Monico Painting Co

Initially, I thought this was going to be a great company to work with. Mr. Tony Harris seemed very genuine. His initial estimate was too low for the work he agreed to perform. I am not a contractor but I knew that cost was not accurate. There were so many issues I don't know where to start. He could not measure a space accurately. I purchased a shower based on his measurements, only for him to have to take it back because he did not measure the slant of the room. I purchase two cabinets for the kitchen when only one would fit, also based on his measurements. He told me the bathroom had enough room for us to put in a 27" compact washer and dryer, but when he finished the bathroom the amount of space left was less than 22". He charged me an extra $1800 for this work and I can not even put in a washer and dryer. Plus the shower unit is not sealed and is shifting. It also does not drain because it is not positioned properly. The toilet was not bolted down. The socket for the washer and dryer was not connected and put in upside down. He left of molding off the walls. The cabinet in the kitchen was not secured to the wall. The sink was placed in the cabinet crooked and the pipe leaked. He was supposed to hire an electrician to wire in new baseboard heaters, but when we tried to turn the heaters on it tripped the breaker and the power for the entire house. We had another electrician come out to see what was going on and he check the heaters, they were not installed properly and the wiring was not checked. We will have to pay to have the wiring fixed. There were light switches that were under the molding and instead of moving them over he just cut the molding around it and told us it could not be moved. We had to get another contractor to move the light fixture. We had to call him back constantly to fix so many issues. His excuse was his workers were making mistakes. I understand workers not working properly but as the owner of the company and the person, I paid I expected him to oversee the work. He also told us the job would take 2 -3 weeks he stated in May the job was still not finished in at the end of July. Some things did look ok like the installation of our windows, but I am very scared about the things I cannot see and the corners that have been cut. I wish this would have turned out better.

Price was better than other quotes I received, and I liked Mr Harris. He and his crew came when they said they would be there. They were all pleasant. Day 1.) Started to remove "popcorn ceiling" from the living and dining room but did not remove any items from the room. Items including down sofa, piano, and antique furniture were not covered well, with plastic. Because of miscommunication, trim painting was done upstairs all day with the wrong color paint. A halogen lamp was knocked over and burned a hole in the carpet. Paint drips were found on several items, including shirts, pants, lampshades, books, hats. 8-10  pieces of furniture had oil based paint hand prints or drips on them.  Day 2.) My wife and I were upset with some of the things that had happened the day before, but I was committed to try and stay with my decision, as letting someone go from a job can be difficult for both parties. I sat down for 30-40 minutes with Mr Tony Harris, had a talk, and  I gave him a punch list of things that needed to be corrected, redone, and improved upon. Left for work. Came home that evening. Dust was throughout in the downstairs from all the sanding of ceiling joint compound. Inside the china cabinet, and in drawers that were closed, enough that they had to be emptied of contents and vacuumed out. A wood carved mirror in the living room was not removed prior to sanding and it has taken a lot of work to try to remove the dust from all the crevices. The down silk sofa had a paint drip on it. The piano had dust all over and in it. Ceilings looked pretty good in the middle but poor on the edges all around the perimeter. There were enough paint drips that Mr Harris repainted the living room gratis. Cut ins along the base board and dental molding, however, used a mismatched color and I had to redo them myself after his company left. Outside on the exterior work, paint was dripped on a new roof but removed with some residue. Landscaped bushes were broken by hand to get at parts of the house. Paint thinner to clean brushes had been poured on the front lawn under a tree and has now killed the grass in a  2 foot diameter circle in the lawn.Trim upstairs looked pretty good in some places, but the house was built in the 70's and very little sanding was done in advance of painting. Spots were missed that had to be pointed out in order to be corrected.  Day 3.) Day 3 was a Monday. We worked some on Saturday to clean paint off furniture upstairs and down. I had a talk  again with Mr Harris and gave him another list. He told me he not only wanted me to be happy, he wanted me to be ecstatic. I gave him a list of 20 things I wanted him to redo or fix, things like "don't just paint the trim towards the bed, stop at the bed, and pick up on the other side, " or "the back of the door in the bath room has not been painted at all." Had him redo the ceiling in spots, and wrap all the items in the living room in plastic. Windows went in that day and were installed using shoe molding instead of brick  molding and I have been told by the window manufacturer that I will have to contract someone to correct this. Unfortunately, the ceiling looks poor enough that it will have to be redone again also as it is a poor job even with attempted corrections. Trim painting not done well in some areas,  with missed spots. Other areas look very good. There is paint on the wall paper, and as they tried to remove it the print pattern came off the wall paper. Apparently another lamp fell over and burned a hole in the wall paper.  Mr Harris left with a check and a promise of returning, not having finished my ceilings, or installing my last window.  He has not returned three phone calls. The living room I had Mr Harris paint was cut in with a missed-color paint match, and I have spend the day repainting along the trim along the dental molding and floor board. Last week I spent two evenings resanding and repainting the upstairs baseboard in the hall, as they painted dust and carpet fibers right into the paint.  I also had to remove caulk that was excessive along the top edge of the stairwell molding.  I suspect that I have at lease 2 more Saturdays of work to do, including removing the now painted front wood storm door that will not close any more, and taking apart and reassembling the Baldwin lock on the main front door of the house , which Monico restained. Door looks very nice on the inside. Needs another coat on the exterior. Exterior of the house looks very nice, including the garage door.

Monico Painting does OK exterior work for a very good price. You have to supervise and give direction to get it done right. Don't write the last check until you have had the time to carefully review the work. Would not recommend them for any interior work, especially ceiling removal,  or trim that needs alot of prep.

I wouldn't use them again. After they left and the painting dried, we realized that the job they did wasn't what we expected. As a matter of fact I'm in the process of re doing it myself. They used the right kind of paint, they just did a bad job in preparation. They had to remove the wallpaper and do some plastering and they didn't skim it correctly. The job wasn't done correctly to what we were told. Although they were nice guys. The price was good, which was one of the reasons we hired them. I just realized that you get what you paid for. They showed up when they said they were going to and got the job done in the time that they said they would. They weren't as professional as I thought they were going to be. They dumped paint in my yard and left a mess that I had to clean up. I wouldn't recommend them to my worst buddy.