Jonathan's Custom Painting

This review is for Jonathan's Custom Painting a.k.a Jonathan Caldarona, 1601 Ridge Avenue, Longwood Florida 32750. For the first time since living in Orlando for 20+ years and working with many different contractors, we were ripped off for $1,465 by Jonathan/John/Charles Caldarona. He insisted we pay him half of the money for the external wood trim painting and never showed up when he said he would and only started the job. On his first day, while we were at work and rather than beginning the painting prep work, he put his business sign out in our front yard, added chemicals to our roof to show before and after cleaning for a portion of our roof - a service we did not want. He then quickly began to solicit our neighbors and almost had one convinced to contract and pay him for a project since they knew us to always hire reliable contractors. He then started pressure washing our driveway, all bricks, our canoe and our trees. He continued using the high-powered pressure washer to spray all our windows which forced flooding in several rooms and created a mess to come home to after working all day. Jonathan left at that point and said he was not responsible. We were up cleaning up his mess and damages until midnight. He also broke our sprinkler system which would not cycle off and landscape lighting by using too much pressure on the outside equipment and electrical. We had to call an electrician who fortunately took our call at 10 p.m. and talked us through how to disconnect and cut the electrical to our sprinkler system so we could stop it and the watering cycle. Then, when we called Jonathan the next day to let him know not to pressure wash anymore and that we only needed the painting and prepping of the wood trim areas, he went ballistic and said the following: that the project would take longer because our home was trash and more damaged than he thought, that we should pray and ask Jesus for patience, that he contracted with our neighbors and would be around our home for a long time, that he didn’t like dealing with people and usually only works on commercial projects. We were stuck at this point not only because we paid him half the amount but because the wood he pressure washed was exposed and some of it warped and damaged from the intensity of the washing equipment. When Jonathan did show up again, it was for a few hours as one of us came home during lunch and would see the amount he did when he was there which was minimal and in the same small area over the garage. But during that small amount of time he again damaged our property by bending the metal roof drip edge in the small section he’d been working on. He then said he’d send a guy out who could sell us a replacement and we again told him that we only needed the wood trim area of our home prepped and painted and told him “no” that we did not want to purchase a new drip edge for our house. He also told us that the reason he hadn’t been back out was because of his back and said his mother had to give him an Oxycontin for the pain. He never showed up again, just left his trash in our yard as well as his solicitation sign – which said Jonathan’s Custom Painting. Unfortunately, because we are so busy with our jobs, I did not check him out thoroughly beforehand. We learned later that Jonathan/John/Charles Caldarona is not licensed or insured as his sign claims. He is a name dropper and will tell you he only works on million-dollar home, is God-fearing, lives on 5 acres, shows photos of supposed homes he’s worked on, doesn’t have to work because he inherited money, knows Attorney John Morgan personally, provides references and phone number for people who cannot be verified. We have been sick over this $1,465 loss and the wood he left exposed or damaged from the pressure washing that we still need to have painted and/or repaired. We just want to prevent others from being taken by him as he has likely been swindling unsuspecting citizens for years.