University Painters

Our painter, Jessie, was meticulous, and such a hard worker. He came early and worked steadily and did the entire job by himself, no helper. The house is 40 feet tall in the back, and he scampered up there with no qualms. Everything looks fresh and clean now. Plan to call University Painters for my interior work next.

They were very conscientious, checked in with us every day, did their work the way they were supposed to, and did not make any mess or anything, but my husband felt like the paint job could have been a higher quality. Our interaction with them was excellent. We did get high quality paint and for them to improve on is maybe they could provide just a little higher quality painting job. We would consider using them in the future.

professional punctual good job, a few minor issue with the front door job.

We really like this company and are very pleased with the work they did. The were very neat and clean. The workers were very professional and efficient. I would absolutely recommend them, they do great work.

Came to my house for estimate. Never call back with quote.

I don't feel that proper preparations were made to the existing walls before painting. I believed that all nail pops, holes and any imperfections in the original wood would be prepped so the new paint job would look smooth. This was done in a half harded way and new nail pops (and old ones) can now be seen. Some paint is already coming off.

Here's the thing about University Painters..they are a franchise so it really depends on which franchise does the work. Some are fine and others are not. I'm not even sure which franchise did the work for us but Brian Jablonsky was our POC. I thought the estimate was a bit high and in fact, was 10% more than the next highest estimate and over 20% more than the lowest estimate even with the promotion UP was running at the time. We had used them before to do some work and they did a satisfactory job so I was willing to pay extra to work with a known company. This time around, however, we had a miserable experience. They started the work on time and certainly had enough people on the job to get the job done in a reasonable time frame. Not so much. It was pretty clear early on that the painters were not experienced or organized. The way they tackled the job didn't make any sense and they seemed to assign the easiest rooms to the more experienced painters. They did not clean up at the end of each day and the entire job took almost two weeks to finish. We have a first floor master suite because my husband is handicapped which the painters knew because my husband was the one at home while they were doing the painting. The master bedroom was completely unuseable for the entire time it took them to complete the whole job so my husband had to, with difficulty, get himself upstairs each night to go to bed. About 5 days into the project, Brian called to tell me that the job was more difficult, was using more material and was taking longer than he anticipated. He asked if I would be willing to pay an additional $500 to compensate him. Now, first of all, I am in the interior design field and in fact, at one time worked as a painter. This job was nothing out of the ordinary and with the number of men they had working, it should have taken no more than 6 days. Secondly, in my work when I miscalculate on a quote for a job and don't charge enough, guess what? I eat it the loss and count it as a lesson learned. I talked with Brian about this for far too long and finally agreed to pay the $500 because I wanted the guys out of the house with no reprocussions. Finally, when the work was and quot;finishedand quot; I inspected the job and found and quot;holidaysand quot; - areas of missing paint in a couple of rooms and paint splatters and drips everywhere! There was paint on my hardwood floors, on furniture, even on my sheers! Brian had someone come out to touch up and clean up the paint spills but months later, I am still finding paint everywhere. In light of the complaints about the paint drips and splatters, Brian called to apologize and to say that he wasn't going to add the $500 to my bill. I think I was supposed to be grateful but I was just angry and resolved to never use University Painters again. Just before the painting was done, I had quite a bit of work done by Handyman at Your Command, a company I found on Angie's List. For about half of the price of my painting job and in half the time, they took walls down and finished them off,built new doorways and installed doors on four closets, added crown moulding to the dining room, drywalled an exposed brick fireplace surround, installed hardwood flooring in my powderoom, replaced wood boards in existing harwood and did a few other tasks that we threw in at the last minute. They were extremely professional cleaned up after themselves every day and made sure that our living area was useable at night. In retrospect, they would have been a much better choice for my painting work. I now know better as I begin the work on the second floor of my house.

