Dale Jr's Painting & Home Improvements

Due to bad weather, the job was delayed but Dale stayed in constant contact and performed an exceptional job!

IF YOU ARE HERE CHECKING OUT THIS PERSON'S REPUTATION, THEN YOU OBVIOUSLY CARE ABOUT WHO YOU HIRE. DO NOT HIRE THIS PERSON. The business is basically one person. Dale Jr. He has a friend that usually works with him, when he is able to find him. I saw him the first week. After that never saw him again. Honestly, I had NO problem with his helper. Actually, the work the helper did far outweighed the work that Dale did. The "sub-contracting" that is done is for one of his friends that does work. At one point, there was the main roofer with a helper, and there was Dale Jr. doing the main painting with his friend that was scraping for preparation. The first day that all the guys were there I had to pay Dale 1/2 the money up front. He was the one that got the money for the roofer. That was requested to be cash. He also was given a check of over $1,500. TEN minutes later he made a call and left. Not long later he arrived back. The roofer did work VERY hard. I had 4 layer of shingles on that garage. It was terrible. The front porch wasn't much better either. He said he was covered in big black ants from the rotted wood. I had to say that both of the roofs DO look fantastic. The roofer also put on a new gutter in the front of the house and it is very nicely done. One morning when the roofer gave Dale's painter a ride to the house, I ended up calling Dale and he was soaking in a bathtub. He had fallen a couple of feet down his ladder the day before and got banged up. Other days he would leave early or go somewhere and come back. When the painting work got held up because the roofer was the one replacing wood around the windows Dale just didn't come around. There was plenty he could do. Dale is listed as "painting and home improvements". I'm not sure what home improvements he does because he didn't help the roofer when the roofer needed help and he didn't help him do any wood replacement around the windows either. No caulking was done around the new wooded windows, touch ups weren't done yet either. He wanted to wait until the roofer was completely done. To this day, the job is still not done. Dale got mad at me because it was going on the end of the second week and STILL I was waiting for the job to be done and the job was completely paid for at that point for over a week!! I snapped and ended up yelling at Dale over the phone because I just wanted the job done for God's sake!! See, at that point he was paid. No money coming in....no work going out. While Dale was there he complained about 2 other jobs he had been on that he had to go back to. I know he did go back to the one but the other one he didn't because when he called the man told him that his daughter cut herself or something. That made Dale mad and Dale said he didn't plan on going back. All the guys left my door open constantly. The electrical outlet was inside and the screen door didn't have spring to it. They just ignored that and left it wide open. One day when the roofer was there alone I stopped and the front door was propped all the way open. The back door was also. He had opened the front door and put the jam in the screen door so he could carry his wood out. It was open all day, feet from the edge of a main road with woods across the street with critters. Dale also knew that I had to have someone arrested because they got caught stealing from my garage but he didn't care I guess. He sub-contracted him out but never came to check on anything that he was doing. He'd call him once in awhile but that's it. The last day the roofer was on the job he papered and shingled the edge of the roof on the left side right on top of wood that should have been replaced. When I stood at the garage door and looked up you could see it plain as day. Right when it started raining during Hurricane Lee, which was more than a week after the paint was done, the entire house started to bubble and the paint was coming off. I called him and told him. It ended up he would not talk with me and told my husband he was not going to do any more to the house. I did research and found out from a reputable company that looked at the paint cans Dale left, that the paint had been watered down. While Dale was "mixing" the paint can he told me this was how it was to be done for the priming. He was told by the paint company to use a masonry primer. Yes, he did use the correct primer. But he was to use the primer in the straight form out of the can. Dale mixed about 1/3 paint to not even 1/3 primer and the rest......water from my hose. And he only used ONE coat of THAT!! When you paint asbestos shingles, which is highly recommended to seal in the fibers...you need to be very careful to NOT have paint runs on them. If you see runs, you need to get a brush or roller and cut it in so it doesn't run. I've got runs all over my house. It goes down the