Cheap House Painter Turned Out Expensive

by Mary
(Marysville WA)

We had to get our house exterior painted about 2 years ago. We had been planning to do it ourselves, but it is a tri-level and we finally realized we did not have the equipment to really get the job done in a timely manner.

We called several painting contractors and got bids, but then we heard about a guy that was a friend of a friend who was between jobs and would get going on it right away. The price was right - about $2,000 less than the other guys. So we set it up and got the ball rolling.

It seemed like things were going to go okay at first. The painter showed up and got busy prepping the house. It was just one guy doing the work, so we allowed for a slower process. Finally we got the actual painting started. He brought another guy to help a few times to get things going quicker.

But then the paint sprayer clogged, then there was a problem with the ladder. Then the pattern set in - he would show up later each day and skip a day here and there. We wanted to be patient because he was giving us a good deal on the labor, but this was really taking twice as long as we could’ve done it ourselves.

In the end, after about 3 months break, and numerous calls and extra money on more paint than originally quoted - almost twice what we thought, we finally got most of the house painted. We ended up finishing up the trim work ourselves.

We had tried to save some money and do a friend a favor, but in the end, it was not worth it. It took much longer than it should have and cost more than the other guys’ estimates. Also, it was hard to get satisfaction because it was a friend of a friend.