C&L Painting & Repairs

Description of Work: Exterior work and inside painting.

Description of Work: Drywall a basement

Description of Work: I met Mr. Hamm, he seemed very nice. I spoke with him and he told me about his company, that it was him and his wife and she worked out of their home. I asked if they had ventilation and he said yes. I was concerned and wanted to make sure. He said she has 12 other tables she was working on. So that led me to think they had adequate space to do this. I asked him how long it would take, that I needed to get my floors refinished while he was working on it. He said two weeks and I said great. So he came about a week later with some help and I paid him half the fee and he took my table to work on. Before he stained anything, I gave him a color stick with the exact color that I wanted which matched the chairs that I was purchasing exactly. I did not have the chairs at the time so I could not give him a chair however the color matched the chair exactly. When he had stained the table entirely, he sent me a photo of it without checking the color to see if he had the correct color. As far as I know, you check the color first before you do the whole thing. The color I had given him was clearly grey. The color on the table of the photo he sent me, was walnut brown which was one of the colors of the stain which I bought and paid for that was supposed to be mixed with ebony. Clearly they did not mix the colors which I bought and paid for. They were supposed to pay for materials, I gave them money to pay for materials which they never bought. I told him the color was wrong. Since he was having so much trouble with the color, I volunteered to help him get it right. So he brought the center portion of the table which had some kind of conditioner on it. So I had bought fresh stain in the colors ebony and walnut and I mixed them to get the correct color and also applied with a soft cloth to make sure it was correct. It took two layers to get the exact color. So I sent him with the stains, he would have to pour them together at his house which was a 50/50 mix, one of one and one of the other. I sent him a t-shirt which is the soft cloth that was used as well as the stain which I paid for also which he would've had to mix at his place of business. Then I waited and waited. About the 15th of March, I called him to find out where my table was as far as getting it finished. He said he would need more money to hire someone to sand in order to get it done for Easter. So he came to the house, I gave him a check for the extra $100 to hire someone to sand it so that it could be done for Easter. He did not finish it. A couple weeks later, I went to his house, contact his wife and went to see why my table was not finished and to basically try and get my table back home. When I found their place of business, I also found my table in pieces in a 12 foot area on the ground lying in the hot sun and humidity with a party going on above it with the neighbors about 12 feet above which is their back yard. They had disassembled the legs of the table and laid it on the ground. They never got it back together properly. I've had other people look at the table since and they have told me that what was done is that the stain was mixed with the finish and painted on. There are spots on the legs that show bare wood and dripping. The legs are almost black, the table top goes from a dark grey to a light transparent walnut in the center and the center piece was never fully sanded. 2/3 of the hardware was never replaced. I was able to find new parts which matched almost exactly, however, the table has warped in the legs. The screws will no longer go in and two of the holes are off centered by a quarter inch. I tried rotating the legs but this was the best I could get. I had to pay them to get my table back. Perhaps I should have called the police. I would never hire them again for anything. Though he may be good at flooring, I would never hire them for anything as their measure of finishing a product is very different from all of that of my experience.