WILLCO

It went very well. they were very good person, very personable and they did the work very good.

We got multiple bids for the exterior paint job of our 1904 Dutch Colonial. Willco offered the quickest response, the clearest terms of the agreement/contract, and had a very competitive price. In discussing and planning our project, Brian and Lucas were detail-oriented and flexible, following through with the timeline and sticking with the initial estimate. The onsite painters and carpenter were so pleasant to work with and again, flexible and detail-oriented. We were nervous about the amount of carpentry work we needed on our trim and windows, but it looks so good. Without hesitation, we recommend this team for your painting needs!

Our HOA needed the decorative wrought iron looking aluminum fencing to be repainted black for approx 75 townhomes. They used a different brand manufacturer etc then was spelled out in contract. The painted surface didn’t cure properly and every piece of dirt and dust that came in contact for weeks to months became stuck to fence. One year later the paint on some portions has started massively bubbling and flaking off. The company’s response was jaw dropping. They would not acknowledge any problems lied to us and hid behind there contract which states they don’t warrant paint work on fences. We now have to hire a new company to correct and bring to acceptable expectatations.

This summer we hired Willco to paint our small bungalow, which had some new siding, and a new ADU. We made it clear to Randy, the estimator, that we would need the nail holes in the siding and soffits filled, and he gave us a fixed bid that included this work plus time and materials for a dry rot repair on one window. We were told that we would be put on the schedule "in a couple of weeks." After a month with no word from the company, we emailed and were again told we'd be put on the schedule in a week or two. This happened at least twice. Nearly two months after we signed the contract, we got a call informing us the painters would be there the following day. We got less than 24 hours notice, which was particularly inconvenient since we had scheduled landscapers to come, given the fact we had no idea when painting would start and we couldn't put all our plans on hold. Despite the fact that the contract stipulated filling basic holes and we even confirmed this by email both with Lucas, the project manager, and Randy, we discovered after the second coat that the painters did not do this work. When we brought this up to Lucas, he said that work wasn't covered and we would be charged time and materials if we wanted it done. This entire exchange with Lucas happened via text--he did not respond to our request to resolve the issue over the phone. We ended up spending the weekend filling nail holes ourselves so we could get the third coat on before the weather started to turn. The carpentry work was another red flag. No one at Willco seemed to remember that this was part of the contract. When we reminded them, we were told the carpenter would show up on the first day, but he didn't come until a few days later. He was accompanied by a "lead carpenter," for whose time we were charged. We were present to instruct the carpenter on what we wanted, so it is unclear why a supervisor was necessary to tell him what to do and even make him a shopping list. The final paint job looks good from a distance, but there are noticeable drips and splatters. Whether this was because of skill or pressure to complete the job as quickly as possible, we don't know. No one, including Lucas who was auspiciously the project manager, came out to inspect the final product. When the bill came, we disputed the extra time for the lead carpenter and complained about the fact that the nail holes did not get filled. Rather than taking responsibility for not meeting the terms, they used the contract to defend their time and materials charge for carpentry and then claimed that the siding was not installed correctly and therefore was our contractor's responsibility. We checked with an architect, who said that there was no problem with the siding installation. Finally, after a few days of back and forth over the bill, we got a threatening response from Alex, who claimed that we were past due and in danger of being assessed late fees and possibly voiding our warranty. We are under no illusion that Willco will actually meet the terms of its warranty given the apparent bait and switch with the contract. We wish we had read other similar reviews about this company's abysmal customer service and lack of transparency before we signed the contract. We hope others will discover this before making a decision to hire Willco.

unknown

The Willco guys went out and got started quickly. While the bid was not the cheapest, as a Property Management company with over 350 homes their price was right. They determined the front entry/porch had rotted away in the last 100 years and needed replacement. I verified their assessment and agreed. They rebuilt it and it is now solid - good for another 100 years. <br /> The paint job was excellent, The paint covers well, and looks great. <br /> The guys at Willco were easy to deal with and responded fast. We have used them on other smaller jobs (like painting house trim) they always come through. <br />

The job can be broken down into two portions: the carpentry work and the painting. The carpentry work was time and materials to discover rot and to replace failed sections of the porch. <br /> The agreed upon carpentry rate was $55/hour + materials. The actual carpentry work was A-/B+ work, but the job didn't have any challenging aspects. The billing of time was a little questionable. The work took place over 5 or so business days. Two of those days I was at home the entire day, while other days I was partially present. The foreman, who was not present, billed the job at 8 hours per day, while I know that one day in the middle of the job the carpenter showed up at 9:30, took a modest lunch (1/2 hour?), and had packed and left well before 4pm. I asked to see a daily breakdown of the hours worked per day at which point the foreman grew a little defensive, danced around the issue and refused. I let it slide as job completion was more important than having been charged for a few bogus hours. <br /> The painting was a flat rate quote. The prep work seemed okay, but the actual painting was a little sloppy. The painter left porch paint marks (1/2" to 1" in many places) on the body of the house and on trim pieces. In past years my 13 year old child was able to paint this porch more neatly. Also, the painter left a few drops of thinned paint on the metal threshold of the front door. <br />

Our door was not reinstalled properly. I would not use this provider again in the future.

