Trico Painting, Inc

We got bids from several companies. We chose this company because he told a good story about how he'd help us with picking colors, and I went through all of my concerns and things that were important to me and he told me what I wanted to hear the whole time and reassured me that everything would be as expected. What actually took place after the check was signed was a whole different story. He was almost no help deciding colors to begin with. It turns out he has a hispanic crew who he sends out that he barely communicates with by setting a few cans of paint in front of them and pointing to the rooms/walls. He wasn't present while any of the work was going on and wasn't at all interested in making sure they did good work. He expected me to inspect everything and let him know where the problems were rather than checking up on his own job. This to me shows that he has no set standards that he holds his crew to, and they know that. In the end, everything I addressed as concerns with him (how holes would be patched, how baseboard would be handled) came out worse than I could have expected. What they did was worse than my worst concerns. Their prep work was sub-par resulting in crooked paint lines, overspray on carpet and glass, and poor looking trim work. Their hole patching (small screw holes, etc) made each section look worse than if they'd just filled it with putty. Some rooms were even painted the wrong colors. In the end I paid him for most of the job withholding a percentage for the items remaining to be fixed; and I never heard from him again; he didn't fix the remaining items and walked away from the remainder of the balance. I noticed (after I hired him) that his truck had the name of a different painting company faded out; when I asked about it, I was informed he was sued and basically lost the company; that should've been a sign right there to back out. My advice when picking a painter is to find someone who promises to be on-site as part of the job; someone who uses their own painting experience and skills to contribute to a high-quality job.

I chose Trico over several other painters that were all pretty close on price. I actually chose Trico after checking out the work that they did on a few other houses and because I live in an old house where paint probably contains lead (I have little kids- so I didn't want paint flakes all over my yard). I'm also cheap, so I didn't want to pay for full blown containment and extensive measures to ensure that every last grain of lead gets captured. I discussed all of this with Tim (the owner of Trico) and we came to an agreement that they would lay plastic on the ground around the house before they pressure wash and scrape and make sure that they collected as much of the flaked paint as possible. I came home from work the day after they started and saw that they had taken absolutely no precautions what's so ever to collect the paint flakes. And the flakes were EVERYWHERE. In my neighors yard, in my kid's sandbox, in all of my flower and vegetable beds. It was a MESS! I was furious and called Tim to complain. He came right over and admitted that his crew had screwed up and said they would fix it first thing the next morning. His crew came and they spent a few minutes picking up the big flakes and sweeping the mess up where they could, but there wasn't a whole lot they could really do once they scattered the paint everywhere- besides haul all of my landscaping bark away and replace it (which they didn't do) and they didn't even do all they could in my opinion. And here I am 5 months later and I am still picking up paint flakes (and cigarette butts from areas where my kids play). I also had extensive conversations with Tim about the preparation of the window trim that I wanted. We must have discussed it for over a half an hour (before he quoted me the price) so that we were both on the same page. Of course when his guys actually came out to do the work it was like they had been sent out with absolutely no direction. I had to keep telling them that the windows were not ready to paint. They eventually did an adequate job, but not what I thought I had agreed to pay for- disappointing. I will say that other than the prep work and the scattering hazardous lead all over my property, the work they did was pretty good. There were very few problems that needed to be corrected after they were done and they did those immediately. And they used very high quality materials. All in all I'm ambivalent about this contractor, I've used several other painters in the past and had much worse performance. I think this contractor could do a really good job if you are willing to take time off of work to supervise their them. DON'T ASSUME THAT WHAT YOU TELL TIM IS GOING TO GET THROUGH TO HIS CREW!

They were very professional and prompt in coming out and giving us the estimate. Their bid was very competitive and it was very hard to choose someone. I have nothing negative to say about them.

The overall experience was very favorable. After being frustrated when I found that our house painter from several years ago (Rysaw Painting) was out of business, I determined that Trico was owned by the same person (Tim Flood), who was very helpful, and willing to meet me halfway on doing some painting on the house. The morning that the paint crew showed up, I was slightly surprised -- as I had expected them two days later -- but the timing actually worked out better, so I had them go ahead, even though Tim offered to reschedule. They had also forgotten some red paint for our door (which I had discussed verbally with Tim), but the crew retrieved that paint, and had no problem finishing the job as planned. Their price seemed reasonable, especially when you include the fact that Tim offered to repaint a majority of the front of the house, to address some staining issues (which didn't appear to be from the paint). He felt obliged, as the owner of Rysaw, even though he didn't have to. As a homeowner, I greatly appreciated his forthrightness, and willingness to satisfy the customer. I would use Trico again, and would recommend them to others.

They were very punctual, friendly and professional. They were also very neat and cleaned up completely after themselves. The price was fair. Most of all they were skilled and paid attention to detail. Same for the owner. We would definitely hire them again and would highly recommend Trico painting to others.