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"Adobe did a great job; the ramada looks so good, I hired them to stain the wooden fence and gates around the court yard."

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I?ve been a homeowner in Santa Fe for over twenty years, and have hired a number of different painting contractors to work on my home.  Unfortunately, my experience with these painters has been disappointing and when I decided to have the exterior of my house painted this spring, I turned to Angie?s List to see what other companies were working in the area.  Number one among the painters listed was Paint the Town, with fifteen outstanding reviews and nary a negative comment.  I hired Paint the Town for my job, but my experience was so different from that of all these other reviewers I felt compelled to write this critique.

Paint the Town is a husband and wife team; they have no other employees.  They are very pleasant people but they are the least professional painters I have ever had the misfortune to hire.  I probably should have known better than to hire them when I found out they did not carry any insurance because no responsible contractor works without insurance.  Their failure to provide a written contract was another red flag.  It?s important to have the scope of the work clearly stated, as I learned as the project progressed.  No insurance, no real contract, everything they did was half-a****.

The bulk of the work in the painting of the exterior of my house is in painting over twenty french doors.  Many of the doors had some cracking in the wood which required filling with putty.  Paint the Town applied filler to the cracks but only did a cursory job of sanding the putty, leaving a raised, uneven surface.  I ended up sanding the filler, adding more filler, and then doing a final sanding before I considered the job completed and the surface ready for painting.  Yes, I was doing this myself, because Paint the Town thought their half-a**** job was adequate.  A proper contract could have clarified what constituted a properly prepared surface for painting.

Their failure to properly prep the doors simply shows low standards of workmanship.  Some of their other failures demonstrate a sheer lack of professionalism.  I had to tell them that they needed to open the doors to paint the entire surface of the door, they had done much of the work with the doors closed.  When an exterior door is closed, the edge of the door is covered by weather stripping.  You have to open the door to paint the exterior surface.  Again, they were doing a half-a**** job.  They did not wash and wipe down the surfaces of the doors and windows before painting, which left debris in the painted surface.  They did not seem to have any drop cloths.  How can you work as a professional painter without drop cloths?  As a result, there were (and still are) excessive amounts of paint dripped and spilled on my tile and flagstone.  Finally, I have to mention the doors they painted that were left with the bumpiest, most irregular surface I have ever seen in a paint job.  I think they must have been painted with a roller that had dried paint on it.  The craziest thing is, they were ok with it like that.  I had to insist that the doors be sanded and a fresh coat of paint applied.

Other problems included painting my double-hung windows so the windows were stuck open.  This was done on a Friday and they came back the following Tuesday.  There was a storm on that Friday night, and I had to go out in the rain with a putty knife to break the paint bead between the window and the frame so I could close the windows.  Similarly, the weatherstripping around the doors were painted into the door frames (I had told them I was replacing the weatherstripping, so they didn't have to mask it), and when I removed the weatherstripping in certain areas some paint pulled off the frame.  I had to insist that they touch up the places where bare wood had been exposed, and when I did they became belligerent. 

There's more, but I think I've written enough for now.  I want to point out that I actually hired these people for my job because of the great reviews on Angie?s List, even though they hadn't come in with the lowest bid.  They weren?t even the lowest bid, but I still hired them.  That's why I felt compelled to write this review, to add another perspective on the job performance of Paint the Town.  Caveat emptor.

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"All of the work was done as described and in a timely manner. Alvaro (president) explained the process and answered any questions we had. The crew was punctual, courteous and respectful of the property. Windows, doors and vigas were taped off, drop cloths were used where material would splatter. After the completion of the project everything was cleaned up and put back in place. The workmanship is outstanding and the house looks brand new."

"The window cleaning went great. The cleaners showed up on time and completed the job in less than 2 hours. We have approximately 25 windows, including 5 sets of double glass sliding doors. They did all of it in an expedited, professional manner, and even wiped down all of our screens. Our windows look great!"

"Painters were polite, punctual and did a great job."

"The job was done quickly once the windows arrived. There was a small issue with some plant/mulch disruption, but this was addressed and taken care of and was appreciated. Would hire again!"

"Bill did an excellent job of filling, sanding, and painting the columns, vigas, and latillas. For the wood under the portal where we wanted to maintain stain, he did a beautiful job of matching the wood and making the filled areas look natural. He also painted our ductwork and other metal components to color match the stucco, repairing the stucco in a few places along the way. Bill is extremely reliable, meticulous in his cleanup, and fairly priced. Our next door neighbors saw Bill's work and hired him for their project."

"I had my house painted about three years ago by a family member who is not a painting professional. Last summer I noticed that in places the paint was peeling off in sheets and the paint on the trim around the doors and the paint on the metal bars on the windows was peeling off. I called two painters I found on Angie's List for estimates. One of the places did not show up on time and their estimate was twice as high for painting less of the house. Chris, at 360 Painting came when he was scheduled to give me an estimate. His estimate was very detailed and in writing along with how the job would be guaranteed. I hired 360 Painting to do the job. On the first day, the painter came and power washed all of the areas to be painted in order to remove as much of the loose paint as possible. After a drying period, he sanded and scraped the wood trim and places on the metal bars to get the surface completely clean of old paint and rust. The house was painted that day and the following day. When the painters left, the outside of my house where they had worked was left spotless. No drips, no spills. Spotless. I was concerned about one place where the paint did not appear to be adhering as well. I called Chris and he came and agreed that some extra work needed to be done and took a couple of trips to make sure that it was finished correctly. I am very happy with the job that Chris and his staff did on my house. I would definitely hire them again, but I don't think I will have to because they did such a good job! I recommend them highly."

"I spoke with Francis the owner to determine the best roofing system that would meet my needs.  I have chemical sensitivities and I wanted the least toxic product that would satisfy my needs for a waterproof roof.  Francis explained all of the options to me and suggested that Gaco had some products that I would be comfortable with.  He explained exactly how the products would be applied and provided MSDS sheets on all of the products.  All of the products used were very benign...I was thrilled!
The workman who had to clean my old roof and apply the new product were on time, professional, and competent.  One of the workmen provided me with photos of the completed work.  They did a thorough job of cleaning up the worksite.
I have some stucco work that needs to be done this Spring, and SF Stucco & Roofing will get the work!
 
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"Crew did a great job and made the yard look fantastic at a reasonable price!
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