Renaissance Painters

Our experience with Renaissance Painters was, on the whole, extremely
stressful.

We really liked Jason (the owner) and Joe (our painter) as people. I am
certain that if money is no object and you we could afford to pay for many
days of work the completed job would be satisfactory. The way things worked
out for us, we are very disappointed that we went into debt to pay for this
job. If you choose Renaissance my advice would be to be sure to *clearly*
set out and understand the parameters for what is expected ahead of time
(eg. are you paying by the "entire job" or by how many days it will take,
how many hours constitutes a work day etc) and if there are any issues as
the job is happening, bring them up with Jason and/or Joe ASAP. Also, have a
good look at the completed job and be sure you are satisfied before paying.

It started off well. Jason came by our house and helped us pick colours for
our kitchen and entrances. He was patient throughout that process and
impressed us with a song on our piano before he left. We felt great about
the job ahead. The first two days of painting also went well. Joe is
genuinely sweet and likeable. He is a fast worker and was able to quickly
get through his job each day finishing up by early afternoon. On the second
day, he also told us that the job would be completed a day earlier than
planned! Needless to say, we were thrilled.

The problems began on the third morning and fall into two categories:

1. Issues over the final total based on how many days work the job would
actually take
2. Dissatisfaction with the final job

1. COST & LENGTH OF JOB ISSUES

Our biggest and most stressful issue was confusion that came up around how
pricing and billing was done and how long the job would ultimately take to
complete.

When Jason came by to do our colour consult, he explained to us that the job
would cost more or less depending on how many days it would take to
complete. As we understood it, we were paying Joe by the day. There was
miscommunication on the second day (by Joe) and the third morning (by Jason)
that the job would be completed and paid for on day 3. That morning, with
the walls repaired, primed and ready to paint, Jason called to tell us what
the cost we were expected to pay Joe at the end of that day would be. We
took issue with being billed according to the initial "worst-case scenario"
quote which accounted for *two* additional days of work. We felt we should
be paying for the three days of work the job actually took.

After addressing this we were told that now it would in fact take four days
(which was what the initial quote was for). Suddenly there was extra
patchwork that had to be done on day 3 after the walls had already been
sanded and primed to our satisfaction by the end of the previous day. Joe
would have to return for a few quick coats on the morning of the 4th day
(just over 1 hour work in total) which we felt could easily have been
completed on day 3 if day 1 & 2 hadn't been such short work days. We did
not feel comfortable paying for an extra full day of work for something that
took just over an hour.

This all caused some major stress and awkwardness for everyone involved the
entire third day of the job. We felt *terrible* about making Joe feel bad as
it was obvious he cared about making us happy.

At the end of the third day, we worked out an agreement with Jason over the
phone regarding pricing that felt fair to us at the time - we were to pay
for 3 days of work + materials. Ultimately, he came across as caring that
we were satisfied. I believe he tried to handle the situation in a way that
pleased everyone which I respect.

2. COMPLETED PROJECT ISSUES

At our consult Jason emphasized that he and Joe were both perfectionists.
We were not prepared to be so disappointed.

The completed job looks good at first - a big improvement after years of a
dreary entrance and kitchen that we hated looking at. After Joe left and we
spent some time cleaning up, putting things back into place, and looking at
the room from different angles (with day-light shining on the walls etc),
many flaws became evident. With anything more than a quick glance, the walls
do not look uniform. There are bumps in the walls where patchwork was done
but not sanded flat, leftover bits of painted over wallpaper backing,
paintbrush streaks, spots where shiny trim paint went over into the very
matte wall for strips more than an inch wide (showing the divide), as well
as paint splatters on the edge of a new range hood we had just installed
previous to the paint job (which we did our best to scrape off with a razor
blade - yikes!). Joe returned a few hours after completion to fix up some of
the more obvious areas that we noticed quickly that were missing paint
completely. At that point in the day we had not really focused on the
general condition of the entire job. We were happy to have it over with and
were more focused on getting things back into place. I feel this was a big
mistake on our part and we should have taken more time looking things over
before Joe left and spoken up earlier that day.

Another disappointment in the final job was that our main requirement (which
we emphasized with Jason during our consult before the job began) was that,
as the walls were to be painted white and we have young children, we needed
a paint that could be easily wiped of fingerprints etc. The final product
is a matte finish that looks "chalky" and like it will be dirty within
weeks. I emailed Jason to ask about this and about all the flaws. He
replied that "The only way to make your walls any smoother would be to
re-surface them completely with plaster and basically create completely
brand new walls" and that the matte is the best choice both for hiding all
those flaws and would indeed clean easily. I will have to take his word for
this but anyone with young children can understand my apprehension. I did
not pay all this money to have a dirty looking kitchen within a few months.
Also, I wish that we were told before the job began that it would not be
possible to make the walls look smooth instead of being told to expect
perfection. To my eye it looks like something that could have been achieved
with closer sanding (or perhaps by not doing an extra day of plastering on
day 3 when the walls seemed in good painting condition at the end of day 2).
We were very clear before the job that we didn't expect perfection behind
our appliances and didn't want time or money wasted behind those - just the
very visible parts of the rest of the walls - in a small kitchen I might
add.

Although the experience started off as one of our most positive "reno"
experiences, it turned out to be very unpleasant. Jason always returned
calls and emails but the process of reaching him became more and more
difficult as the project became more stressful. We understand that we were
not his only clients and that he has a busy job, however we assumed when
there were problems needing to be addressed we wouldn't have to wait so
long. The onus was always on us to contact him, and there were times we had
to make repeated calls and leave emails as well when the voice mailbox was
full.

Overall not a great experience.