Underhill Painting

Lance was so professional from start to finish. I had called about 5 or 6 other painters and they all quoted very high on my rather small living room. Lance stopped by, gave me a great quote and was willing to do it the same day which suited me just fine. He was immaculate in his work, quick and professional. He even tidied up some leftover mess from when we had the popcorn ceiling removed from the ceiling. Everything looks great now and I will definitely use him again when it's time to paint the rest of the house.

Day 1 - 2 hrs late - arrived without paint. A crew of 2 (trainees), the foreman and later in the morning the owner, Lance. We had already moved most of our furniture to the patio and covered it. All vents, electrical covers and decor was removed from the walls prior to their arrival. I had to go to Lowes and buy 4 gallons of paint (which was supposed to be material included contract) - There was no prep, taping off or priming done. Foreman got the 1st trainee started in the family room ceiling with an extended roller - I should have fired them right then....but I didn't -my mistake. Globs of painting dripping off the roller, areas missed on the ceiling, paint on nearby walls running down in globs. Paint splashed on the rock fireplace. So that Lance, the owner could avoid buying more ceiling paint, the owner mixed his brand of Swiss Coffee (Dunn Edwards) with my left over Valspar Swiss Coffee to create enough to paint the family room ceiling - disaster. 2nd Trainee doing walls in the living room - skill as bad or worse than the first. The owner tried to patch a hairline crack on knockdown - made it worse by sanding off the knockdown causing a hairline of 12" to be 20" and 5" wide thus balding the knockdown -ruined an otherwise perfect ceiling - very shoddy amateur work. He did this after the ceiling was painted - duh?? Then he used canned texture to try to hide it...not hardly, it was in the middle of the room and noticeable at every angle. He did the same thing on the other 2 cracks in the living room - then attempted to texturize it with canned texture after he attempted to apply texture on a ceiling with the machine, owner did not know how to use the hopper, compressor and trainees didn't know how to turn the machine on (again, I should have fired them then) - when it was complete the entire ceiling looked worse then before he started. There was no texture as the owner didn't know how to use the sprayer/compressor (my husb had to turn it on for them) the owner did not know how to apply it and the foreman didn't know how to knockdown texture. The owner told me that the ceiling didn't look similar to the other texture in the house because it wasn't the same machine as the original contractor - complete lie...he didn't know how to use it. I expected it to not match exactly, but what it looked like when he was done was HORRIBLE and worse than before doing it. They did not prime the raw texture before painting - the ceiling is a complete disaster as is the patch in the other room. I'm embarrassed for them to be so amateur but advertise as professional - they're on Youtube...a joke. Day 2 Only 1 hr late - none of the crew or owner could cut-in at the ceilings, or where two contrasting walls came to the corner. Their painting skills were - 0 (that's minus zero). My 2 yr old Golden retriever could have cut in better than these clowns. They spent all day dripping paint and trying to fix it. They used 2 drop clothes in my house and the rest were bed sheets or bath towels. The owner sanded down my baseboard lines and painted them throughout the rooms without putting texture on them - not acceptable as the non textured lines would show above my new baseboards. I heard Lance the owner correct his crew 4 times in one hour to 'clean your brush, take the gallon of paint off the step of the ladder". He spent his time babysitting his crew, when he himself was a worse painter than his trainees. At one point, I had to leave the house to get away from the circus clowns and very worried what was going on with clowns and paint - it was all worse than I expected. Day 3 - Didn't show up but called an hour late to say they couldn't show up. That evening my husb called the owner, Lance to discuss the mess and the lack of professionalism as they wrecked our home. Broke personal items or painted them (and chuckled about it). They were not painting the bathroom, but found a 3"x3" glob of paint dried to my vanity and granite countertop, found paint all over the area rug, in the bathtub, on my custom frameless shower doors, on the track, on the bathtub faucets, on the tile and the towels. And they urinated all over the toilet - it seriously looked like a Texaco gas station restroom - maybe worse. Apparently they were using my bathtub to clean up in and wash brushes and rollers. We found an open box of wall repair (powder mix with water) on the AC unit outside with the mix spilled all over the new patio furniture, and on the patio - they used a hose to mix it and ultimately made concrete on the furniture and patio and left it there. There was paint on my kitchen cabinets and on my plantation shutters and the mounts. After discussing with the owner, he advised that his crew would come the next day and fix and detail the errors. Day 4 Foreman and one trainee spent the entire day trying to detail and fix the cut-in lines, repaint where needed and scrape and clean where needed. I told the foreman that the crack repairs were not acceptable, nor was the ceiling texture job. The foreman attempted to remove the paint from the plantation shutters and mounts by sanding it off (custom made shutters, sanded to the bare paint)- he destroyed the finish and still left paint on the shutters and mounts- Shutters have now been sent out for repair. Day 5 - 6 hrs late when I received a voice mail that they quit. Stated that they would like to call it "even" and I maybe should call a specialist to fix the ceiling - ??? duh, thought that's what I did, that's what they advertise. Underhill Painting quit before they finished and left me with double the cost to fix what they damaged. We suspect that they under bid this job and were over their heads in something they didn't know how to do, yet advertised for it - realized that and that they didn't know how to repair cracks or texturize and that we were not going to settle on such shoddy work. It's their error on the under bid, however, they never attempted to have a conversation or suggest a compromise with us. They abandoned the job but came back that night for their buckets and brushes. This company is completely amateur at best, unprofessional and should not have a contractors license. No other consumer should have to deal with the mess and damage they did. This company has caused me alot of money in repaint, repairs and damage. I could have had my entire house done with what the repairs to 3 rooms cost. Just want to add that on Day 2 - the owner used the kitchen sink to wash up in - he spit and blew his nose in it - seriously disgusting, unprofessional and disrespectful. There's more to add but I think anyone looking at this review gets the gist of DO NOT HIRE. I hope that this company reads this review. I'm not entirely done with this company - Do NOT hire Underhill Painting out of Long Beach, CA - I actually feel sorry for them trying to masquerade as professionals..watching this diaster unfold in my home was like watching 2 yr olds with loaded paint brushes. I should have investigated this company better than I did...forewarning anyone needing a painter - If you want entertainment and circus clowns, hire them..if you want the job done, move along to good reviews.