Student Works Painting West

I hired Brendon with S.W.P. on the west end of Edmonton Alberta to paint an entire vacant condo.(Walls, trim and to fill and prepare walls for paint) Although Brendon was a super nice young man and was well spoke and seemed very eager to please, I think the ultimate problem was just a lack of good business sense. As the condo they were paining was vacant and I lived more than an hour away, it was hard to supervise them and nip problems in the bud immediately (although I really should not have needed to supervise in the first place). I had to make about 4 trips to the condo and contact Brendon with the issues that needed fixing. Although he was more than willing, this was time and expense I should not have had to preform. One trip to check everything over at the end & pay them was all that a good job & a well organized Co. should require. The issues first started after me asking to do one room to start with to see how they did. If they do a great job, we would hire them to do our house we live in. The holes that were filled and sanded did not get primed prior to painting. Without the primer, the holes that were filled were easily visible even once painted over twice. I discussed this with Brendon and he agreed to use a primer throughout the condo. Next was there were 2 major flaws on the walls in the room they painted that I had to point out didn't look painted, much less filled, sanded, primed and painted. This should have been the red flag for me however he was so eager to fix it, I gave him a second chance and said go ahead with the rest of the condo as I felt that as long as he was easy to reach & wiling to fix any issues, I would be pleased with the end result. Besides, what else could you ask of a company really. I never thought about issues arising once they were paid and as it turned out, long gone! After about 4 times of coming back to have them fix things (just more missed gouges in the wall, sloppy paint job on the trim: not one stroke was in the same direction & a couple small walls not painted at all), I also realized the colour they painted the trim did not match the existing colour and so did not match the crown moulding we said to not paint as it was not needed. He remarked by stating "ya, we never noticed that either". Sorry, but that is your job to notice!!! As it was pretty much too late but looked clean and fresh I did not pursue further action. So once all the touch ups had been done, I paid the agreed upon price of just under $3000. No sooner had Brendon left I ran into a couple issues. First thing was I went to clean up the kitchen area including the fridge and was running water down the garburator and realized the noise it was making was not normal. I inspected it to realize they had been cleaning their brushes out on that side and obviously did not clean it out properly, there were large globs of paint down in there. Really though, they should not have been using that side of the sink to do so in the first place. It was very obvious there was a garburator on that side with a funny looking piece of rubber guarding large items from entering. Upon trying to reach Brendon to let him know that if my hubby can't fix it, I will expect to be paid back to fix it. The person who was always quick to respond to all contact was never heard from again since! As time passed and I was putting the condo back in order I found towels and even some of my good clothing had paint on it. I had to discard a couple blouses, several towels and a pair of pants...so far. There was even paint dripped on several areas of my flooring that I am still working to remove as I have time. This was even after I noticed some on the bathroom floor early on and spoke to Brendon about covering the floor properly. I realized they don't use painters tape, so that is why the edging doesn't look as nice because they were trying not to get paint on the surrounding area . Needless to say, I will not hire them to do our other house. Although their pricing is good, the saying goes, "you get what you pay for". If you decide to go ahead with hiring this company anyway, I would highly recommend being there the entire time to watch them very closely. I feel Brandon (the owner of the West side of Edmonton SWP) has potential to be a good business owner however he made one crucial mistake. By not responding to me to fix things, he will not get any referrals from me, nor will he receive what a lot of people rely on before hiring, and that is a good recommendation. A business can be made on referrals alone, and he lost out on painting a home that is over 4000 sq ft along with family and friends who were waiting to see what type of a job they did on the condo before hiring them. Brendon, was that worth what might have cost you maybe a couple hundred dollars to fix and make me a satisfied customer? I think not, but I think it is something that comes with age and experience.