Boy and a Bucket Southeast Paint Co

We loved the paint job and upgraded to the more expensive paint and 5 year warranty. However, issues with things being painted the wrong color and painting a copper roof that was explicitly discussed as not to be painted occurred due to a lack of communication with Oscar and his team. Now, 5 months later, we still love the look, but we are getting blistering of paint on our garage doors. 5 phone messages and 4 texts sent over the last month and a half, we still have received no communication that the paint will be fixed and that Boy and a Bucket will honor their warranty. I understand personal holiday time constraints and the impact of Covid could be impacting the ability to fix the issue, but the active lack of communication is unprofessional. Buyer beware.

Very bad experience so far, and still in the midst of the process. I hired Boy and a Bucket because I received a few referrals of good work that Oscar and his team have done. Boy oh boy (no pun intended), am I regretful that I went forward with that. They're supposed to be professionals, but the service I received was anything but. 1. Received 1 call or text to 3-5 that we sent to him, asking for updates * Several days went by at one point in which he stated he would be at my house, yet "no called no showed" for multiple days. This is extremely unprofessional, and he always had the excuse of "my guys are finishing up a job somewhere else"; but why then did you tell me they would be at my house at a certain time & date? 2. Once the actual paint job was finished, it took Oscar almost an entire week to follow back up with me regarding the fact that there were additional touch ups that needed to be completed (which we already contacted him about) 3. Even after the touch ups were "completed": * Several of the touch ups that he agreed to do, his team did NOT complete (or even start for that matter) * Instead of following up with us to ensure that we're satisfied, we have had to bug him for each and every communication Bottom Line: I do not recommend! I do not feel valued as a customer, especially after final payment was made to him. He's treated us like the classic "get your money and run" business.

Very thorough communication prior to start and during project. Crew was tidy each day and cleaned up the paint chips, old caulk strips, rotted wood as well as tools and equipment. They painted my two story home with daylight walk out basement (3 stories in back), including chimney cap. Replaced some hardi siding that was damaged as well.

Great! The owner made me feel like family. The most honest and trustworthy business owner I ever met.

