Pro Painters taking about a month to complete job

4 years ago

ey guys! My husband and I hired a professional painter and his team to paint some rooms in the new place were moving into - they arent painting the full interior, just three bedrooms, the respective three bathrooms, and the kitchen - but we’re facing a bit of a dilemma now. It totalled about $8,900 and they began working on the 17th of September.

Fast forward, it’s now October 5th, and I was notified that the job probably wouldn’t get done until the end of NEXT week which would bring it to basically a month since they started. This wouldn’t be as frustrating if it wasn’t throwing off the timeline of us getting moved in drastically ( we wanted to hire a cleaning service to do a deep clean of the place before we moved in since the old owners left it without one being done and obviously something like that is necessacary in areas like the bathroom, kitchen, etc.) and we have to be out of our current place and all moved in in about three days. He told us we’d have to just work around the rooms that aren’t completed, but seeing as the bathrooms and the kitchen are those areas it’s going to be difficult to get situated around that comfortably.

There were random issues during the job as well - a bedroom turning out a bright purple instead of a taupe, the bathroom getting painted in the wrong color (Behr’s Vanilla Milkshake is yellow, while PPG’s Vanilla Milkshake is a taupe-y color. Easy mistake, I understand, but we specified PPG for that exact reason and it was overlooked it seemed when the paint was being ordered). Both these issues were later resolved, but with a lot of defensiveness and lack of apology on their end but we were happy that it was taken care of in the end.)

Long story short, have you ever had getting rooms painted take about a month to complete? This is our first time hiring professionals for something like this so we have nothing else to compare it too. The payments are still being requested as normal, and the touch-up and cleanup portion has yet to be done with uneven lines, splotches, colored paint on white trim, so the house doesn’t feel move-in ready even though we now have no choice. If this timeline is a very typical timeline then we’ll just make sure to factor in a month for future jobs, and if it isn’t, how would you guys have handled something like this? Apologies for the long read, and thank you in advance!

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Comments (5)

PRO
Bspoke Homes
4 years ago
Not knowing where you live or the size of the rooms, I can only speak to local areas where I am licensed (Oregon and Idaho), the amount is quite high. If you were only painting walls (No trim/ceilings), with a 2-3 person painting crew, maximum two days (and that would not be blazing speed). The cost is insane as well based on our pricing here, but again, it's quite regional. If you are doing all of the millwork (are you painting the bathrooms cabinets, kitchen cabinets, etc), then that is a different conversation as it certainly takes longer, and of course the pricing would be different as well. If you have more details, I can give you a better answer!
HU-433639666
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks for your response! We are in California, there is one master bedroom and two smaller bedrooms that are being painted - yes the trim and ceiling were part of the package for the rooms. The kitchen cabinets were also part of that quote, but the kitchen cabinets haven’t been started on yet so the past three weeks have just been painting the three bedrooms and bathrooms. They should be starting on the kitchen at the end of this week, I’m told. I hope that helped clarify some things!
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PRO
Bspoke Homes
4 years ago
It typically takes about 5-7 working days to do kitchen cabinets depending on the size and condition of the existing kitchen. It sounds like as much as anything (and unfortunately, it is more typical than it should be), they have not done as well as perhaps they could with regards to communicating with you their timeline. Some contractors will jump on a project relatively quick to lock it in, and then you are in a situation where you are at, where you have paid them money already (I'm assuming), and end up playing the game of when do I pull the plug on these guys and move onto someone else if they don't follow through. And, when that happens, it rarely goes well and difficult to find someone else to come in and "fix" the previous persons work.

Bottom line, making the assumption the house is of average size 1500-3500 square feet, and the there are no crazy amounts of millwork, It would normally take one day to remove switch plates, plug plates, HVAC covers, blinds, etc), doors, hinges, knobs for the size you are talking (assuming they are spraying if you are redoing doors and millwork) and prep as required for a couple person crew. Second day, cover as required and spray primer. Bondo/sand if required (new construction and repaints typically have a fair amount of additional prep after primer). Day 3, spray all millwork/Doors. Day 4 tape and mask millwork and spray walls. Day 5, tape off walls for ceiling, and spray out ceilings. Put doors, switch plates, blinds, etc back on. One week for that portion of the job.

If they were there start to finish without breaks, it would take approximately 2 weeks based on typical conditions.
PRO
Destiny Albea
4 years ago
Im a profesional painter, and first and for most they over charged, and the timeline is crazy. By myself i could had it in 2, 3 days tops. If you need someone to paint for you ill do it just let me know
User
4 years ago
Just the cabinets in a kitchen should cost $8900 if you have an actual cabinet finisher doing the job with modern waterborne industrial wood coatings. And not trim paint.