Professional house painters and shoddy work

Ring, this guy is playin’ you. You want to move in and he needs his money, that’s the jist of the problem. He’s trying to make you believe that your moving in is more important than his getting the money, but I’m guessing that your holding the better hand. It may hurt a little, but you could put off moving for a bit longer and make him believe that your not going to be pushed. When he believes that you can hold out longer than he can, he’ll get things fixed to your satisfaction, because that’s the only way he’s going to get the money that he apparently needs so badly. I understand compassion, but this is showdown time. He made his problems, he got sucked in the trophy golddigger and he’s a big boy. You keep feeling sorry for this guy and your going to be left holding the bag, while he’ll still fail in spite of your compassion. You’ve got to at least talk to a good attorney and get your legal options and pitfalls spelled out.

Guinastasia It’s too late the house is 99.99% done. There are cases in SC where people have tried this and they wound up having to pay both builders.

dahfisheroo Great ideas all.

The inspection was just done last Wednesday and the only major thing the guy found was that the hot water recirculation pump was installed wrong. I should get his full report on Tuesday. This guy is the inspector that none of the realtors in town will use if they’re trying to sell a house, but that they all use if they’re buying a house. He actually said that the house was extremely well built.

There’s no real closing, I’m paying cash so it’s just a matter of getting the certificate of occupancy from county engineering. But I’m not paying the builder until I get the above report, and the paint fixed,

Checking with the subcontractors is an excellent idea. I’m not sure how to do this but I’m going to find out. That’s all I need…I pay the builder and then get a lien from one of the subcontractors.

threemae You misunderstand. I could care less about this guy. In fact I wish him the worst of all futures. I hate the SOB. I was only pointing out his problems to illustrate why I’m afraid he might go over the edge, do something really stupid and screw both of us.

A.R. Cane You also misunderstand. I hate this guy and hope he dies a horrible death, or he continues to live and has a horrible life. I’ve already told my wife we’re probably going to have to delay moving day, but I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. Living in this condo is no fun.

Two young girls moved into the condo across the street.(This, believe me, is not all bad. Especially in the summer. (insert leer here).) But their boy friends all drive cycles and they roar in and out of here at all hours of the day and night.

Actually I’m a little PO’ed. You paint one picture over several posts, and then you tell a totally different story in this last one. I don’t see where threemae ,or I , on any of the others, “misunderstood”, I think you did a poor job of articulating the circumstances. It now appears that things aren’t nearly as bad as you implied (I refer you to the paragraph about last wednesday’s inspection) and that you already knew what action you intended to take. I’m not a mod., but I’d suggest that you just wanted to vent, which is OK, but it doesn’t belong in GQ.
Anyway, good luck. I guess. :rolleyes:

absolutely untrue. Go back and read my posts. Never did I say I cared about this guy in any way other than his going berserk could cause him to do something that could screw both of us.

The “situation” is exactly as i said it was in every post. I have a bad paint job and I’m not sure what to do about it.

The inspector does not check things such as paint, woodwork, etc. He checks that things are to code and that there are no structural defects.

I still am not sure what I’m going to do about the bad paint, and if you were really unable to perceive this from my posts, I suggest you take a course in reading comprehension.

And since this is GQ I won’t tell you what you can do with your rolleyes.

Nuke him from Orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.

http://www.llr.state.sc.us/POL/Contractors/index.asp?file=complaint.htm

There are inspectors that will check everything. They will make sure all light switches, outlets work. The will check water pressure, cabinet hardware, window hardware, gutters, everything, not just components having to deal with codes. Including painting and trim installation. Typically they are not needed, because that’s what your job supervisor, or contractor, or architect is there to double check for you. In this case, I would have your inspector thoroughly go through everything, aesthetics in addition to structural.

God, what a balls up.

Thanks again dahfisheroo. I wasn’t aware of that. I’m going to call this guy up and see if he’ll do this. If not maybe he can recommend someone. There are lots of minor things that just don’t look right, and adding them altogether makes for an over all shoddy look.

I think what happened is the builder started the house, and was doing a first rate job, and then he got in trouble financially and started cutting corners. This is when I noticed that the construction manager was doing a lot of the work himself. Unfortunately he didn’t seem to be especially good at what he was doing. I also noticed that very few of the subs spoke English. Of course saying that last, probably won me the racist label.

In that scenario, make sure the subs are paid, and your lien waivers signed.

Subs speaking English is a non issue. I would be more concerned about the length of their working relationship with the contractor. If they’ve worked for the guy for years, and he pays, and they’re happy, every one is happy. If they just started working for him, because he owes his regular painters money, and the regulars refuse to do the work anymore for him, then you are in trouble.
It’s pretty typical around here for immigrants to work in the less skilled aspects of the building trades-concrete, painting, landscaping, roofing, etc. They do a good job.

Just like my Grandpa did, way back when.