That sounds like sheer laziness to me, and the only way I'd let my cabinet maker do that is if he proved himself throughout the job to be in the highest tier of utterly meticulous, knowledgeable, responsible, professional, and taking pride in his work, only settling for the best of the best in his craft. In otherwords, could be trusted 100%.

If he wasn't that, then NO WAY. Take it down and do the job right.

Needsometips08 - that's my feeling as well. Unfortunately, NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON during our remodel has been meticulous (involves a kitchen and master suite among other things and has stretched on for 10 months now with no end in sight). I was wondering if maybe it was just me being picky, but my feeling is that he simply needs to take it down and spray, then put it back up. I don't see how painting it while on the cabinets will save any time and in fact will most likely take more time due to needing to cover every single thing and attempt to ensure that it's not screwed up - which will then cost us more time and money! I'm so sick of ALL contractors right now!

I would be afraid of the spray landing on the floor as well. Before I remodeled our house, that's exactly what the contractors did and you could see the mess on the plywood subfloor (we ended up replacing linoleum stick tiles). It's a lot harder when things aren't done right the first time. How annoying, I know I would be worried about covering the cabinets, too.

Karena_2009 - yes, it's completely annoying and I honestly can't believe he would even want to take a chance and spray the crown molding without removing it. He's really had it if even a speck gets on the floors since it's hardwood and we just had to have them finished not once but TWICE in the past 2 months due to another screwup by a floor company. Ugh, I may go postal :)

Not in my house he wouldn't!!! He'd paint it with a brush if he insists on painting it while it's still attached. Doing otherwise is reckless on his part.

Ugh, traci29, I know how you feel. There were a few times during my remodel where I felt the same way.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm glad to see that it's not just that I'm being picky and others would have an issue with this as well!

Brutuses - yes, that was my feeling as well but if he paints the crown molding with a brush it will probably look different than the cabinets since they were sprayed. The ironic thing is that he already had to take them down once to modify them and then put them back up!! I wasn't home at the time or I would have said that he needed to keep them off until the color was fixed! Then he proceeded the same day to ruin the toe kick that he had just installed on the island by drilling a hole in it to run an elecrical cord!?!?! I was like what the crap was he thinking - we didn't ask him to run an elecrical cord through the toe kick!!!! My husband is supposed to see him today and is going to tell him that he has to just take the crown molding off and paint it.

Karena_2009 - we've had so many issues that I'm ready to scream. Actually I've been ready to scream for about 6 months now, so it's going to boil over at some point :) Then all the contractors had better watch out!

On the bright side, all your joints would be perfect and nail holes gone if it was painted in place.

But yeah, unless I had complete and utter confidence in his competency (and why would you after all this?), heck no. Take it down!

A skilled craftsman using HVLP equipment wouldn't need to mask off much of the room to get a good job. You hardley get any overspray from HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure). But, the key is the skilled craftsman part as well as the proper equipment, and he doesn't seem to fit the bill.

We just had our whole ceiling redone and I was really worried about the new cabinets but they did a great job. They had to sand the old finish and spray new texture. Nothing on the cabinets or anywhere else except the floor and it's just concrete right now! They did mask off everything and I would suggest it.

This just scares me, because we're on the front side of the remodel--they start next week. But I just met with the cabinet guys and they said, "You'd hate us if we painted/sprayed in here! We always do this at our shop. We want you to like us when it's all over!" But I've wondered about the crown molding myself....I guess it's one more question for them, when I go to their shop this week. Sigh.

I think it does come down to the fact that I'm not 100% certain of his competency. We've had so many incompetent people involved in this remodel (costing us time and money) that I just don't want to take a chance on this. For example:
--Contractor's assistant decided to cut drywall ON TOP of the piece of MARBLE we just had cut for the master bath shower bench (you can imagine the outcome of that)
--Contractor's sub / electrician knocked holes in newly hung drywall in order to access what he wanted in order to avoid doing it the right way due to being "too much work." This same person also cracked/chipped about 8 slate floor tiles in the basement while working at the electrical panel.
--Floor company took 3 weeks to complete hardwood staining/refinishing only to majorly screw up (I posted photos in another thread) the floor, leaving us to find another company to do it all over again. We've since been living in our basement for over 2 months.

So...I could go on and on and on - those are just a few of many things. And so far we haven't asked our contractor to pay for even ONE thing he or his subs have screwed up. We simply want him to finish the job and GET OUT! Since everyone involved in our remodel seems to be having financial issues, we're lucky if anyone even shows up to work, much less have any idea when our "5-6 month" project which has stretched into 10 so far will be finished. Sigh....

Donnakay2009 - Sorry, meant to say this in the prior message. I don't think you have to be too worried about your cabinets. The issue with ours only came up because our cabinet maker did the crown molding so long after the cabinets were installed. He apparently either didn't remember what color paint was used for the cabinets or someone helping him screwed up. It was very obvious as soon as I saw the molding that it was two totally different colors. Of course, for some reason, he had installed ALL of it before realizing this. Actually, I think my husband may have been the one who pointed it out and I saw it later. If the color had been correct, there would be no need to repaint. Good luck with your remodel! Hope it goes much more smoothly than ours has :)

Traci, sorry to see you are "still" in the middle of remodeling he**. Our cabinet guy oversprayed our trim after it was installed to cover the putty and nail holes. I will say that some (very little) but still some did get on the wall right by where the crown died back into the wall. I haven't fixed it yet because the backsplash isn't done yet!! (you know the story on that one!) I had my painter here (we painted the kitchen walls ourselves) recently but I was terrified he would get green paint on my new cabinets!! It is faint and hardly noticeable but there is some overspray. He didn't mask anything off though so maybe that's the difference!

