University Painters - Steven Papageorge

Looked very good; completed in very timely manner.

This is the second time we've used University Painters, and we are happy with the results. They were professional, fast and had the best lowest estimate given the amount of work they were going to do. The hallway, ceilings and foyer look flawless. While the salesman was here, he suggested painting our front door, which we had been considering replacing. We had it painted red for a very reasonable price, and it has improved the entire curb appeal of our home. My only complaint is that they painted the door on such a humid day, it didn't cure and chipped on the side, but the company came back and fixed it with no questions asked. In retrospect, I think I would have preferred that they waited to paint that when the weather was more dry because it was a high gloss paint.

Matt Wingate was prompt, responsive, through and produced the proposed cost on the spot. After I investigated other painters and decided on his company scheduling was reasonable, within 3 weeks, The crew arrived on time, were neat, clean, professional and very considerate of my furniture and home. I would definitely use them again.

They were good. They did a good job and their price was good. I will use the again in the future.

This company was punctual, factual and communicated as well as met, the milestones.

I found them randomly as they had been painting the house across the street, so there was a sign on the property. Their proximity worked to my advantage as I desperately wanted to get my place painted before I moved in, and they were able to start work on my place more promptly than some of the other companies from which i had secured bids. Comparatively, they were a little more expensive, but they had a very large crew and were able to start immediately, and since time was of the essence, I was ok paying a premium. They were prompt, did a good job, put a sample on a wall where i wasn't sure of the color, repainted one small section where the wrong color had been used, and got it done in record time. Would use them again.

The project went as contracted within the time frame outlined in the contract. Only "issue" was spots missed or skipped. When these were brought to University Painters' attention they were promptly handled.

They were good. I learned that this is a franchise and they use subcontractors to do the work; the painters are not actually employed by University Painters. They were affordable. I had some extra work that I needed done and the contractors were able to do that for me.

Wonderful job. Great team. Polite, courteous, professional. Good cleanup afterwards. Good communications as the rain interrupted the work once.

They re-painted the bathroom on the interior which had the paint peeling and also the front and the back door in the front of the house as the paint was peeling there as well. They did a pretty good job and service preparation was done adequately. It was not great but I thought for the money I spent, I got my money's worth back from them.

Arrived promptly on Thursday morning after having scheduled to start on Tuesday. Removed wallpaper from powder room, dining room and one upstairs bedroom. Left on Friday night, leaving drop cloths everywhere, paint drips on hardwood floors, furniture, bathroom fixtures, and asking for a $300 additional check because the "ceilings took more than one coat." I called Andrew and asked if this was his normal way of doing business. He said it is. They returned on Saturday and minimally finished some jobs (carried out the drop cloths). I paid top dollar and got bottom dollar workmanship. The woodwork is two different colors for no apparent reason. The powder room paint job is awful; inconsistent color, no paint behind the toilet tanks. The doors in the bedrooms upstairs were only painted on one side, the other side painted with the wall color, and hooks hung over the door tops were not removed, but painted over. Many wall sockets, light switch plates and doorknobs are covered in paint, as well as faucets and spigots throughout. I wouldn't recommend this crew (headed by Manuel Diaz) to my enemies. Update 6/23/11: I had used University painters before, for an outdoor paint job on the trim and shutters of our townhouse. They did a good job, and did it quickly for a good price. When I decided to paint the interior of the house, I decided to use University painters again. Big Mistake. The painters were here for three days and each day had some sort of calamity. On the first day they re-hung the mantelpiece over the fireplace upside-down, and it had to be rehung. The painters were in and out of the house constantly, and let the dogs out, which they had been warned about and I had kept in the basement with me for the most part. The workmanship was mediocre at best . While the larger rooms were done well, in the bathrooms it was as though they had never heard of masking tape or painting rulers. The downstairs powderroom was painted in a pumpkin color, and there were splashes and sprays of pumpkin on the sink, the counter top, the toilet... it was a mess. But the real disaster was in the upstairs bathroom. had drips and draps all over, the bathtub was filled with wallpaper scraps, mixed in with bottles of shampoo and lotion, with wadded visqueen dropcloths topping off the visqueen. The job manager, Miguel, asked me for an additional $300 because they used premium paint. Not that I'd ordered premium paint, but I called the salesman and he said, indeed, they had used premium paint. Never got an answer. I asked Miguel if they would be returning on Saturday, and he said they were finished. I looked around my house at the drips on hardwood, wadded dropcloths everywhere, and furniture left askew in the center of each room, and I called Andrew and told him it was a mess, He said he'd send them back the next day. So the next morning, in they came, and I pointed out each thing that needed to be repaired (we had already moved as much furniture as we could) and they spent a total of about ten minutes, then out the door again. My bathtub was still full, and the backs of the doors weren't painted, and my bathroom door had been painted carefully around the towel rack hooks hanging on the outside... so that when I removed it, there were two boxes of old paint revealed. I paid first class cash for a second class job. Never again.