I was extremely upset. I sat at home waiting for them, and when they didn't show up by 11 o' clock, I called. As a matter of fact, they just sent me an email a couple of days ago. When I called, Ryan Taylor did come out and he gave me an estimate. I called and told him that I hadn't heard from him. He said to me that my credit card was denied. I told him it couldn't have been. I told him that I know what the balance is on that account. I was going to pay on my Visa. He put the wrong expiration date. If I did the estimate on March 22nd and if my expiration date was December 2012, he shouldn't have accepted the card. His company didn't get back with me. I had been waiting since March 22nd, that morning I called and told them it was almost 11 o' clock and asked them what time they were showing up. Then I pulled out my slip and he put December 2012 for the expiration date. I was perturbed. I was sitting here at home waiting for him, and no one communicated with me. He gave me a quote and we agreed to get the work done. Then the day he was to show up, nobody showed up. When I called, I discovered that they weren't coming at all. The quote was $700. He was very professional and I thought that we were going to get this done. As a company, if the card was denied, shouldn't somebody have called me and told me that my card was denied. The error was on their part. I would never use them again in the future.

They were outstanding. They were responsive and did excellent work. I am not exaggerating; this guy was excellent. There is no doubt I would use him again.

The exterior painting was excellent. The interior went well. They spilled some small spots of paint on the carpets. The price was very reasonable.

These guys were great. They were very responsive and gave a fair and thorough estimate. The painting crew was big enough (4 guys) to do the job in a reasonable amount of time and the did quality work. I would highly recommend them.

I reached out to University Painters after hearing an ad on the local radio about a special discount on materials. You call an '800' number and they direct you to your local franchise for someone to return your call. My call was returned by the local franchise promptly and we scheduled an estimate, which I had to reschedule once, and the estimate went smoothly. Bob was our POC and he showed up on time and was dressed in a University Painters polo shirt, so we knew he was from the company. He brought photos of their previous work and paint chips. We decided it would be best for me to buy my own paint so I could pick out the colors I wanted exactly. They gave me an estimate for price and told me how much paint to buy. It turned out that they amount of paint they told me to get was WAY too much-- I didn't even get as much as they said I should and we had more than half of it left after the job was over. On the day of the painting, which they only do weekdays or Saturdays (and Saturdays you have to schedule much further out), they showed up relatively on time and got started right away. They did a good job on the stairway and in the kitchen. In the bedroom there were a few nicks and scratches in the walls, which Bob had said they would spackle and sand. They did a few big nicks, but they left a lot of nicks in the bedrooms walls and just painted over them, which didn't look great. The edges at the ceiling also weren't that crisp. There was also some confusion about which trim and door they were supposed to paint, even though I had gone over that with Bob at the time of the estimate. Overall, I was fairly satisfied with the job, except for not filling in any scratches. They definitely did, in one day, more than I could do in several weekends of painting. For what I was paying, I just expected the results to blow me away and they didn't, it looked like we painted it ourselves.

We are very pleased with the final product. However, if it weren't for my husband's eagle eye, 2 of the wainscotting boxes would have been a 1/4" inch off. This problem was fixed immediately after bringing it to the worker's attention. One corner of the bedroom required a second coat of paint. This was discovered after the painters were gone, so we applied the 2nd coat ourselves, though, the owner did offer to have the painters return to complete the job. Two areas on the wainscotting required touch up....very minor problem and easy to fix; however, you shouldn't have to. We are very pleased with the exterior work. The workers were prompt, responsive, and respectful.

Great. The men were professional and respectful of our needs and property. Arrived on time and were done lickity split! Looks great too!

I did not have a good experience with them. I am very dissatisfied with them. Their detail to work was just awful. We had three to four rooms that had wallpaper and we had asked them to take the wallpaper off. I also had asked them to take off electrical outlet slates, light fixtures. They did not pull the stove out to take the wall paper behind the stove. In general their detail work was awful. We had the owner of the company come here twice, and we decided that they were not capable. We would not recommend them, and we will never use them again. The price they quoted was good. They used good paint but the quality of work was bad. We relied on the reviews they had on Angie’s list before we hired them. They were responsive and gave me an estimate. Their price was the best of the three quotes I had been given. I think most of the reviews were B for quality. Maybe others did not have the same workers or maybe they were not as picky as we are. But I want feedback put for them so that others would read and then decide.