Good luck!

Kat :)

Just for reference to spraying anything in place, I am backing up the above statement about HVLP sprayers. These systems have almost no overspray and I have seen them work with as little as 2" masking tape. It is not like pulling out a can of spray paint or even the other professional spray systems used for walls.

It is more than possible to do a better job in this manner compared to taking them down first. Once reinstalled there would still be nail holes to fill it at minimum.

The real issue here is whether your paint guy does quality work, it sounds like he does not...

traci29: I am so sorry, I hear your pain. Six months is a long time and with the issues you mentioned it is enough to make you lose your sense of humor. I considered demolishing the bathroom and doing it with the kitchen remodel and I am so glad I didn't because the kitchen has been challenging enough. I've been in a situation similar to yours before and it took me 15 years to want to remodel anything again. This time around, I did have a much better contractor who was very good about communicating up front and taking responsibility for his subs, so it all worked out in the end.

That's pretty sad about refinishing the floors twice already. Keep us posted on how things work out. I am wishing you all the best in the mean time.

Thanks again everyone for all the advice. While several have said that it's definitely possible to leave the crown molding on and spray, I think it comes down to the fact that if we have just one more thing go wrong and slow this process down even more (if that's possible at this point!), I'm going to lose it. So...I'm still leaning toward making him take the molding down.

Kat - yep, still in remodeling he**. I emailed you the gory details :)

Karena_2009 - thanks for the encouragement! I know just what you mean about it taking 15 years before you wanted to remodel again. I honestly don't think I'll ever want to again! I may have to at some point, but it won't be by choice! If we ever get to the point of being finished enough that I'm not embarrased by the photos, I'll post some :) Right now I go from one week to the next either covering everything up or uncovering just to remove all the dust, only to repeat over and over - ugh!! It's like the movie Groundhog Day or something!

I wouldn't be so fast making him take down the crown unless someone has a good plan as to how is going to go back up. If you're talking about things going wrong, I can think of a lot that can go wrong with someone putting up pre-finished crown molding. How straight is your ceiling for one? How is he going to attach it? How is dealing with inside and outside miters? There's definitely a way to do it, (too long to describe here) but he needs to know what he's doing. Painters paint crown molding in place all the time - whole houses full. It's very common. Everything has to be masked off really well. It's a pain but it's done all the time. I've done miles of crown molding. Hardly ever seen a ceiling that's perfectly straight. Unless it was one I built and took the time to make it that way because I knew I would have to deal with it later.

I would be most concerned about damaging the molding by taking it down, painting & reinstalling it. First, that's a lot of labor & considerably more labor if the molding is damaged & has to be re-cut. That, plus the cost of the molding, some of which are quite pricey. And, of course, the risk of damaging the walls & cabinets in process.

Concur with LWO--there is very little overspray w/ a HVLP (high volume/ low pressure) spray gun. My son used one out in my shop to shoot some automotive primer & I was amazed at how little overspray there was. [Adding that DS is a slob & it's not 'his' shop so he's even more of a slob out there. :)] Auto primers are lacquers & lacquers are a lot more 'floaty' than heavy latex paints, which I assume is what your painter will be shooting.

OTOH, there's always a paint brush &, being that it's crown molding I really wouldn't worry if it looks a tad different than the cabs. Being up next to the ceiling, any brush marks/ slight differences in finish will be virtually undetectable from eye level & with the different levels of light that would normally fall on different areas/ sections of a kitchen.

If he knows how to paint with a brush then there shouldn't be a problem in it looking professional. Our cabinets were factory made, but my DH painted all the moldings and they look beautiful. He used BM's semi gloss paint. He's a contractor by trade and a perfectionist. I'd also be concerned that taking down the molding will mess it up. I'm sorry you have to deal with this contractor.

I think my wording of "crown molding" has confused some - sorry about that. What I'm describing as crown molding possibly isn't, but I'm not sure what else to call it. For example, the molding simply sits on top of the cabinets, however is not going to be attached to the ceiling. Therefore, it can more easily be removed in order to paint - actually has already been removed and replaced once due to making a modification. I honestly don't care how he does it as long as he takes responsibility for whatever happens. With that being said though, who knows how long it would take to even fix any mistakes and we've been delayed so long now that I'd hate to be delayed more because of him getting paint on something other than the cabinets (and with our luck, it would happen). He's also had some financial issues which is another reason this is dragging on so long already - it should have been taken care of as soon as he realized that the color of the molding was not the same as the cabinets, however it has been almost a month now. A month here and there leads to exactly where we are right now - 5 months more than what this project should have taken. And at the rate it's going, I won't be surprised if it's not completed for at least 5 more months (actually, I'd be happy if it was ONLY 5 more months now - that's how far my expectations have fallen!).