Valley Painting & Powerwashing

Our 100 year old house was in need of exterior painting - Valley Painting and Powerwashing was the most reasonable quote we received - they did the job promptly and professionally - we have received many compliments on the work. They were very responsive when we tried reach them even after the job was done. They fixed and replaced old wood as needed as per their quote. We were very happy with the final job.

Ben Rich and his crew are to be avoided at any cost especially if you have a historic or high quality home with original details that necessitate attention and respect. I was very specific from the beginning as to the quality of work I desired on my historic home. I even gave Ben Rich a specific close-by property as an example to show him what exactly I wanted in terms of quality and end result of a paint job. He agreed to all of the above saying that he knew how to work on antique homes and that I would be very happy with his work. Unfortunately, I discovered that he did not use any of the traditional methods of painting (i.e. hand sanding of details, applying paint with a brush etc); he did all sanding with a sanding machine that permanently erased some of the original details of my antique home; the paint was not applied by brush but was sprayed on; no scaffolding was used. Of course, he had failed to disclose any of this in his initial quote. He never replaced any rotten siding even though this was part of what his quote. I had to pay additional money to have it done by another professional since Ben was not doing what he was paid to do. No scraping was done on the shutters and doors, one can see all the prior layers of paint. He did not use the paint I requested everywhere (there are 2 different whites on the property and it shows!). He failed to complete the paint work despite several specific emails and instructions and several visits with him around the property to show the problem areas. I have declined to pay the last $5,000 (for a total of $27.975) because he did not complete the work, whatever he did was well below the specifications we agreed on up front and he did not even do all that he included in the job description; furthermore, the paint is already gone, cracked or flaking in several areas (4 months after the work was supposedly completed) which shows one of two things: Ben Rich did not use the paint I specifically requested (Aura, Benjamin Moore) everywhere or he did not do the work as prescribed (scrub+sand+prime+2 coats). He was a lot of lip service telling me each time that he would take care of my concerns but, unfortunately, results did not follow. A huge disappointment as well as waste of money, time and energy. I have since asked for 2 quotes in order to repair (only partly, since some of the original wooden details are now gone under Ben Rich's aggressive and disrespectful sanding machine) and complete the low quality, blotchy and messy work done by Ben Rich and his crew. It would cost me a minimum of $20K to have my home look close to what it looked like when I bought it (and had it painted) 11 years ago. To top it all, Ben and his crew kept the property filthy at all times with their garbage everywhere, throwing the paint water on my property grounds above my well despite several warnings, and with their music blaring and disturbing the neighbors. I would not recommend Ben Rich to anyone who values quality work, has a normal vision and believes that a customer deserves to get what he/she asked, agreed and paid for.