Excellent work. Crew showed up on time, and completed exterior work in plenty of time to beat the rain. Crew replaced rotting trim, saving that which could be salvaged. Jose was very patient during paint color selection, and did a great job guiding me through the pros and cons of various colors and finishes. Crew also painted trim in basement a different color than the walls, and the results were superb. Job was estimated at 3-4 days, crew finished in 2.

When we first spoke, it appeared that my date for painting would be a week away. However, since I was in a hurry to get my new place painted so I could unpack, I received a phone call late Friday night that a crew would be there on Monday morning. Tuesday afternoon the work was complete and everything looked terrific. I am very pleased with the work accomplished and would hire University Painters again.

Well, it took just three days. I worked and only saw foreman not the workers. All my instructions were followed, he had some feedback about the whites. He did call about the need to spend some additional $$$, 350 for missing crown molding and a very major repair on a huge ceiling hole following a major leak in the roof. I thought that was reasonable since the bid was so reasonable to begin with, the lowest of three bids.

This is the second time I've used University Painters and I will continue to use them. Andrew Moran promptly returned my calls and immediately set up an appointment (which he was on time for) to give us an estimate. He was very reasonable with the price and was able to schedule the job immediately. The crew is professional and did a beautiful job -- not easy considering we used vibrant colors in each room. Andrew concludes each job by having the homeowner inspect it with the foreman, who will correct anything the homeowner notes (in our case, one ceiling needed to be whited out and the trim on one door was missed; the painters came back and did the work without complaint).

The company that does the work is actually a subcontractor. The subcontractor may not be making much money on the job which can create a conflict in quality.

No show on day 1! Deck: insisted they stop painting/protect vinyl siding (which I paid for). Power washing okay, left few swirl marks on wood. Original color didn?t match color chip; were happy to get different color. Exterior: Prep lacking, caulking bare minimum, got paint on brick. Had to tell them what to sand better/holes to fill, otherwise they would have applied paint. Blaming painted surfaces for poor final product is unsat. Paid for prep, instead I get told it?s existing condition of wood. Broke house numbers upon removal/didn?t tell me & tried to reinstall. Left shutter/door touch-up paint; not trim. Planned to have interior painted ($3,000 quote), cancelled w/I allowed 3 days. Took an hour to convince Andrew to "allow me" to cancel/get initial deposit back. If exterior effort is any indication, I wouldn?t have been happy w/interior prep work. If they don?t want to do prep work correctly, they need to say all they do is apply paint, at least then you know what you?re getting.

It was fine overall. They did not fill in the nail holes in walls which was a disappointment. Also, the person that gave us the time estimate grossly underestimated the time. We were told it would take 1 day but it actually took 3 full days.

I couldn't be more pleased with Drew and Univ Painters. I talked to Drew at the Arlington home/garden event at the Walter Reed Community Center about a month ago. Drew came out at the appointed time and we drew up a contract. He followed up with me, always contacting me-which is actually a rarity with contractors. The job was actually started sooner than expected and completed. I would definitely used Univ Painters again.

Andrew Moran promptly returned my email to set up an estimate for the job. He was professional and responsive through out. Once we decided to use University Painters, Andrew was able to schedule the work immediately. The crew arrived on time and was also very professional; moving gently through the house, covering all items to be sure they didn't get paint on our possessions, and cleaning up at the end of the work day so we had some semblance of order while the house was being painted. I painted houses for ten years and the job this crew did was very good (e.g., trimming out a deep red wall against a white ceiling; the lines were very straight and they ensured coverage on the walls). The foreman, Jose, was great. He concluded the job by asking me to inspect every room and to let the crew know if there were any corrections I wanted. The crew was very responsive and immediately fixed a few (minor) things I noted (e.g., a patch that needed more coverage).

The workmen came when promised. They cleaned up nicely when they finished, and they finished when they said they would. I do not feel they did a top notch job of scraping and caulking. Except for that, I think they did a good job at a reasonable price.

Their turn around time was very short for both the estimate and to do the actual painting. They were sensitive to my work schedule. Their work was excellent, and they were very good to work with. I would highly recommend them.

The crew was timely and diligent, working hard on the hottest days of the year so far (mid July 2006). The scraping was probably not quite as thorough as I would have done myself, but was totally adequate. They cleaned up reasonably well, though there was an excess of sprinkled scraped paint chips by the garage and garbage cans on the alley. Perhaps out of carelessly shaking out drop cloths? They left some paint drips on the house's and garage's unpainted brickwork, which I, being compulsive, will probably remove, but these drips are really nothing outrageous. They are the kind of thing that happens while painting house trim on the second or third story; in other words, such drips are to be expected. All in all, a solid B effort/result. A decent balance of quality and price.

They were outstanding! Everything looks great.

I WAS EXTREMELY PLEASED WITH THIS OUTFIT; ESPECIALLY WITH THE BOSS OF OUR JOB, BILLY. HE WAS VERY PERSONABLE AND PAID ATTENTION TO DETAIL, THEY DID A QUALITY JOB AND LEFT THE PROPERTY VERY CLEAN. THE PRICE WAS FAIR ALSO.