at least a REALLY good painter can correct what Chu's did to all the TRIM on my house (like the Bay Window mess), so I'll be paying a GOOD painter do all that soon, this summer. But the only way to eliminate the sight of Chu's gross drippings, etc. on the aluminum SIDING is for me to REPLACE the siding, a costly solution (which I'll arrange next summer). BOTTOMLINE: My bad experience with Chu's "Painting" resulted from my ignorance about painting & inexperience with home-improvement contractors. I'd never before hired a painter on my own. (Indeed, I'd initially called Chu's just to get only the trim done). I gullibly believed everything Mr. Chu said & wrote in his bid. I regret not having had the time & energy to sue Chu's or to go online earlier to warn others to be wary of CHU'S "PAINTING" fiascos & refusal to remedy them.

He got with the job and got the majority of it done the first night. He worked from six to ten pm. He ran out of paint and asked me to pick up more. Obviously I had to wait until the store opened to get it. I had appointments the next morning until noon or so. I explained this. He called back the next day at 11a and asked me if I had i the paint yet. When I told him i didn't, he seemed frustrated. Then he called me back at noon and asked again and when I told him that I was just heading out to get it he got mad and said he wasn't coming back and hung up. He'd already cashed the check. I ended up finishing the job myself. English is not his first language but I do think he understood when I explained my schedule and the projected time i would have the paint He was a rude and unpleasant personality, as well, the entire time. Not a nice person to do business with at all. The quality of the work that he did do was good.

When I didn't have the new paint 12 hours later, he said he wasn't coming back to finish the job. He was rude and the pay ended up being $100.00/hour!!! For painting! The president only makes $185.00/hour.

Worst job I have seen to date.

See above.

Pressure washed and taped on monday, painted on Tuesday. Many compliments on finished product.

see above

I needed the work to be competed quickly to prepare home for sale. Estimate was done the day I called and work began the next day. They did an excellent job and the owner came by frequently to check progress of the painters and to see if I was satisfied with results.