Benchmark Painting & Carpentry of Kensington, LLC

Their price was a little high, but they were punctual and the quality of their work is excellent.

Very reasonable price. Likely would use again.

They do painting and carpentry. They bought the paint, did wall painting, wall repair, and patched up the crown molding in one room. They broke a window but they were repulsive to that and I am still waiting for them to fix it. They do a good job. They buy the materials for me which makes things simple. They are quick and efficient at handling paint.

We identified Benchmark on Angie's List. They had the most reasonable estimate of the three estimates we received. the estimator who came to our home was professional and courteous. One of their aspects of business that we really appreciated was that they were very accurate about when they would be able to complete the work. They came to our home for the work on the day they scheduled with us. They completed all of the contracted work very well.

The experience was great. Larry came in early February to look at the issues and formulate a price quote. Even though this was not related to his company's work, he also talked some with me about basement flooring options, sharing some of his own personal experience and then later emailing pictures of the flooring he installed in his own home. During that initial visit Larry warned that it might be March before a crew could come, but after I made the decision to hire Benchmark and called Larry to tell him, he told me that a crew would actually be able to come later that same week. I was thrilled. The crew that came was Luis and Luis (hope I'm spelling correctly). They were extremely courteous and professional, and did fast, quality work. I was extremely pleased. FYI, in 2010 I had also hired Benchmark to stain the long, wooden fence surrounding our properly, and was equally impressed with the company then.

This is a story of best and worst impressions. Andres came out and did a quick look at the painting work needed. He was pleasant, flew in and out quickly, said he'd follow up with a quote, and that his colleague Terry would come out to do a separate estimate on the carpentry work, as it would be necessary to open up the wall in my son's room to see the full extent of the damage. A week or so later, I took a morning off work to meet Terry. When she arrived, she was very surprised to understand that she would need to open the wall--Andres had not communicated this to her--and she was tightly scheduled, so this posed a problem for her. She was very personable--apologized for being unprepared and was uneasy about cutting a hole, as there was as yet no agreement to give her the work, but I assured her it was okay, as the insurance company insisted on a very precise estimate which was impossible to develop otherwise. She and her team took their time and worked carefully; they found wall damage in an adjacent closet, which I hadn't even thought to check. They cleaned up behind themselves, and she promised to send an estimate soon. I received it by email that very night. I still hadn't received Andres' estimate and asked her to follow up with him, which she did. I then had to liaise with the insurance company, which came back with lower numbers and also wanted the estimate presented in a very specific way. I let Andres and Terry know the insurance adjuster would be reaching out to them directly to try to resolve the price differences. Afterwards, the insurance company sent me a revised estimate which matched Benchmark's numbers (although in an incredibly complicated document that was difficult to skim). I shared it with both of them, asking if they would like the job. Three weeks went by. I wrote to both of them again. Andres wrote a brusque note claiming that he had replied to me weeks earlier declining the work. At this point I was highly exasperated: (a) he clearly hadn't taken time to review the estimate, or he would have seen the insurance company was willing to cover exactly what he had asked for; and (b) there had been no earlier email, and the dishonesty (or ineptness) was enough to convince me I didn't want this guy working in my house anyway. Terry wrote back to apologize for letting it slip through the cracks and asked for clarification on what the insurance company would cover. When I told her, she quickly supplied a revised proposal for the carpentry work that met the insurance company's requirements. I told her I would make other arrangements for the painting. She made a strong impression as a very competent carpenter and an honest businesswoman, someone who takes pride in her work, so when she offered to also handle the painting job with her crew, I agreed. She was very accommodating about scheduling the work, as I had several days of the week when I could not have the crew in the house. Throughout, I always had the impression she gave as much care to the repair work as she would have if it were her own house. Her whole team was great--the carpentry and the painting. They protected floors and adjacent rooms from dust, always left things very clean, and I never worried about leaving them alone in my house. They were fast and professional, and I was very pleased with the final results. I highly recommend Terry and her team. My ratings here reflect my experience with them.

The pricing guy was very friendly and answered all of my questions when he came out to do the estimate. He was able to put me on the schedule quickly and said it would be a 1-2 day job. The painters showed up on time and obviously worked hard all day while I was at work. However, I think in their eagerness to make it a 1-day job they cut some corners. The paint was too thinly applied in a few places and the areas around the lightswitches and electrical outlets did not get enough paint to cover the area that showed once the switchplates were put back on. Also, I had not realized that they would get paint on the switches and outlets themselves---if I had known that was going to be an issue, I would have covered the switches and outlets with tape. I did my own touch-ups and cleanups to deal with these issues, but I don't feel like I should have to do my own touch-ups for a professional paint job. Once I did the touch-ups, the walls look good. They did a very nice job with the line where the wall meets the ceiling.

