College Pro Painters

The painting job was to start mid August with the pressure washing and prep to begin Aug 7 and the job finished by third week in August. The job was 'done' Sept 2. This was all confirmed with phone calls to the 'foreman' in July. I needed to know so I could inform my tenants about the disruption of painting. Come the week of Aug 7, nothing happened. Excuses like broken pressure washer, other jobs not done, and promises of for-sure starting the following week. Nothing happened until Tues when I met with the painters and foreman at the Triplex where there were more delays...painters didn't know how to work pressure washer (needed oil and when they finally got the oil (late afternoon) they over filled it, so foreman had to drain and refill) - so NOTHING got done that day. By the end of the week the pressure washing was done (after discovering water was spraying INSIDE the house from gaps under the eaves much to the horror of the tenant). The workers were not very thorough, skipping areas under the stairs, around the sliding doors. They then began scraping the loose paint off. I cut away as much of the ivy next to the house (which they never thought to do) but there was some ivy that had attached itself to the shingles that needed to be scraped away. The workers did NOT remove the plant material but painted right over it. They also did not remove random nails, light fixtures or move wires but just sprayed over everything. This I believe is the foreman's job to TEACH his workers how to do a professional job. The workers were young college kids who didn't pay attention to detail. When spraying the shingles, (the worker told me he had never done shingles before) many of the deep areas between shingles were never painted. I had to go around and put tape as markers on all the areas I noticed was NOT covered by paint (and I couldn't do the areas higher up) and areas they needed to scrape to get the plant material off. I was disappointed that their spray job didn't cover the shingles thoroughly - that is why I figured I was paying so much for knowing that shingles are harder to cover then flat siding. To top it off, the foreman took off for vacation before the job was done, leaving his not-very-competent (but very nice) young workers in charge, but with no access to more paint (which they needed to finish the job). When they were done there was still a mess on the roof of scrapings and in the courtyards surrounding the triplex. I also noticed after getting on the roof to clean up that when they had sprayed the second floor, they hadn't masked the windows very well because there is still orange paint on the window sills but by then I has signed off on the job, so I cleaned everything up. Scott, the manager of the foreman, was only contacted when the foreman had left his workers high and dry. The foreman, Josh, made lots of promises of what he and his painters would do, like move a shed and paint behind it, straighten a dented gutter, remove stair treads in order to paint under the stairs, remove plants next to the house... and none of this happened. I don't feel Josh did a good job instructing his painters or following up on their progress and quality of work. Josh and Scott were very pleasant and the workers were very amiable and nice, but just not very competent as painters.