WILLCO Painting and Construction Inc did a good job and completed the job on schedule. We had one of the contractors. One of the contractors helped, went above and beyond the call and helped my wife picked up some stone to go around the fire place. It was a good experience. They were all very good. I would recommend them.

We were very happy with them.

Basically, they are a money vacuum, and I got screwed twice. I felt played by them, despite their initial eagerness to engage. On the design/build for the upstairs remodel, they started approximately February 2012 with my initial budget of $250K-$280K to put a second story of about 1500 sq ft on top of my existing house in the West Hills. In that time, I received 4 sets of drawings, each with very little change - and in fact, the last set regressed many of the changes we had talked about and was apparently re-based on the initial set of drawings. Several of the changes at the end were actually counter to what we had requested, which was further aggravating. I also asked repeatedly for sub-totals on my expenses, since Primo had originally set the expectation that I would half of the design services applied to my build costs if I went with them as the builder after the architect/design phase. I had originally put down $5K and expected that they would tell me how fast they were going through that. Since there didn't seem to be much activity, and many of our meetings seemed to have very low productivity, I figured that they were just off to a slow start or multiplexing projects. <br /> Primo repeatedly assured me that they had a very large staff and the project would move very quickly once we got through design, so I was patient. A couple of months in, after repeated assurances that they had a very large staff, I suggested that the take on a design/build of a small bathroom - 4'4 x 7' 3.5". We were close to finalizing the simple plans before I headed off for a month in Europe, so I put down $20K on that, said to email me the final costs/materials/plans, and I'd be able to approve while I was traveling. The bathroom estimate came in at ~$37K and in shock, I told them to stop until I returned. I tried to work with them to get a cost breakout to understand, which took a while to get; I then asked to use some sub-contractors I had used previously - whose work on a much larger project was much more cost effective. However, for reasons I never understood, those contractors when working with Primo, came up with quotes very similar to his teams' quotes. In frustration, I planned to order the materials (plumbing, tile, etc.) to try to reduce costs, however, that didn't turn out well overall, even using their discounts and picking up materials (they had a built in mark up, like most contractors do, and the materials turned out to be single sourced in many cases, and all much higher end than I had expected). Anyway, the bathroom project was completed fairly quickly, the workmanship was generally good. Some of the design aspects surprised me, and at least one major problem with a shower head which was initially mounted too close to the wall, and when moved out far enough to be useful now sprays water outside of the shower. Just moving the shower head was given to me at "half off" - and was still something like $600 (to extend a pipe about 8", redo a shower's ceiling dry wall for a mistake that I still believe is completely their fault). <br /> Anyway, apparently there was no real progress on the 2nd story remodel during this time, although there were design bills. And, in fact, within two months of finishing the bathroom and settling that cost, I received another $8,000 charge for design, with no detail behind it, other than "making my bill current". About the same time, they showed me the same rough plans for a >$750K remodel (remember, my walk out ranch of about 2500 sq ft and property are about $550K, and this was a ~1500 sq ft addition with 2 bare bedrooms, a simple guest bathroom, a great room space, and a master bed/bath/closet. When they presented me with the budget (with no real line items) I thought it was just a joke, and not a very good one. In discussing it with them, it sounded like they rounded everything up to the "high end" to be safe, so I asked for details, which seemed to be a major effort for them. I thought they were just including some crazy things that would be easy to cut out and bring the price back down to my budget. They brought that same budget back to me for each of the next two months, with no change in pricing, and clearly at a level that I told them repeatedly was completely beyond my budget (and never would I have paid so much anyway - my housing market would not have been able to bear that level of additional cost and I would not have been able to recoup that investment, ever). At that point, I demanded a summary and asked how close they were to "finished' <br /> That's when I learned that they believed they were only 30% done with the design, and the design would cost somewhere between $75K-$115k, since the project was likely to be about $750K. I was honestly shocked and didn't know how to react for a good while. At that point, I knew I had to terminate the relationship because I was just getting pulled deeper and deeper into a delusional view of what they thought I could afford, what they thought could be done with my house, and realized that I was stupid to have entertained their optimism for so long. <br /> I would recommend never, ever using them for a large project - I hadn't realized it at the beginning, but most of their projects were very small when I looked at their history. They clearly have no real knowledge or significant experience with larger projects and are completely out of tough with the remodeling market. <br />

The quality is excellent and there is no comparison. The painting is much better than what we had in the past. We kept them for three phases because they have done a good job.