went ok, since I purchase the paint myself, I needed the labor part

The team of painters were very hard-working and respectful, although it was hard to communicate with them, since I do not speak Spanish--the foreman was a young man who had good mastery of English, so I communicated with him mainly. He brought alot of helpers with him for a couple of days, in order to get the job done fast--but by the finishing days, he just had 2 or 3---I rate this sub-contractor as very good and dependable--they finished the work in a timely fashion, and did not leave a mess.They worked with me on my request for a light blue ceiling on the rear veranda, and it ended up looking very nice--I would recommend them highly.

We thought they were great. They were worth using. I definitely would recommend them.

I thought that their service was fine. I would say you get what you pay for. They did the job, but I felt they could have done a better job.

William Howland of University Painters painted a large master suite closet in boutique stripes for us. His bid was 30% lower than anyone else's (we received 4 bids), he began work the next day and did an impeccable job. He was puntual, professional and was able to procure ancillary services that we needed (i.e., an electrician) at reaosnable costs and in a timely fashion. We will certainly use him for all of our painting needs in the future.

The appt for an estimate was scheduled for 2pm today, Friday , 6 Mar 2009. The painter called my house around 10am to request a later time. I was at work so didn't receive the call until I returned home for the appt. I called the painter and agreed to a later time, between 430 and 5pm. I wasn't happy since I had to take off from work but I was pleasant and agreed to the change. Long story short, he never showed up or called again.

They did a very good job and did what they said they would do. We had an issue during the process of painting but were able to resolve it. They were very professional in the concern of our shrubs and plants on the outside.

University Painter was the lowest of three bids and was prompt in arriving and giving an estimate. However, it turned out that the estimate didn't include things I assumed were included (ie, window frames), and I had to pay extra for those, so it wasn't such a low bid. Also, University Painters uses subcontractors, and University Painters didn't communicate clearly to the sub what was supposed to be done. We were away for part of the work, and when we returned, I had to call University Painters to get the sub to return and re-do things which were not done correctly, because University Painters didn't tell the sub. Overall, this turned out to be a hassle.

They responded to my request for estimate the very next day and I was able to book online, which was very handy for me. The contractor was extremely professional and very low pressure. He walked around and took measurements and priced everything out for me. I am comparing a few more companies, but I think University Painters did a great job with the estimate.

The man (owner of this franchise, I believe) who gave the estimate listened to all my concerns and made helpful suggestions. He clearly was an experienced painter and inspired confidence. I had to wait a couple weeks for the job to start due to weather, but the company stayed in touch and gave me plenty of notice. The company was accommodating about doing the interior work on Saturday so I could be present during that part of the job. "Lewis" was the manager of the project. He was a man of few words, but was respectful of me and my belongings and answered all my questions. He was unfailingly polite and pleasant. He and his assistant were very diligent workers and seemed to be very competent and experienced painters. The job was completed in two and a half days. Much of the work was outstanding, but a few aspects I would rate as 'very good.' The ceiling repair looks great in natural light, but in artificial light one can see shadows from the patch and some irregularity in the surface. The application of the sealant was spotty in a few areas and I was disappointed that the deck didn't look better after the cleaning and treatment. But I may be at fault for not discussing ahead of time the possibility of using a light stain and brushing rather than spraying the sealant in certain areas of the deck and pergola. There was an area around the front door that clearly needed attention, and no work was done there, likely because the painters didn't believe that part of the frame was included in the job (and they would be correct). However, I would have appreciated their pointing it out to me, because I would have been happy to pay a little extra for that small area. But I was generally pleased with the work and would use the company again for other painting projects. That said, if I had a project for which I wanted extremely high quality work, I would discuss my expectations with this company and interview other painters too. I chose University because their estimate was the lowest (although not by any huge amount) and I was impressed at the professionalism of the gentlemen who came right away after I called to give the estimate.