Painter did a shoddy job

[Teasandseas]

Hello, I wonder if anyone have any experience of using a professional painting & decorating company and ended up having dispute with them.

we bought a house but the house needed a complete refurbishment before we can move in. We had builders who removed old kitchen, bathroom, floorboards, etc., and rewired all electricity, plumbing and fitted brand new kitchen, bathroom and flooring. They also did plastering of all the walls and ceilings as well as fitting skirting boards.
Once the builders have done their bits and left, we called a professional company to paint all walls and ceilings, skirting boards and doors, etc.,. The painting company came to the house and gave us a quote accordingly, after the builder had left so I would assume that they knew what work was involved… The price was competitive so we went ahead with this company.

Now that they said they have finished, we are not happy with their work at all. Paints are patchy, there are splatters of paints everywhere on our brand new flooring, the walls seem to mark very easily, there are some bits they were supposed to paint but left unpainted, etc., We have mentioned this to this company while they are still working on and some of the issues are rectified but not all of them. We still have quite a few paint splashes on our flooring, the walls mark very easily and on one wall, we can clearly see two different colour tones. The toilet door which they also painted no longer lock as the lock system no longer align. Some of our light switches are not securely screwed in.
When we complained about the easily markable paint, they just blamed the potentially “bad batch” of paint they used. When we asked about patchy paint, they blamed the builders saying that builders did not plaster the wall properly ( which I do not believe the case).
We also found that they left their used paint brushes left soaked in our brand new bathroom sink over one weekend. When we complained about this, they said that this should not have been an issue as no one was living in the house. The sink still have some paint marks because of this.

We are devastated with the outcome of their paintworks and we have now officially complained to them and asked for compensation but they are not taking any responsibility whatsoever.

i have spoken to some of my friends and they all suggested that we go through small claims court but none of them have actually gone through this process themselves so I have no idea if that is the right course of action.

Has anyone any advice on how we can go about with this? I’m not even sure if we are entitled for any compensation…

sorry for a long post…

Have you paid them? I’d hope not as you are not satisfied that the job is finished to the expected standard.

I don’t think compensation is the right word. You either mean you want a refund for what you’ve paid (so that you can pay someone else to do a better job). Or you take them to small claims for a refund on their work and the documented costs of putting it right.

It does sound like you are still at the stage of giving them the opportunity to fix it/finish it.

I completely get that you’ve probably lost faith in them and don’t want them carrying on, but it would be usual to give them the chance to fix it. Like I say, though, if you’ve paid them you’ve given away your strongest card and it’s going to be hard to get them back to finish the job.

OOI, how did you find these painters?

I think you have valid points except for where you say walls mark easy
most Matt finishes do mark very easy

I’d list and evidence the problems your unhappy with on a snagging list
and ask them to resolve issues

brushes in the sink is poor but I wouldn’t focus on on that as long as it’s been cleaned up

Have you paid in full before seeing the finished job?

We recently had a full bathroom refurb. There was a few small things that we weren’t happy with so we withheld the final payment until the job was finished. This was actually in their T&C’s. Final payment once the job is finished. There is no way they would be getting it until we were happy

Failing that, reviews online with photos if they refuse to put everything right.

If the plaster is new, there is special porous matt paint you can use to allow it to finish drying out, it is not very durable and will not withstand scrubbing.