Clarke Painting, Inc.

Didn't show up, didn't show up. Once we were able to connect late September they told me that all their college help was gone and having trouble getting staff ( big red flag! don't college students always go back to school after Labor Day???!!! Obviously not planning ahead!). They kept promising they would come. Then they tried to talk me into waiting until spring but since we had had exterior work done on the house(that needed prime and paint before winter) we could not wait till spring. They finally came late OCTOBER! Many times did not arrive when promised, did not clean up as stated in contract (which was a problem for Halloween trick or treaters so I ended up doing their clean up!), did not complete the work on the 'punch list' we had reviewed, and did not do all the work agreed to in contract. In the end I paid them less than the contract amount because of it. Worst of all I don't think the quality of work was there - my house started peeling within a year!

Awesome! Very friendly staff, on time, excellent work and price.

Excellent work, walls look great. The employee cleaned up completely at the emd of each day (3).

The quote was the highest of three.

Carpenter on time I thorough. Deck people on time - good job. Painters on time - great job.

The service was great. They were very nice. We decided not to go with them because they were too expensive.

For both jobs, I worked with Jon Burnham. He was fantastic, professional, very detail oriented and timely. He said he would finished as he promised. He said it was a week and 1/2 to complete and that is the time frame he completed. I also asked him to finish some specific details and he took care of them right away without any complaints. On my deck, he led me through the process to find the right composite deck materials because I was not familiar with that. He gave me some options and he was very clear with his deadline. He made his budget expectations very clear, he was very helpful, found the right composite and finished the job in just 3 days. The composite decking that we used was AZEK decking. They had great communication, they were able to relate to me and contact me through texts. I was very appreciative of this and I would give them 5 stars. They were very excellent.

I felt the company was very responsive from the initial contact. They were quite prompt with setting up and giving me an estimate. The fine work price came in two thousand more than the original quoted price. The workers acted professional when I was around. The work took approximately a week accounting for some poor weather. We are mostly satisfied with the work. However, there was a large area of rotted boards which were primed and painted only to be discovered by myself and my wife. A couple of other boards which were clearly damaged, required a specific request by myself to replace. I felt for this amount of money, I should expect that I would not have to double check their work. This makes me concerned about the boards on the back of the house which are three stories high. I am assuming that there are other areas of concern which likely were not addressed. I made it clear at the onset I would pay fair price as long as the job was done as if it were their own house. Overall the job looked pretty good, but we did come away with the feeling of completely satisfied.

This was the 2nd time we hired Clarke Painting. My husband was unable to complete some projects due to ill health. Kurt returned my call and was able to fit us into their schedule. Joe performed excellent carpentry, painting, and repairs inside and outside the house. On both occasions, we were completely satisfied with the quality and service Clarke provided us. We wouldn't hesitate to hire them again.

I wouldn't hire them again. They subcontracted everything out to other companies without telling us, and made us believe that the sub contractors were their employees. We were going on vacation and these people were going to be in our house working while we were gone. We specifically told Clarke Painting that we were choosing to go with them because they could do all of the work. When we came home from vacation, we found people in our home that we didn't know. That is when we found out that they sub contracted everything out. We were very happy with the sub contractors and they did a beautiful job. I have their business cards and I will choose to do work with them. No one form Clarke came to the house to check on the progress. They showed up at the very end. Clarke didn't tell the contractors everything that was in the contract we had with them, so there didn't seem to be very good communication.

Very responsive, high quality work. Came back after one year due to some places of rotted wood that had not been caught in the original job and they made it right, even working weekends. Can't say enough good about their reliability and commitment to customer sat.

The initial discussion of the work was in person. Scott Smith came and walked around the house with me, asking questions and taking notes. He is friendly and easy to talk with. He sent an estimate shortly afterwards. I then had another discussion with the head of the painting crew, John, before they started. The house presented no difficulties but the gardens did. There is a lot of vegetation right up against the foundation. John was clear about their needs in order to get to the walls and his requests were reasonable. At his suggestion, I cut paths into the plantings to minimize the impact on the garden. I told him which plants they had to be especially careful of and pruned bushes that were going to be a problem. As the building is older than 1978, plastic draping was also an issue. They did a good job protecting the plants while doing what regulations around old lead paint now require. John listened to my concern over the color of paint I was considering and suggested he use my test quart over a large, prepped area so I could see it set off without the old color nearby. It was a great idea and helped me feel confident that the color I had chosen was really what I wanted. The whole crew--John, Zack, Becca, and Andre were a pleasure to have around and the house looks terrific!

everything went as stated for the first room. Kristen was on time ...very professional and very neat. Job commpleted in one day...very satisified. Ready to finish project and move to living room. We have cleared the room and picked the paint and have spoken to Scott and he is going to try to get us Kristen again because we liked her very much. If not possible, I think we will be satisfied with the painter they provide because they seem to be a quality company all the way.

goes great. they're always there, billing is easy. tenants are happy.

Overall, the experience was good. They responded, were punctual, everything was fine. I had really no problem with them. One small issue that I had was during the job, I noticed a small tile had been loosened. I had mentioned this to the technician & he told me he'd take care of it. When he left, I went out and checked the job over, I found the tile on the ground. He did a good job getting rid of the ice and the price was reasonable.

It went very well. I was amazed at how quickly they were able to schedule me in - less than 24 hours after I emailed them, I received a call and information that they were able to come out the next day. The person they sent to do the job was very respectful and professional. Did a fine job cleaning up the snow that was raked off the roof. We will be calling them in the spring to give us an estimate on the trim work for painting as well.

