Northwest Paintsmith

I hired Northwest Paintsmith to stain a 288-square-foot deck last summer. The project included staining the adjacent shingles and painting the ceiling over part of the deck. We had a signed contract. I was dealing with co-owner Tim. I got estimates from 5 or 6 companies before choosing Tim's bid. The bid was itemized by general task, which I really liked, and very reasonable compared to some of the others. Plus Tim seemed knowledgeable, professional, and as trustworthy as an un-tested contractor can seem. Besides discussing the estimate and contract, we communicated a few times about the project by text and calls. The contract was signed in May, and once summer began, Tim told me they would be pressure washing at the end of July and staining/painting the following week. He told me the project was “small” enough that he didn’t need a deposit. For reference, including paint and supplies (at cost) the total cost would have been about $2000 – perhaps a small project for a painting company, but not so tiny for a homeowner. An employee showed up as scheduled to pressure-wash. He basically just went through the motions with poor attention for the job (for example, he didn’t want to bother going over some spots twice to easily remove spots), and worse, he let the dirty water fall all over the windows and white window trim without rinsing them or cleaning up at all. He also left his old sneakers in my driveway. I talked to Tim about my concerns, and he assured me that all areas not cleaned would be sanded, and that the job would be done right. I believed him. He seemed legit. He also told me someone would stop by for the shoes. The following week when they were scheduled to paint, no one showed up. The weather was hot, so I thought maybe they were pushing their schedule out a bit. Days passed, and still no one showed up, no one called, and no one returned my calls. They just completely blew off the project, as if we’d never spoken. An egregious breach of contract. No one even picked up that guy’s gross sneakers. (I eventually threw them in the trash.) My deck was in pretty good shape but had a lot of bare wood, so I was very concerned about getting the project done. I tried to mitigate by hiring someone else to do it, but decent painters are fully booked through the end of the dry season, and the weather changed before it could get done. The company that was going to try to squeeze it in before fall was able to come out and at least clean it properly. They did a stellar job – even rinsed off the window trim after pressure-washing and squeegeed the windows. Apparently the owners of Northwest Paintsmith have little concern for the potential consequences of breaching a contract. Hopefully the deck won’t require any repairs as a result of sitting bare through another long wet season, but I won’t know until it’s dry out. I know that businesses sometimes respond to negative reviews here (which I have never written before), but there’s really no reasonable excuse for what happened.