Overpriced, poor interior painting work. Owed complete redo for free?

last year

last modified: last year

GC has painted interior of a single-family residence as part of full renovation. They textured all walls. Agreement was that the texture would match throughout the home, on new walls and existing ones. Upon my inspection, the texture doesn't even reach the edges of the walls in many places. Also found out that the painters applied zero primer even though it was agreed that they would, and the primer was there on-site and ready for them to use.

No trim, no baseboards, and no door casings are present in the home yet. However, GC installed cabinets before painting, which caused extra paint labor, of course, because they had to cover the brand-new cabinets with protective plastic and tape around the edges. Invoicing claims nearly 80 hours of painting labor. This means that after the GC's markup, they're charging 7 grand to paint the walls and ceiling of a 1,100 sq. ft. house, and that doesn't even include the cost of paint. Ceilings are all standard height, nothing special. All walls are one color, and all ceilings are one color.

Many places, the painted ceilings show visible streaks even with flat-sheen paint. Pretty much every room has areas where you can see the color of the wall texture through the paint and/or strange patterns are visible on the painted walls, which I suspect is a defect in painting. I also had to purchase several extra gallons of paint because they claimed it needed more, but that was before I found out that they never used primer to begin with. The painters also got paint on my brand-new windows, window screens, and a small amount of paint on kitchen hardware where painter's tape didn't quite cover the edges fully.

Wall paint color is darker than ceiling paint color. The "line" where the two colors meet at the tops of the walls is visibly curvy in many areas. Not sure if that's a problem with their painting skills or the drywall.

I used what I believe to be good-quality paint (middle upper tier) from an extremely well-known national paint seller.

Does the GC owe me a complete primer and repaint of the entire home's interior at their expense?

I learned that 7 grand is nearly three times the amount of money I should have been charged for this amount of painting labor. Does this sound like a $7,000 job? (Remember, that's just the labor.)

I haven't paid yet. Should I expect absolute perfection, as in perfectly straight lines between the light ceiling and the painted walls?

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Comments (3)

Jennifer Hogan
last year
It is really hard to say much without seeing any pictures.

I use primer even when repainting to seal any of the patchwork or stains so I don't have issues. New drywall without primer is going to absorb the paint unevenly and especially if they textured the walls.

Texture should go to the edges and no ceiling paint should ever breach onto a wall. You won't notice a hairline of wall color on the ceiling, but because the walls are the vertical plane you will notice (or I always notice) when the ceiling color gets on the wall. Color changes from one wall to the next must have perfect lines. With texture this can be challenging. Need to tape, paint and seal the tape with the color under the tape and then paint over with the wall color adjacent to the paint.

I am hard on pros who don't do work right. I would insist on a re-do without charge. I also monitor work being done and stay on top of things because I know they will take shortcuts if I am not watching and questioning and pushing them to do things right. If you can't be there the whole day you need to be there at least twice a day to monitor what is happening. Inspect everything every night, document questions and e-mail the GC with any questions issues daily.
millworkman
last year
What type of contract do you have with the GC? Did you supply the material? What exactly was his scope of work, was all of this text matching, etc., etc., written out and detailed? GC's typically do not paint was this a smaller portion of the project that the GC hired a painter for? What does the GC (if he hired the painter) say about the project?
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bry911
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Unfortunately, I suspect the answer is...no.

You are entitled to have the job done correctly for no more than you would have paid were it done correctly to begin with. In this case, the painters applied one less coat than you wanted or they agreed to, but you didn't indicate they charged you for it either.

We can assume the painters would have used more time to put down a primer plus the coats they applied, so it would have cost more than you paid.

----

It is difficult to comment on the other things without seeing them. If you have uneven walls, then you have an uneven corner. A good painter will try to even that out by creating a false straight line, but it is hard to say that is required.

Overpriced, poor interior painting work. Owed complete redo for free?

Comments (3)

Jennifer Hogan

millworkman

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