I would not recommend them. I'm a realtor and I don't give referrals unless I've used somebody. This painter only does business by referrals. We have this community here, which is Seven Hills and Bentwater. They're million dollar houses. They get all their business there. So, another realtor had given me the painter's name and highly recommended him. He talked about all the reviews and all references that they gave, which was from the same community. So I'm thinking, "Great," We wanted a professional painter, we've never hired a painter, we've always painted ourselves because I'm so picky. So I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm going with these painters, I know it's going to be pricey, I know I'm going to pay the price to get it, but I'm hiring professionals." It was a mess. They told me they would be here Friday, after the 6th and they would start it that Friday. Well, the owner of the company called me Thursday morning and left me a message. I called him back and he says, "Hey, I wanted to see if I can go ahead and get my guys out there about noon today," because they were not only painting my interior walls, they were painting the new decks and porches that we had had built. He says, "Hey, I want to get them out there so they can pressure wash." I didn't have the pressure washer pressure wash my deck - they only did my driveways - because the painter said that they had to chemically wash my decks and my back porch. So he said, "I want to come out, for them to have that done and it could be dry for us to start painting tomorrow," and he goes, "Is that a problem?" I said, "No, they're going to be outside. That's not a problem." He goes, "Well, we did want to go ahead and patch and repair some of the walls inside so everything is ready to be done." I said, "Okay, I'll change my plans, not a big deal." But he says, "The crew I'm sending is going to be for pressure washing." They get here, they speak very little English. I said, "Hey, you guys can go ahead and get started." He was like, "Hey, we want to come in inside and see what we need to do." So, he comes inside and they just start. I said, "Wait, wait, wait. Oscar said you guys were coming to do the outside prep." He goes, "Oh no, we do no outside prep, we're painters." I was like, "What?" So, I wasn't prepared for them. I was expecting them the next day, I wasn't prepared for them that morning. I basically got wrangled into my back bedroom for them to tear apart my house and I'm like, "Okay." I kind of got over it, I wasn't happy about it. They were just supposed to be patching walls, repairing walls, taping. Before they had any of that done, they were already painting my ceiling. They hadn't even covered anything. They were already painting my ceiling. I had paint all over my house. Later that afternoon, finally another crew came and they started doing the outside pressure washing. They finished the entire interior of my house before they left that night at eight o'clock and all they were supposed to be doing was prepping for the following day's paint. I didn't didn't even sleep that night, I was so upset. It was awful. I have stained wood trim in my house, I don't have painted wood trim. There was paint on everything. My trim was ruined, my hardwood, there was paint on everything. I have a 100-year old table that my TV sits on. There was paint all over the back of it. I had to come in here twice to tell them to cover up. I have 100-year old Edisons. I got them to cover them because they were sanding without covering any of the stuff up. That's very susceptible to dust, much less sheetrock dust. They look at me like I've got three heads when I'm telling them to cover the stuff up. These guys were supposed to be professionals. Before they left that night I had asked the guy that was in charge, that could barely speak English, I said, "What time are you guys going to be back tomorrow?" He says, "Nine to 10 o'clock." At seven o'clock, they were here. I hadn't even got out of bed yet. I'm like, "Oh my goodness." I just got straight out of bed and called the owner of the company. At this point I didn't know I had paint anywhere other than on my trim. I hadn't been looking all around my house, looking for paint. I just saw in my halls because that's what I walked down and I'm right there at the baseboard. I called him and I said, "Oscar, they have paint all over my baseboards," and he says, "Well, do you have any baseboard paint left? I'll just have them repaint all your baseboards." My first thought is, "That's not the point." But I said, "Oscar, I have stained baseboards, they can't be painted." he goes, "Oh if they're stained that's no problem, they'll get it right off your baseboards." I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm not going to get out of shape over it." I said, "Okay," and he goes, "I'll call them and let them know." So they painted the outside. I called him and said, "I'm really concerned. They got paint all over my baseboards. I want to make sure that they're taking the right precautions outside because I don't want stain all over my siding." he goes, "Oh, no, no, no, they're going to wrap your whole house. They'll cover everything." They had already started painting without wrapping anything until he called them. If he hadn't have called them, they wouldn't have wrapped my house, they way they were supposed to, and what I was paying for. In the area that they had stained, prior to him calling they already had stained all over my siding and I didn't know it until later that afternoon. The guy later on in the afternoon came inside and he goes, "Okay, we're done," and I'm like, "No, you're not." I'm like, "You guys have paint all over my house." At that point, I had been up cleaning everything. I had sheetrock dust on everything in my house. They were supposed to have covered everything. I had to clean everything, my windows, my furniture. And I come in here and then I start finding paint all of my hardwood floors. I have a wrought fireplace, I had paint all over my wrought fireplace. There was paint everywhere. When I got in my kitchen, I had paint all over my solid surface countertops, all in my granite sink, all over my refrigerator, all over my stove. I had a china cabinet that looked like they had just taken the paint roller and just ran right across the bottom of it. There was paint all the way across the bottom of my china cabinet. I was just sick. I was physically sick, when I saw all this. Mind you, the guy came in and as I pointed it out to him, he cleaned all of it. But I shouldn't have had to point it out for three grand. It shouldn't have been there. They cleaned it up, they fixed it, but I'm still getting paint off stuff. That's the thing I'm frustrated with. I'm still getting paint off stuff. I managed the inside. When they were done with the outside, I went out and looked at it, and I'm like, "Oh my God, the outside looks hideous." So, I called my husband and I'm like, "Where are you at? When can you be here? They're done, they're wanting me to pay them. I'm not paying them," and he goes, "Hey, I'm 15 minutes away," and I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to let you deal with outside. I've dealt with the inside." He gets here and he is like, "Oh my God, it looks awful." It looked like it needed to be painted. Mind you, they started with raw wood. So, all they were doing was staining my wood, it was splotchy, parts of it didn't even look like it had stain on it. When I told him, my husband was on the way home. He called Oscar and Oscar came out here. It was him and my husband. I listened to a part of it, but I was so upset at that point. I was just like, "I've got to walk away, I'm not going to be very nice. I have to walk away," because he was just making excuses. I'm just like, "Okay, I just have to walk away. I can't hear this anymore, after everything I've been through with the inside of my house. I have to walk away." Oscar did have them come back and re-touchup the front where it was really bad and made it look better. I showed Oscar the paint that was on my siding and he said he would get it off himself. We just paid them, we just wanted him to go away. I still have masking tape on my siding up high that they never took off the house. The area where there was stain, that Oscar was supposed to have gotten off, you can still see it. I'm just like, Wow, these are supposed to be professionals." I just felt like it was nightmare. The sad thing is, Oscar didn't know about all of the rest of the interior paint. I was so upset at that point, I didn't even get into anyone of that with him. I had already called him about the baseboards and then we were having him back out about the outside, I didn't even want to get into all of it because it would have just made me angry. I didn't even say anything to him about the rest of it. I took pictures, but I didn't say anything to him about them. They had paint on my furniture, on my appliances, it's everywhere and I'm still getting it off. This was supposed to be from somebody that had enormous references. I felt like they just pulled these guys from nowhere. They are a legitimate business. They told the whole time, "We don't sub-contract out anything. All these are Boy and a Bucket employees. These are our employees." Yet, none of their vehicles have any kind of advertising or labeling on it saying Boy and a Bucket, nothing. It was just plain white vans, plain white trailers. And I'm thinking, Why if you own your own business, why would you not have your vehicles and things labeled?" It just kind of caught me odd. Oscar attempted to make it right, but he shouldn't have had to. Oscar was very professional and very good. But the guys couldn't speak English and didn't do things I reminded them. It was a language barrier.

Project went well but due to delays that were NOT the fault of Boy and a Bucket, the project began mid-June with the bulk of the work being done then, but then didn't finish up until October 2015 as we had some window repair issues that, unfortunatly took months to resolve. Oscar stayed true to his word and returned after the window issues were resolved to finish the job so we are thrilled that he didn't forget us given the time lapse from start to finish. The only 2 cons to the entire process were minimal and did not affect the quality of the work and they are 1/ communication was inconsistent - it was either really good, or not - being a small business I understand these things can happen. It is my understanding that this past fall he hired an office manager to help so I would suspect this is no longer an issue. 2/ the crew didn't always show up on time, or in one case... at all. While it was raining that day I do at least expect a phone call in the morning to confirm that they aren't coming and to reschedule. Yes that was frustrating BUT these painters do a really good job. Their pricing is very fair, they use good quality paint, and give guarantees, and they do a great job and clean up at the end of each day, and are so very, very polite. Oscar and his crew will be the first company we call the next time we need any exterior/interior painting done!

The reason I mentioned them is they were outstanding. They not only painted my house but my daughter's. They've done a lot of work. They were extremely good. They're someone I would most definitely recommend. They're one of the best companies I've had to deal with since I've lived here. I did get other bids and they were very competitive.