They are reasonable. When they said they are going to be here, they showed up. They explained things very well; they said what is going to happen and the whole other process. One other thing I liked about them was their friendliness, especially the women I was working with.

It?s a long story. In the end Benchmark came and completely redid our job with their best crew (Luis & Luis). The job was thorough, very good, and very professional. They also followed-up many times. I would like to say this is the average level of customer service, but I not certain of it. We only received this service after posting that we wouldn?t do business again with them on their Facebook page. Our initial job consisted of a team that forgot to paint a wall, didn?t thoroughly paint our brick wall, and most importantly did not use the paint that was in our contract. Benchmark made a follow-up call and sent the crew back to address the first two issues. The last one had yet to be realized. So at this point we were still satisfied with Benchmark. As background, our job was part of a basement remodel that included new drywall. After the painting, the walls were closely inspected. As a result there were areas that weren?t to our pleasing. Whether it was imperfect drywall or the paint job, I cannot say. We had the main contractor (Case Design) address these areas. This left areas that now needed to again be primed and painted. Our main contractor handled these dealings with Benchmark. I cannot comment on what was agreed to. We were told that Benchmark would come back. A representative of Benchmark did so. He looked around the basement, and then told us he needed to make a call. He went to his truck. After ten minutes he left without ever saying a word to us. We were now left with the remnants of the primer and paint used on the initial job. Our contractor eventually took care of the touch up. However he didn?t think there was enough primer and paint left. I had to go to Benjamin Moore to get the extra paints. Once I got to Benjamin Moore, it became very clear that the original crew didn?t use Benjamin Moore paint. I should have suspected something when there were no labels on the paint they cans they were using. We were frantic. My husband made several phones calls to Benchmark and left messages. We just wanted to know what they used so we could buy something that matched. We were never called back. In the end, we were without primer but our contractor was able to make the paint remnants work. Unfortunately this left some areas with fuzzies from the roller that was left in the paint can, and areas which had a matte finish because the drywall had to be painted without being primed. After the touchup painting fiasco, we were happy just to be done with dealing with contractors. We resigned ourselves to trying to be satisfied with the painting. Nothing was horrendous, just small and annoying. Had Benchmark taken us off their email list, our basement would still be in this state. After several monthly advisement emails, each irking me beyond belief, I eventually made my first post to their Facebook page. Social media does seem to have its purpose.

Overall we were very pleased. We suggest that you are clear about your needs. They certainly aim to please and are happy to accommodate you. When we asked for touch ups and certain areas, including the ceiling of the office to be redone, Benchmark happily complied. Our service, from start to finish was positive. Neta, the office manager is very responsive. She had Andres come out within a day of our call into the office to give us an estimate and the crew started our project within approximately a week. We recommend Benchmark and hope you have an equally positive experience.

They really do good work! They are great about picking up after themselves. They do a wonderful job with the prep work and use 2 coats of paint. They've also painted the interior of our house. We are very satisfied with their services!

The team at Benchmark did an excellent job. They used high quality Benjamin Moore paint, which enabled even the darker walls in my living room, dining room and kitchen to be painted over with a lighter color with just two coats of paint. They were very meticulous in their wall preparation work, which was important to me, as my walls had many imperfections in them. The team was professional and courteous, and took time to explain things to me, as they wanted to make sure I was happy with the work....which I was. Benchmark is a very high quality organization, and will definitely be using them again for my next painting project.

I probably wouldn't use them in the future.

They did a good job and we would use them again in the future.

My husband and I were moving into a new home and needed the rec room and basement bedroom painted. We were on a tight schedule because we were also having carpet installed in those areas. We received three estimates and for the work provided, Benchmark's was the most fair, comprehensive, and reasonable. From the time we received the estimate, to the time the work was completed, the staff at Benchmark was timely, and professional. The crew arrived on time, took great care in their work, and did the entire job in one day. I would definitely use Benchmark again in the future, and would highly recommend them!

Terry was very diligent in providing an incredibly fair estimate. The office staff was great as well. The painters were amazingly talented, professional, and helfpul. Ramsis, who was my main contact, was absolutely wonderful. I would definitely use Benchmark again (and look forwad to doing so).

Great. They even did some last minute work for us while they were there.

I was very pleased with Benchmark's work. They were responsive from my first call to their office all the way to checking in to make sure we were happy with their work. Terry was excellent to deal with -- responsive to my weekend and middle-of-the-night emails -- and was very helpful in identifying what I wanted. She even referred me to more specialized carpenters when I was considering a more elaborate banister. They also were flexible in scheduling the work to fit into my work schedule. I'm already planning to hire them again to help me paint some rooms.