I had another painting company lined up to come out to paint my living room and kitchen in mid June before out of town guests arrived in July. Unfortunately, the company overbooked and could not do the work, leaving me in last-minute bind. After calling several companies and many referrals later, I found Willco, a larger company that could get a crew out immediately. I was thrilled when they said they would send someone the next day. <br /> Brian arrived on time at 8 am and began work after I signed a contract accepting the terms of a time and materials job. I did without reading every tiny word which came back to bite me. This company charged what seemed like a reasonable hourly rate and I expected the job to take less than two days. Brian is a nice guy who works at a careful pace which was slower than I expected. The supervisor came out and wanted to send out two more guys the next day stating it would take three days, tripling the cost. I rejected this and put a cap on what I could pay. The next day Brian returned with another painter. Indeed, almost all of the job was completed within the budget--just some small walls in the kitchen are unfinished. <br /> I was very grateful to get painters out so quickly, but was not happy about the contract and time and materials work. It turns out that I paid for time loading the truck, drive time, the supervisor's time to come out and his drive time when it was not requested by me for him to even come out in the first place. I supplied the paint and primer and even had to purchase some other supplies at the painter's request. I will wait for a proper bid next time! <br /> All in all, the guys did a great job and my house looks amazing. <br />

They did a good job except for the end. There was a problem with the window and they never fixed them. I am legally blind so how was I suppose to fix it. Otherwise they did a good job, just the thing they didn't fix. They did everything that needed to be done otherwise.

We have used them several times. The first time they painted the family room and kitchen. The workers worked really hard and they hardly ever took a break. They did a really good job. The guy who did the quote was very professional. The workers were incredible. I have recommended them to others.

The company did exterior painting for our Condo Association. They were professional and reliable enough while they worked; we were pleased until after the job was complete. They had painted our front steps with paint with grit, and the grit was not distributed evenly. There were large areas with no grit at all, other areas with just a little grit, and areas with a lot of grit. We saw their work in the neighborhood at two other sites and the grit was perfectly distributed. When we asked them to come back and give the steps an even distribution of grit, they refused to do so claiming that the grit only becomes evenly distributed after several annual treatments with the grit paint. This seemed rather lame to us! We will call someone else next time. Their general painting was fine, but we were not happy with their customer service regarding a problem we felt they should have made right.

They arrived on time with the proper materials, started immediately, and did a great job. The price was great. This was a much smaller job than this company usually provides, but they were absolutely wonderful in helping us out of a difficult situation.

We paid about $4,000 on that work. Their price was better than most people and they got in and got it done. We had a couple of things that we wanted them to come back and touch up and they did it with no problem.

I am very happy with the work they did. We will definitely be calling them for upcoming projects! They weren't cheap but they were well worth the money.

They did a good job. They came and got the job done and cleaned up before they left.

It was a 20 minutes job and they did a fine job. It overall took him an hour for the complete job and he cleaned up after himself. We had to reschedule a couple of times before they got here. I would use them again.

This is the third time I've used Willco for both carpentry and painting jobs and have always been impressed with their responsiveness, organization and quality of work. I called Primo (the owner), we set an appointment and he came out, discussed what I wanted to have done and took it from there. He provided a bid which I found very acceptable. His assistant Travis called to work out the carpenter's schedule and then the painting schedule. They were prompt, organized and completed the work in a timely fashion.

I have no complaints about the carpentry work. The painting however, was done poorly. The paint is peeling and bubbling in some areas. One side is exposed to the western sun where cracks were not filled. I even had to go as far as to contact the BBB. They didn t really prime the house before painting and I believe they only sprayed one coat. I kept having to have them come back to show them areas that were neglected. The foreman always gave an excuse as to why things were done the way they were. Their responsiveness was good; they did not try to avoid me but they did not want to come to a resolution with me.

They came out right on time, fixed the beams, cleaned up any mess they made, let me know when they would be back to do the gutters. They were also very considerate when I had to leave for an appointment, they came down from their ladders and moved the ladders so me and my walker could get through safely. When they came with the gutters and were talking to my husband they decided he hadn't picked the right gutters for what he wanted so they picked a different style. They are beautiful and very pleased with them. My neighbors even commented on how nice they look.

We decided we needed an attic fan, but didn't know anything about them. I've hired Willco for many handyman jobs before. Primo told me Robert (their carpenter) could do the job. I have a lot of confidence in Robert, so did not put the job to bid. Robert went shopping (as he puts it). He selected the right fan and bought the wiring. Then he cut the roof hole, did the roof flashing and cementing, wiring and hookup all in one day. He spent the entire day on the project, and made sure everything was to code. Installed in May, 2007. So far, no roof leaks and the fan works exactly as he stated.