side of the house, then down the concrete wall at the bottom and then went onto the concrete porch and formed a puddle. I did get a company to look at it that is a reputable painter and as soon as he saw it he could tell the paint was thinned out. Also, Dale did not spread plastic down on the ground as you are required to do. At one point I told Dale that all I wanted was a gallon of paint and for him to stay off my property. He called me back and said we could work it out and told me to call back on a Sunday. I had my husband call instead and Dale told him that it was either faulty paint or it was because we didn't have enough insulation in our walls. (He dug deep for that one I think) He then told my husband that he was going to get the paint company to come out and look at it. This was during the heavy rains of Lee. He called back and said it would have to wait until the rain stopped. We never heard from him again. When my husband called back after 1 1/2 weeks Dale said he should have known he wasn't going to come back or call. My husband made an offer to him for him to pay us $2,500 and we'd call it even. We, by then, had gotten yet another estimate to now FIX what Dale had done to my house. The damage was $4,885.00. Dale said he'd call back with an answer. He called back in a few minutes and told Ed that he wasn't going to give us any money back. He told my husband because besides that, "you aren't even supposed to paint asbestos". Unfortunately, Dale doesn't know how to use a computer. If he had, he would have found on Google on many sites that "not only are you able to paint asbestos...it is highly recommended". When Dale told my husband you shouldn't paint asbestos my husband then asked him, "then why did YOU paint it". I don't think Dale had much of an answer. Dale told my husband to "do what you gotta do". So...here I am. I have now sent him a certified letter for signature and this was on my list to do second. The Post Office tried to deliver my peice of mail at 9:15 this morning. Just like I figured he'd do....he either didn't answer the door or he was sleeping from his stooper and didn't hear it. If they can't get him to claim it in 15 days it will get returned to me. Needless to say, I am already preparing my next step. Why wait until the 15 days are up. Unfortunately right now I can't tell you what I am going to do next because he does have access to this site when his girlfriend pulls it up for him. So, Dale is then telling me that it is fair for me to pay a total of over $9,000.00 to have a not even 700 square foot house's exterior painted. This is even with some of the sides not done due to me wanting to stone it later. And I told him I'd paint the posts. How can he honestly think that this is MY fault? I wish he would tell me. How did I make the paint not stick? I seriously think that he has done this type of thing to so many people and they just let him get away with it. They don't know how to go through the process and don't know what to do. I feel sorry for all those people. You see....in the last year and a half I have lost both my parents, both my in laws and my only brother. Dale has lost his parents recently too. That's why we hit it off and that's why I thought we were ok. When Dale was painting I cried because I was so happy for this to be done. I saw my Daddy sweat working on that house for 43 years and I wanted to fix it up nice to sell it. I wanted peace of mind. Instead I got set up. Dale was really nice to me the whole time acting like he knew what he was doing. He talks about himself alot because I think he's trying to convince himself that he's a good worker. He was nice to me as long as the money was coming in. I bought the crew lunch and gatorade for a week and spent my own money of over $250.00. What a sucker I was. They must have went home and laughed every single night. No more. I now can't trust anyone anymore. He has ruined any trust I ever had and there ARE good contractors out there. Unfortunately for him he isn't one of them. The whole time he was there he complained about money and being broke and not having jobs. I don't think he gets it. When you do a GOOD job for someone is when THEY will tell people. AND AT THE SAME TIME......when you do a BAD job for someone is when THEY will tell people too. I'm truly confused why he wonders why he's not getting any calls!! GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL. A good painter is listed here on Angie's List. Last time I checked they had 9 rated A reports. In fact, I spoke to their paint supplier and they are VERY highly recommended and do a fantastic job. PLUS.....they don't take ANY money until the job is completely done. F, 1st in name. Dale got paid the whole amount because he had to cry the blues to me about paying his employes and then I'm not sure why he blew the rest. Thanks for listening. I will update when I have any news. You can check back with me or even email me at: wendyed2@verizon.net Thank you!!!