JS Professional Painting

I dislike leaving bad reviews but this company needs to come with a warning because if I can save someone else from wasting thousands of dollars, I would like to. At first, Jose seemed honest and reasonable - we hired him to do interior painting for our vacant townhouse prior to listing it for sale. He gave us a quote for labor and professional post-painting cleaning understanding that we were on the hook for materials, which is understandable (total cost came out to ~7000 for a three-story townhouse). The work was completed in the span of about a week while we were out of town. When we returned on a Saturday, we assumed the crew hadn't finished due to the tarps with piles of drywall pieces and dust all over, SIGNIFICANT chunks of incomplete walls and closets, paint splattered all over our hardwood and tile and pretty much every door handle/light switch/window frame/fixture/blinds. Jose came that day to do review the work with us and collect payment, and I let him know the things that were missed and inquired about the cleaning he'd promised and when the crew would be able to finish. He told me "well we left paint for you to touch up" -- these weren't touchups, these are entire sections of closets, walls, bathrooms that his team failed to address! He said that his crew was done and they're not coming back. I pointed to a section of the wall where the previous blueish paint was visible in the kitchen and he said he couldn't fix it because he didn't have the right tool on him, and his crew was not going to come back (yes, I asked them to, multiple times). I even pointed out a very obvious part in the basement and guest bedroom where the ceiling paint (white) and the wall paint (beige) were wavy and clearly done without proper care, and he responded "that's just how your drywall is, the edges aren't straight so the paint won't be straight" -- WHAT?!!?!? Pretty sure I can clearly see where the edges of the ceiling and wall meet....I was stunned into silence. At every point he basically said: it's your issue now, we left you extra paint, if you don't like, fix it yourself. Just sheer laziness, dishonestly, and lack of regard for the "quality" and "honest" work he claims his business does. It gets better though: our fridge was moved for painting, of course, but the door was broken when we returned and while Jose refused responsibility and claimed his team did not use it, but it was filled with takeout food that didn't belong to us, and cost us a pretty penny to repair. I pressed him on it and he demonstrated by pushing the fridge back that his team could not have broken it (???) and again, I was stunned at the lack of accountability and the weaseling out of responsibility. He also said the cleaning was not his responsibility and that was something that WE would need to coordinate ourselves, which was in complete contradiction to what he had promised at the start, which was that he works with a specific team to come in and clean after his team was done! We ended up hiring our own post-renovation cleaners after he refused to bring his cleaning team out (even when I offered to pay). There were paint splatters all over the hardwood which the renovation cleaners could not completely remove even after hand-scraping most of it, and the hardwood isn't even a year old. Our realtor and home staging professional were floored at the quality of work, and I ended up hiring a trusted handyman to come in and fix all of the paint/drywall work that wasn't done correctly by Jose's team. When I communicated our our disappointment in our experience with him, he simply sent a text back: "do not respond back pls". Buyer, beware. Jose is NOT the quality, honest painting professional he touts himself as, and we will never work with him again or recommend him to others.