We recently purchase a unit in a high rise condo complex in Alexandria, and wanted to get the place painted and decorated prior to moving in. On 8/16 Andres from Benchmark arrived to prepare an estimate for a complete paint job of the unit. We discussed what we wanted, and Andres provided some very valuable advice and suggestions as we walked through the unit. He strongly advised that we buy a number of sample size cans of pint to test the colors that we were planning to use. In fact, once we did this, we ended up going with some different colors than we originally planned. We used Benjamin Moore, but most paint brands now sell test sized cans of paint. When we walked through the closets, I mentioned that I was planning on having custom closets installed and that i needed to have the existing shelving removed. Andres agreed to remove the shelving for no additional cost. I received the estimate via email the next day. The price was about 20% lower than a second estimate that I had received from another vendor. I provided the colors that we chose for each room in advance, and we scheduled the actual painting for 9/27. The painting took three days, using five workers. Day one was mostly patching and prepping, plus first coats on the ceiling and some rooms. Day two was patching the closets, plus first and second coats. Day three was final coats and cleanup. The quality of the work was awesome. Every nick, scratch, imperfection and nail hole in the dry wall was scraped, spackled, sanded and primed, so that the walls are now in pristine condition. The painting was meticulous; the lines where the walls met the ceiling were perfectly straight. I could not have asked for a a better job. The main living area looks like a designer showroom. I'm going to hate to cover the rooms up with furniture and artwork. Benchmark also has a carpentry division. Terry runs the division and arrived to provide an estimate for some needed work. I wanted to have crown molding installed in the main area, primarily to cover up coax cable running along the corner of the ceiling. The ceilings are concrete, so there was no place to hide the coax. The Comcast guy ran the cable along the ceiling and left me lengths of cable at various points so I could fish it through the walls and install coax outlets (which I did prior to any benchmark work being done). Additionally, six interior 6 panel doors were recently installed by the prior owner, and not one of them closed properly. Terry gave me an estimate: $475 for the doors and $825 for the crown molding. She also coordinated with the painting division, as she wanted to have the carpentry work down prior to the painting. The carpentry was done perfectly. All of the door now close, and the crown molding look great, especially now that they are painted a nice glossy white. I would absolutely recommend Benchmark for any painting/carpentry work.

Terry came out straight away to give me an estimate for the stairs and the window. The stairs were very straightforward, the window less so because we couldn't tell how far down the wall the water damage was. Terry did a great job of explaining to me what the possible variables were in replacing the window sill, then gave a me a firm fixed price for the stairs and a time and materials bid on the window. I appreciated her honesty in describing what the additional costs related to the window could be and her willingness to break down the bid. We scheduled the work and Raul did an awesome job on both the stairs and the window. He worked quickly and efficiently, and honestly recorded the time he spent working on the window separate from the stairs. In the end, the only damage to the window was the rotted out sill, so the end cost came in less than whatIi anticipated, but I appreciated knowing how expensive the repair might have turned out to be had the damage been more extensive.

My bottom line is that I waisted time by contacting Benchmark.

Truly an exceptional experience from the initial meeting and price quote with Larry to the actual work performed by Grodbin and his team. Benchmark performed the work while we were still out of the area and not occupying the residence. They were very professional and very respectful of our house and property. Their workmanship was perfect and I am thrilled with the results. I would not hesitate to hire them again. Well worth the money spent! Thanks so much for a great experience!

They were very good.They were wonderful and very competent. Their crew was very good. I was very satisfied with them. There was nothing that I disliked about them. I liked the quality of their work, timeliness and friendliness. I cannot say anything negative at all about them or the crew. The crew that they hired proved that they were just outstanding. My husband thought that they were a little expensive but I thought that they were competitive in terms of their pricing. I don't want to look for anybody else for anything that I want to do around here as I have found them and I feel satisfied with them.

It was a fair price for the amount of work they did. They do prep work for a day in the house. They did a very good job. There were some minor details that had to be taken care of and they took care of them. They left some paint on the sky light upstairs but they came back and cleaned it up. We had a couple of light switches that they didn’t put enough plaster around to light up the switch plate. They left about half an inch or quarter of an inch and I didn’t make them come back and do it. I just didn’t want to call them back again. That’s the only negative thing that they did. Otherwise everything was perfect. They were very responsive especially when I called them to come back and clean the sky lights. They came right away. Despite the language barrier, they were professional. There was just one guy who had a language barrier kind of a thing. I normally do all the painting myself. I will use their services again in the future.

We received two estimates and they offered the better price. Andres was very responsive and answered all of the questions we had. They worked for three days, but we had to call to have them come back for a fourth day to apply the second coat of deck stain (as they indicated they would provide in their proposal), as well as touch up several spots on the newly painted railing that they got deck stain on. They also left a lot of paint chips from the previous paint job in the yard that I had to ask them to clean up. After they came back, they cleaned a lot of it up, but some of it still remained. Overall it turned out nice, but I am not sure we would use them again due to some of the lack of attention to detail.