J & J Painting

Horrible, horrible experience. As many reviewers have stated previously, Jeff Ekstrom of J & J Painting aggressively pursues payment. In my case, he convinced me to pay in full, and then suddenly stopped all work for months and months. I can only assume the money I gave him went to another project, or to something else in his life? He did return and complete some more work recently, but again, not by the time promised, and only because he thought he could get more money from me, or more work. The pleas for money began immediately, and when none appeared, he dropped the job again. Currently my project is unfinished after 6+ months (drywall, paint, ceilings, trim on downstairs of small house). Getting him to reply has been difficult, and I’ve only been offerred excuses. Still have no idea if this job will ever be finished…will update here if it is.

His guys seem to be experienced and hard working, but Jeff leaves a lot to be desired. He approached me with an unsolicited bid for painting the interior of my 6200sf house because he did some work on another part of the project for the GC and said he needed to keep his guys busy over the winter. So we negotiated a mutually agreeable price for priming and painting the trim with quality guarantees against chipping. Payment terms was to be a deposit and balance upon completion. He wanted the larger job of walls and ceilings as well, but I told him that I would be painting the walls myself, and maybe the ceilings at a later time depending on their condition. The total project took 10 of his guys about 3 weeks to complete. During that time Jeff requested progress payments for "cash flow" reasons, which I reluctantly agreed to pay, leaving only a small balance outstanding when they were done. There were three major problems with their work - 1) they over brushed all the crown moulding onto the ceilings so I had to have all the ceilings subsequently painted whether they were in good condition or not, 2) they destroyed a vintage porcelain sink with wire brushes while cleaning, and 3) kitchen cabinets, which were spray painted, were left incomplete and peeling. For all these problems Jeff never apologized once or offered any compensation whatsoever while he was there. Ultimately I had to pay others to come in and fix their mess on items 1&2. On item 3, Jeff will not return months of phone calls to come back and touch things up. Once again I had to pay someone else to get things right. Jeff seems like a nice guy but actually is a complete sleazeball. Do not do business with him. And if for some reason you do, absolutely positively do NOT pay until the work is done to your complete satisfaction. The only thing that seems to motivate him to do anything is getting paid. He has no interested in getting things right or making his customers happy, I guess he has all the work he needs because this is definitely not the way to get any more, at least not from me!

Their price was fair and reasonable. I would use them again. I have had them paint multiple times and I have always been pleased. I have recommended them to people.