After living in our 2000 sq foot 1939 cape house for 5 years we began to notice that much of the paint was coming off of our cedar shingles in huge flakes. After consulting with several experts we learned that replacing the shingles would be very expensive, but simply sanding them would not prevent such flaking from occurring again since the shingles had remaining oils in them. However we found one very exciting solution, the PaintShaver Pro (PSP), which was basically a powerful grinder that could remove paint down to the wood quickly and cleanly. Clarke was one of the few companies in the area that used the machine and was also willing to divide the job into prep and painting since we wanted to do some of the staining ourselves using a Sherwin Williams antique red stain. Their price was quite competitive at around $5000 for the prep only. And the PSP uses a HEPA vacuum which ensures quick cleanup and environmental safety to meet tough new EPA guidelines. In terms of quality, Clarke performed the project very quickly in a week however we noticed on the first run that there were a number of areas that they had missed and asked them to come back and take care of some of them which they did. The team was professional and polite. The quality was probably not at the same level as the most expensive contractors but again we did not pay top dollar and were looking to do some of the staining afterwards ourselves so we did not sweat the details. Also, to be fair the PSP has a hard time getting into tight spots around edges and as a result a sander is needed to strip these areas. I would definitely use them again for this type of application and we are currently considering hiring them to put the final coat of stain on our house and trim with a paint sprayer since applying the first layer by hand by roller provided very time consuming.

They were absolutely wonderful. We were a cold call new client. They showed up right on time and did a fantastic job.

The site manager was John and he was a dream to work with. Very professional, he really knew his business and was excellent at recommendations for how to use the accent colors always stressing he would do whatever we wanted. Just by talking with him you could tell he had tons of experience and knew what he was doing. He used the exact paint I wanted even though it was inconvenient for him and told me he was happy to do it (Maine Paint Aura for the exterior). He was there everyday early. He came when he said he would and left when he said he would. One day rain was expected and he discussed he would be leaving because of this. He even gave me his cell phone number before he even started the job and encouraged me to call of any issues. I did call with a question once and he answered first ring. I really felt it was important to him that we were happy. The crew was very considerate, skilled and they were so quiet I most of the time didn't even realize they were there. They even took care to not harm my perennial beds which I appreciated. Best of all the house came out great. We are so thrilled. We had wanted this done for 10 years. I would definitely call them first anytime I have painting in the future.

In Feb 2010 I called 3 contractors for estimates. Clarke was the only response and Scott called within days. Estimate was held up due to snow cover, but was done by March. It was thorough. Do get a complete written estimate of what you discussed so there will be no surprises. You may have overlooked something as I did. But a change order was issued and done with no problems. The work was well done and my house looks GREAT! There was a lot of work involved. Communication was easy and efficient. Marc was on site regularly to oversee the painters as well as train them. He was a very good liason, efficient and knowledgable. The painters were polite and hard workers, even with the heat and hornets. They went the extra mile to ensure that my house was completed to my expectations and satisfaction. Expect some dents in your gardens but necessary clipping was well done. Clean up was exceptional on a daily basis. When we ran into carpenter ant damage that led to the discovery of water damage and rotting of the sheathing & trim from a leak in the roof shingles, their carpenter was on the job immediately. Found the problem and fixed everything including the roof leak and window that he had to remove and put back in. I found the quality and speed of the repair to be very well done, again with the heat and hornets. It did add another $2300. Which well worth it as it had to be repainted again. So I would highly recommend Clarke for your painting needs.

The employee arrived on time, was very careful with her work, cleaned up well and provided an excellent job. I would certainly reccommend this company for ressidental interior painting.

Scott returned our call promptly and gave us our estimate within a week. The job was done on time and very professionally. Kurt was the supervisor and came frequently to check on the work and see if we had any questions or concerns. Christin and Chris completed their work expertly. We would definitely recommend Clarke Painting.

Excellent from the time we met them at the Portsmouth home show. Easy going, confident, excellent communicators. Willing to negotiate. Called ahead to arrange times to come out; called ahead when weather prevented work but arranged a follow up time. Always punctual. Crew friendly and did a very good job. We were very pleased with the initial result. One year later had a couple of sections that needed follow up repairs because I don't have gutters up yet (one area on trim where water got behind the paint). They assessed the areas we had found, and found some areas on their own where the wood trim should have been replaced initially. They fixed every area they could find with either epoxy or new boards, primed, repainted, and recommended that I put gutters up. Once again, always on time, always called ahead...even came on a Sunday because he wanted to get the job done. The people are young and energetic, but believe in the "old school" approach - do the job right the first time, be customer focused and honest, and work to excel and build a reputation (as opposed to going for the quick buck). I very highly recommend Clarke Painting and have no intention to use any other painting service in the future.

After a horrible experience with the first painter we dealt with, we hired Clark to finish the job. Kristin was great. She arrived on time on the agreed upon days and called when she was running late (which only happened once). She worked hard and was very considerate about the fact that I was home with my son all day while she painted. We would definitely hire this company again. Great experience start to finish.

Everything was great. Courteous, professional, accurate estimate, clear scope and clear communication when they found some conditions that were outside the scope of the original estimate (rotten wood that needed to be replaced), but was needed to do the job right. The name "Painting" is misleading, they do much more than that. I would highly recommend them for someone who wants quality work at a reasonable price. I would put them in the class of contractors that you call when you want it done right the first time and when enduring quality (not just a quick cover up) is needed. In other words, if you plan to keep your home for the long term, Clarke is an excellent choice. They will be our first call the next time we need work done.