Kurtz Custom Painting

Mr. Kurtz did not properly prepare the house for painting. He did not do any power-washing, or even use a brush to clean the dirt off the house. Due to wind gusts, there were dirt/dust/grass clumps stuck to the stucco which he painted directly over. There were vines growing on the house and although he tore them down, he did not scrape off the suckers and small pieces that remained on the house. He painted directly over them as well. He did not properly scrape and sand the peeling trim, nor did he adquately prime it. Some of the new paint is already bubbling and peeling, only two months later. He got paint on the newly stained deck and porch, and stain on the newly-painted house. He also got paint on my A/C unit, the fence, the driveway, and the sidewalk. Prior to starting the job I expressed my concerns about the possibility of lead paint on the house. I have a small child and did not want paint chips in the yard for her to play with or put in her mouth. He assured me that he would be scraping paint directly into a drop cloth and all chips would be disposed of properly. I found huge paint chips in the yard, the garden, the driveway, and in the small space between the deck and the house. Prior to him writing up the contract, I also informed him that a gutter company was going to be removing my old gutters and replacing any fascia that was rotting, and putting up new gutters when he finished painting. I told him not to start painting the fascia until all rotten pieces had been replaced. He agreed that he would wait and a contract was written up that included painting the fascia in the quote. When he came to collect the balance of the payment, he requested an extra $140 beyond his quoted price for having to prime and paint the brand-new fascia. Mr. Kurtz's contract also states that the balance of the payment is not due until the job is complete and the customer is satisfied. He came to our house requesting payment prior to completing the job. My husband, who was on leave from Afghanistan, was home at the time and paid him because he didn't realize that he was supposed to wait until the job was finished. Mr. Kurtz cashed the check within an hour, and then didn't return for several days to finish the job. I sent him a certified letter listing all of my complaints and asked for a refund. His wife called me (I think she manages the business) and they both came over to look at the job. For the most part, she agreed with the things that I viewed as problematic, and she and Mr. Kurtz stood in my driveway fighting and swearing at each other for approximately 20 minutes. She made a note of some of the things I wanted fixed, and Mr. Kurtz came back a few days later and made an attempt at scraping the vine scraps off the house, re-sanding some of the old, peeling paint on the trim which was visible through the new stuff, and smoothing out some of the caulking he had put in that looked like chunky toothpaste. Overall, it was a very stressful and bad experience.