Clean Cut Painting And Decorating Corp.

We had painted most of our house ourselves but there were some hard to reach areas that we decided to hire someone to paint for us. Since Clean Cut Painting had such great reviews we decided to hire them.

George came on time and I went through the areas that needed to be painted. He started painting at around 9AM. Since we were paying by the hour and it wasn’t a big job, I made a point to note the time. At around 9:45 AM I noticed he wasn’t around. I looked outside and saw that he was taking a smoke break. It was a bit concerning that he was taking a break so soon but I didn’t say anything. He came back in 15 minutes later.

At around 10:30 he had gone outside again. When he came back in another 15 minutes later he said that he was just waiting for the paint to dry so he can go over it again. At this point he had only painted one area and had barely started another. He said that he wasn’t taking a break, just going outside to have a smoke and wash his face and asked if it was ok. I said Fine, but I’d rather everything be done soon.

At 11 AM I had noticed I hadn’t heard anything in a while so when I went downstairs to check I saw that he was on the phone outside. When I asked if everything was ok he said that he needed a different step ladder and he’s trying to get one. He said he could go out and buy one which would take an hour or he can come back the next day to finish the job. I was pretty annoyed at this point since he had already left 3 times within 2 hours. I was also annoyed that he wouldn’t check with me first before deciding to stop working and call for a ladder, especially when he hadn't finished painting areas he didn't need a step ladder for. I said he should paint what he can without the ladder and we can talk about the rest later. His boss eventually called and said that they would bring one.

Since I had the day off, my husband also booked electricians to come in. They came around 11:30 so after having spoken to them I noticed George was missing again. This time he was tying up his original ladder to his van. This took another 20 minutes. After he was done I saw him smoking in his car, so I went out to call him back to paint. Since my husband booked the painters I told him to call and talk to Clean Cut about the breaks George was taking. I wasn’t planning on tracking time like this but because I was messaging my husband the whole time to keep him updated I have a record of what and when George was painting.

At around 12:15 Greg from Clean Cuts showed up with a step ladder and presumably came to talk to George about the breaks he was taking. I later heard George tell him that the job would take another hour. I was getting pretty upset at this point since his breaks pretty much amounted to one hour.
After Greg left and George was painting again I was pretty happy that it would be done soon. I went down to check everything out when he was done and George apologized for taking “one 5-minute break”. I told him that it actually was more than 3 breaks and they averaged 15-20 minutes each. He then said to me “This isn’t China. I’m entitled to breaks.” The second he mentioned my ethnicity he crossed the line from unprofessional to just plain offensive. I gave him his money and told him to get out of my house. He complained that he never got water or coffee. Well, if he was painting the whole time, I might have offered some! He kept arguing with me and doubled down on the race remarks by asking if I liked living in Canada and telling me about Canada’s labour laws. I told him that I am Canadian and that he should leave. This was by far the worst experience I’ve ever had hiring someone to work in our home. I will never use Clean Cut Painting again and I will tell everyone I know not to either. I gave 2 stars because the painting was at least adequate.