Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Any contractors on Legion World?

Is anyone here a professional contractor (like painting, renovation, etc.)?

I need some advice on how to talk to the painter I've hired to do just about every room in my house. He has one and a half rooms done, and while it looks great in most ways, I don't think he's prepping properly.

I don't necessarily want him to redo what he's done so far (I can live with it), but I want him to be more careful moving ahead. How do I talk about that without coming off like one of those control-freak homeowners you see on TV?

These are legitimate concerns. One of the reasons I hired out was that I didn't want to do the prep work required. There are a lot of imperfections, and he said when he came out he'd be filling and sanding and cleaning. In some cases, it looks like he just painted over the dust on the wall that was behind artwork. In other cases, there are drips from the previous paint job I was expecting to be sanded out. Stuff like that.

And the estimate he provided included material and labor costs for priming, and he's not priming. (I know he's not because I saw him painting over test patches I had put up when I was picking colors.)

I know some of the problems are because of the surface he's painting on -- crappy old paneling. Having painted another room with the stuff, I know there are some things that just can't be smoothed out perfectly. And I know the occasional human or cat hair is going to get painted over. I expect that kind of stuff.

To his credit, he did say I should look for and mark spots that were missed (lots of white spots in the harder-to-paint grooves of the paneling).

Like I said, I don't want to be an annoying control freak, but I want the rest of the job to look better. And it's really too late to find someone else.

Any advice for broaching the subject? He'll be back tomorrow.

Thanks in advance!

My aunt is a Queen Bitch. She tells them once, and they better do it right. Makes everyone else crazy, but she gets things done.

Guy is taking you for a ride. Stand up straight to him, tell him what you expect. If he can't do it, find someone else.

I was a home inspector, I have seen the crap that comes down.

Yeah, and this house has a lot of hidden crap that pops up every time I try to do something to it.

But as someone else advised me, be stern but not mean. I told him what was wrong, and he's fixing it. And he did a much better job in the other rooms.

Hey, I didn't say be mean. I said my AUNT was a queen bitch, she even has the bumper sticker. I don't have to be mean. I'm 6'4" and look imposing, I'm told. I just loom.