We were in a mad rush to paint a room. We hired a guy that had helped my mom with some stuff thinking "It's just painting... how much can he mess things up?" Well, a LOT! The worst parts: Overspray on the laminate flooring Painting over switches and outlets Totally missed areas Horrible cleanup - left the job with tools covered in paint Some pics for you to enjoy:
Ya, I'm letting my nerves relax before I decide next steps. One problem is that he's a nice guy that we've had do misc. manual labor work for us before and I'd hate to loose him for that stuff. It's partially my fault for trusting that he could do quality work and then leaving him at it.
Well, some good news: We found out that we could use a plastic scraper to gently scrape the paint off of the flooring. That was a HUGE weight off our shoulders! Here are the good worker bees fixing things up!
Well, mostly easy. The paint on the light-switches is still there. The guy has been calling and leaving me messages asking if everything is ok. I haven't called him back yet since I want to make sure I handle it properly.
Are you sure he didn't have a grudge against you? That is a terrible job! He should pay you for messin' up your house. Seriously.
You'd think so, right!?!? He’s actually a nice guy and I don’t want to make him feel worse. It sucks to tell someone who’s trying their hardest that it isn’t good enough. If on the other hand he thought he was the best at his job, and was a jerk about it, I’d have no problem laying into him and setting him straight. As it is, I just don’t want to make him feel worse, but also don’t want to rely on him anymore for anything that might require a certain level of skill and attention to detail.
There is no way that he doesn't know this was poor work. And if you completely ignore the fact then he might assume that just maybe it was ok after all. I would return his call. Ask him if he was finished when he left - giving him the opportunity to say if he was intending to do that cleanup himself. If he was indeed finished, I'd tell him that you were a little concerned about the paint on the flooring and let him know that you've handled removing it. Maybe mention that you're going to have to replace the switches and that you're sure he'd understand if you took that expense out of what you owe him for his time. (he DID manage to paint the majority of the walls... so he did at least a small part of the jog right)
Hi Cane, good to see you here! I agree with you that if this guy isn't told the job was inadequate, he may assume it is ok. I wonder what a person thinks when they are allowed to slide by on a poor performance. Do they think they pulled a fast one on someone? Do they feel less respect for the "sucker"? I think personally I have more respect for someone who holds my nose to the grindstone.....doesn't mean I will like them any more, but I do have a certain kind of respect for them. Of course, there is a point at which I rebel, lol!
Great points everybody! The bad painter kept calling and leaving messages. I finally called him back and he asked if everything was ok. I told him we were surprised to find paint all over the floors, areas not painted, etc. I could tell he felt pretty bad, but also had some excuses. He's a nice guy and we'll probably still want to use him for misc. manual labor around the house, but I won't trust him again for any type of work that requires skill, attention to detail, etc. Again, he's a nice guy and we've had him work on misc. things over the past few years. This just confirmed that we need to limit the stuff he does. I mean, how badly could he mess up raking leaves, digging holes, etc?
That would depend I guess on what he was digging holes for. A hole for a bush is different than 20 holes for a fence.
Sky will be quite happy to give you the Top 3 Paid Leagues. All you need to do I ask them as I have in the past. There are cash prizes for the Top 3 Paid Leagues