Where to begin. I have never written a bad review, but frankly, I've never encountered an established company that failed so miserably to deliver what was promised. Initially, we hired this company to paint interior space, then later to install recessed lighting and bathroom remodel. Initially Jose was very responsive and prompt, with affordable prices. The painting looked great, and so we hired him for additional work based on what services he said he was confident in providing. My first clue that something was amiss was when they repainted the walls after only 3-4 hours of drying time. Anyone who has painted before knows that it takes several more hours to cure, and that a second coat applied too soon will result in poor adhesion. Well, as one would expect, the paint now peels off the walls with ease, whenever something scrapes up against it, or when an adhesive decal is removed (we have young boys who like to put stickers on the wall--it should NEVER peel paint up when removed). I never informed him of this, as the subsequent problems made this error pale in comparison. Next was the recessed lighting. Installation looked fine, for the most part. One area was poorly fitted and the rough edge of the drywall ceiling is visible. Not enough to demand a fix, though I'm not the most particular person and often overlook minor imperfections. The real issue came to light last week when I had an electrician replace the switches in the house. The electrician he had install the lights installed LED dimmer switches, but they were installed upside down, so that you had to move the slider up to dim the lights, or invert the entire switch, in which case you'd be flipping the switch up to turn the lights off. I asked why it was done this way, and was told that it had to be done that way because of the way the house was wired. Big red flag, and I ignored it at the time. This was the case in three different locations in the home. One switch I fixed myself with a different kind of dimmer, the other two were fixed when I brought in an electrician last week. HERE'S THE KICKER: when the electrician pulled the switch cover off, he noticed that a LIVE WIRE was left exposed with just a simple strip of electrical tape barely adhered. No cap, hot wire. He said I was fortunate that it didn't start a fire, and that no trained electrician would EVER leave a job like this. Naturally, I had him rewire every switch that Jose's guy touched, for fear of fire. It goes without saying that you shouldn't have to pay twice for the same job, and that a reputable contractor would NEVER endanger their customers in this fashion. Then there was the bathroom remodel. We had planned to have the main and master baths completely remodeled. By the time his subcontractor got halfway through the job, it was evident that he had either little experience in laying glass tile, or little care for quality of work. A list of problems with the install: 1. The main wall was to be entirely 1' glass mosaic tile, which depends entirely on proper spacing when being set to look even remotely passable. He didn't use a single spacer, and the 12"x12" sheets were in some places butted up directly against each other, and in others not even remotely lined up with one another. It looked abysmal even from 20 feet away. I insisted that the most egregious pieces be removed and replaced. The finished product looks nothing like what you would expect a professional to provide, to put it mildly. Chipped glass tiles were left in place, misalignment, you name it. I'm planning on paying to have the entire wall torn down and retiled, it's that bad. 2. The visible top edge of the porcelain tub was scratched during installation. The installer was piling his metal tools in there overnight. Not repaired. 3. The toilet was reinstalled without consideration for the new tile floor height (replacing linoleum), and the wax ring was not replaced to accommodate the new height from the fitting. The net result was a slow sewage leak that eventually saturated the ceiling in the bathroom below. I had to cut out a piece of the ceiling to track down the leak, then replaced the wax ring in the toilet above to fix it. I called Jose and told him what happened, and he denied that it could be related to his work given the time that had passed. I told him that I found the source, and explained why he should have installed a proper ring, and that the ceiling needed to be repaired because his guy didn't reinstall the toilet with the proper fitting. He said he'd take care of the repair in a week or so. He never called back, never showed up to make the repairs. 4. The level of quality of the trim installed was atrocious. I had to refit the electric box so that the plate would sit flush with the wall. I had to caulk in major holes around the tile and tub, ones that should not exist when installed by a professional. By this point in the project, I told Jose that the quality of work was so poor that no further work would be done, no additional payments for additional work (he was paid in full for what was already poorly done, and I didn't demand a refund). I will be happy to provide photo images of the work and problems on request, to verify that I'm not in any way exaggerating the severity of the situation. Jose seems to me a genuinely nice person, however the quality of the service he provided, particularly in terms of electrical wiring and bathroom remodel, are not even remotely on the level of professional. I was hesitant to share this experience, because I don't want to hurt anyone's reputation or livelihood, but I cannot in good conscience recommend his services to anyone, and feel compelled to warn everyone against using this company for anything beyond painting, and even in that arena, I would recommend several other companies (Patriot Painting, being the first) rather than JS. Frankly, this the worst experience I've had with a contractor, and I've dealt with quite a few over the years.

There were a couple of areas where the wood was damaged by the elements and needed to be replaced. In addition, there were areas inside that needed repair (example: I had some new lights installed in my kitchen and this resulted in holes that needed to be filled). Jose spends a lot of time on the prep work which really shows. He also worked with me to schedule the outside work to begin before the really cold weather arrived, and we were able to schedule the inside work at a time that worked for both of us. He brought in extra workers to get the inside work done quickly.

The painters were hard working and diligent. I was impressed with how quietly and continuously they worked, and how tireless they were. Jose is very good to work with and showed up every day, supervised the work, and any concerns I had he smoothed over with the employees and assisted with any communication gaps we had over language barriers. Jose was also good about calming my worries about the paint color reassuring that paint looks one way with one coat and another with the second coat, and kept me from stressing mid way through the job and maybe getting another paint color. (Way above the call of duty.) The tile backsplash looks great and was installed in one day. The tile installers were less than happy to be doing the job, not nearly as pleasant to work with as the painters were. There was some tension when they arrived and saw the job, from the onset. The main tile installer wasn't happy when I noted some tiles had slipped on the grout and were crooked as the tiles were setting up. Most of them were straightened out before it was difficult to straighten out and the ones that stayed crooked aren't too noticeable. They also didn't understand the concept of the repeat in the tile pattern, and I had to point that out to them, which annoyed them also. Had it not been corrected the job would have been a mess and a loss of my already purchased product. I love the back splash finished product but the professionalism of the installers was lacking. They also rinsed their tile cuttings into the landscaping/mulch, which still shows a large white spot off our front porch. But overall I am very happy with the work that was done and would definitely call Jose again for painting, but would question him over who he calls when it comes to tile work.

They did the work in a couple of days, kept everything clean and orderly, cleaned up after they left, and the roof looks great.

I found them because they were going door-to-door. They were very friendly.

They were very cost effective and friendly. They were a very small company.