Surfside Restoration & Painting

To make a long story short - we hired Surfside Painting to pain our sunroom which we renovated 2 years ago but did not have the original company paint it at that time. We had used Sue in 2008 to paint our 2nd floor office and had a great experience, so we did not expect anything but the same experience the 2nd time around. WRONG. A contract was created, and we paid her half (as requested). She was inconsistent in her daily arrival and departure times and did not show up every day, which we later found out that she books multiple jobs and bounces between them all. Again, in a nut shell, Sue decided to walk away from our job 4+ weeks ago and has not responded to a single voicemail, get message, email, or Facebook message. The columns on our sunroom roof need to be replaced and the roof membrane needs to be fixed, so we decided that Sue was going to provide us with a new quote/contract to remove the columns, fi the roof and then finish the sunroom. We all decided that there was no point in spending the money to have the room painted to then have the plaster crumble due to a leaky roof. A new quote/contract was not provided. Sue cut 2 holes in our plaster where the wall meets the ceiling, a walked off the job. We are now left with 2 holes in the plaster, caulked molding, somewhat fixed plaster walls, and 1/2 of the sunroom primed. I have no words to describe the anger and frustration we are feeling.

Arrived on time each day. Crew worked continuously all day and did a good job.

It took a few weeks to complete, but everything was accomplished to our satisfaction. I would not hesitate to hire Surfside Painting again.

It went very well. The room is just beautiful! This house was built in 1873 and there are always surprises when we get something done. This time the only surprise was a happy one - finding that the paint scraped easily from the molding around the ceiling, and that my mother could afford to have the paint removed and the chestnut wood restored to its original varnish. Surfside did a very careful job moving antique furniture, especially a very heavy breakfront cabinet in two parts, and always made sure there was a path across the room while the work was going on, so my 89 year old mother could get to the kitchen without tripping over anything. Sue put two prime coats and two topcoats on the ceiling and it looks perfect, and the new wallpaper looks great too. She spent time getting the right color stain for the crown molding, returning the first one that was too red, and stained it carefully so that it's a good match with the old woodwork which is all varnished. An extra bonus - while Sue was working there was a plumbing leak above the next room, and she heard it dripping and drilled holes in the plaster ceiling to let the water through with minimal damage, for which we're very thankful. She has replastered the ceiling, but I'll report on that when we can get the room repainted. As for the dining room, we can't wait for Thanksgiving!

It was a bigger job than either of us expected. I have checked "higher than estimate" only because the estimate had to be revised after work began for reasons she couldn't have foreseen. There was a small area of cracked plaster under the window. She warned me it would extend beyond the visible area, but when she began to remove it, it became apparent that over years of leaking in the window, the plaster of most of that wall and a large area of an adjoining wall had come unstuck from the laths and was crumbling. I told her to take out as much as she had to and revise the bid. It was a pretty depressing sight when she finally reached firm plaster! But she started putting layers of plaster in again, letting it dry in between, until finally the walls were flat and flush with the old walls. She was a real perfectionist here. Handmade plaster walls aren't totally even - the original ones weren't. But she kept putting on another coat and sanding, shining a light so she could see any wobbles. Finally it was time to paint. She put on two coats of primer and two top coats and it's beautiful still, and feels very solid and elegant She was very neat too. She had drop cloths completely over the hardwood floor as well as my furniture in the middle, and no paint got where it shouldn't. She was respectful of my home, didn't play loud heavy metal music, didn't track anything through the apartment.

Lousy was the experience ! Sue was hired to do over a number of rooms that consisted of repairing picture nail holes ,dry wall nail blisters and removing and patching mouldings and wood trim. The Job was bid by a number of companies and boy do we wish we went another way! We downsized the job by 1/2 as all the jobs came in too high for our budget. After meeting with Sue we agreed to modify the scope of the deal but to do the most of the original work but reduce the amount of ceiling plaster work and bid the whole job down in price reduced if she could do most of the work as she was short of work and it was winter with few prospects. The job was estimated to take 2-3 weeks to complete it took 5 and then we asked her to leave, as she was clearly working her next job. She would show at 10, 11 or 1 and work till 5 or show at 10 and leave at 1 come back at 3 work till 6; really annoying after a few weeks as the job could be completed if she would just put in the hours. Then there was the add ons. It got really stupid. We agreed to remove and patch where the base boards were in the amended contract ... she added on in cost overs and because it was not specifically written in the contract she did caulking, woodwork and trim nail holes..... she added on in cost overs what painter doesn't caulk?? We did make a color change with add fees to rectify and agreed to additional not foreseen plastering costs and no problem but then she spent a morning trying to balance her checkbook and lamenting how broke she was and how here suppliers were getting bounced checks then she presented me with and cost overs supplement and guess how much it was for ?? the amount of her bounced checks. This was way too much info for her to share with us the consumer and I felt to get this job near completion I would pay the cost overs and get her cracking on the work and settle up on the final payment. Mistake; should have tossed her then and there because when I gave her the check she left for 2 days and didn't I feel used. Poor scheduling mention earlier caused us to want our home back and her finished so Sue was given a finish before timeframe and a punch list a week away. Still could not finish or be done and accept a reduced payment. We knew it was bad when she asked for and got 1/2 up front then did not show or call when contacted late the next day later and did show up 2 days later. Got as a 1/4 payment for half done then left for the day and did not come back for 2 days. Bad news from the start hoped for the best then felt used. Too bad. Had other work for this company now would not recommend on a bet.