RENDON PAINTING

I had Andrew and his brother texture and paint a property that I owned. The quoted price was $2000 for texturing the whole house and $1500 to paint the house (inside). When I balked at the price, he suggested that I could save a little if I went with an hourly rate of $25/hr for him and $20/hr for his helper (who turned out to be his brother). I agreed to this (big mistake). By the time I was finished, the texturing alone cost me about $2400. Why? Well, very few days did they both put in 8 hours, although they were being paid for that. One day, he left early because of his kid. Another day he had to see a doctor about stitches in his hand from another job. Another day he had problems with an infected tooth. Also, there is little incentive to get the job done on time, since the longer they could stretch it out, the more money they would get. Once the texturing was done, I said that I would do the painting. He, however, offered to do it for $150 per day, by himself. I asked him how many days it would take and he said 4. I told him let's assume 5 and I would pay $750 for the job---no hourly rate! He agreed. The first day of painting he had a helper, which should have been on his dime, not mine, because I was paying for the job and it was his business if he wanted help. However, he begged me to pay the helper so I reluctantly paid $150 for that day for him, and $80 for the helper. I told him that I only would do two more payments...one more in the middle and one at the end when everything was cleaned up. I guess he figured that the gravy train was over, so after not showing up for a few days, he quit, telling me that he wasn't going to make enough money. Fine! He should have enough business sense to not take the job in the first place if that's the case. However, he ended up keeping 10 gal of primer that I never got back despite numerous texts and promises. Concerning the quality of his work, the texturing was good in some places, but he didn't do the knockdown in other places, and his masking was poor. I ended up having to scrub primer and texture off of ceiling fans, door frames and the tile floor. In one bedroom, he never put down plastic to protect the floor because "he forgot". In another bedroom, he did not completely cover the floor. Just imagine the work it took to get texture and primer off the floor. He left me a lot of work because of his sloppiness. I'm not sure how or if this guy gets repeat business because he does a poor job and then keeps paint that doesn't belong to him. He has to be paid daily, in cash. He has absolutely no professionalism. Don't walk away from this guy...Run!

Shady as they come. Altered the agreement immediately, which I agreed to thinking that it was a simple misunderstanding that the materials would be included in the overall cost of the project for which he was providing estimates, even though I had told him at least five times that the materials were to be included in the overall estimate. Then, after receiving my contract and agreeing to it in writing, he sends a new contract less than 12 hours before the job was to begin (10:01pm for an 8:30am start) completely altering ALL of the terms. I need to pay him in full even if the work is completely unacceptable, I need to give him half of the full price after one day of work regardless of the quality of the work that had already been completed, if his work causes injury to anyone he is in no way liable, if I attempt to withhold money until the job is done acceptably he can charge me $100/day. Even if he cost 10% of the next best estimate, I would never, under any circumstances, deal with a contractor as shady as this guy. Be warned, this is someone you should avoid at all costs.