Ricks Painting and Home Repairs

This negative review lands squarely on the shoulders of Rick, who invested little of himself in this large project. I would not recommend this "painter," who said his crews could "Do It All." Our project was much more than painting, it entailed a main bath remodel, plaster wall work, woodwork, masonry, plumbing, electrical, and painting. I won't have enough room to tell all. We feel we are well qualified to review this contractor after 6 weeks of experience with him. Never did we feel that they were duly concerned about leaving their work areas clean, aside from "picking up" or about damaging our new materials. Had to continuously request that things be covered and that new materials not be left laying around amongst old materials, debris, and tools and the new countertops not be walked upon or have other materials stacked on them. We swept, wiped, and vacuumed dust and debris and tried to keep the new materials organized everyday after they left. The lion's share of the work fell upon one, very hard working, crew member, who we'll call "Jack." While Jack was assigned to the bathroom remodel, there seemed to be no plan for the other areas unless Rick had workers who were not needed on other jobs. Jack worked alone the majority of the project. Due to Rick's absence on the job and lack of attention we felt as if we were the Project Managers, without any authority. Jack seems to know a bit about many areas of construction/remodeling, and exhibited moments of admirable craftsmanship, yet finished only parts of tasks in an exemplary fashion. With the exception of straightening out the bricks on the upper corner of our basement fireplace -- kudos Jack! Unfortunately, many tasks were prolonged by the fact that Rick was absent as a Project Manager/Supervisor, and Jack did not consult us in his decision making and before taking action that required our attention or action. A major bone of contention was the bathroom vanity drawer and door refacing. They were given a photograph of a very simple, (beveled not routered), shaker style cabinet and drawer front with the standard 1-3/4 to 2" rails and stiles. 1" rails and stiles were cut. When I pointed out the mistake using more photos and diagrams I was told 4 hours had already been spent on the cutting. The next day Rick arrived upset and raising his voice that the wood was cut thin because Jack "had to or there would be no reveal" on the false drawer front. I told Rick that I didn't know Jack chose to let that piece drive his change of the look I requested. Rick was clear that he did not want any more time spent on it. Jack asked me to trust him, I did, he cut varying widths between 1-1/4" on false front, 1-3/8" on drawers, and 2" on doors, and he painted them beautifully, but, alas, got overspray on every single drawer side and heavy paint smudges inside several. You can see it plainly on the outside when you open any drawer. Jack told us he had to cut our appliance garage side panels out to replace our kitchen countertop. We agreed with the caveat that it would look exactly as original, as the panels were one continuous piece from the countertop all the way to the top of the upper cabinet. He, and Rick, assured us that it would. We ended up with an 11/16" gap between the new countertop and the garage. Jack didn't account for the fact that the existing countertop had been built up. He said he could fabricate a "footer" trim to make up the difference. When he was done the appliance garage side panels were not flush to the wall or the countertop backsplash, in fact, I could put my fingers through the gap on each side! The "footers" are so wide I've lost 11" x 1-1/8" of space on each side of the garage because he didn't trim them flush to the inside of the panels.The panels were lightly stained and do not look like the rest of the cabinets, no lacquer either. When I noted the 1-1/8" gap between the bottom of the garage door and the countertop Jack offered to fabricate something for that, but I declined. We are going to hire a cabinet professional to re-do that work, an electrician to fix our recessed lights that don't meet the trim rings, and will probably fix all the un-sanded plaster patches and peeling paint ourselves. Rick did not talk to me during the last day of work; he called at 5:30 to say he knew they were done and wanted to see if it was done right. But when he came over the next day he wasn't interested when I showed him a bad patch job from a towel ring that had to be moved so that the hand towel wouldn't bunch up on the countertop. I stopped there and said goodbye. We have informed our family, friends and colleagues, who were interested in Rick, should our project turn out positively, that they should hire specialty contractors rather than a self-proclaimed "Do It All" contractor like this. By the way, his motto, painted on the side of his van reads: "We Do It Right The First Time." I wanted to believe.