Pros:
- These guys work hard. They arrive by 730-8, don’t leave till 430-5. Everyday the weather cooperated, they worked. Guessing the subs get paid by the job, not by the hour.
- Good paint jobs are about prep. They stripped the entire house, pretty much down to bare wood.
- The place looks great – a few exceptions
Cons:
- High pressure sales job. The salesman lied about some kind of corporate rebate ‘showcase house’, then offered a deal good for today only, and refused to provide any details other than the sales agreement.
- Priced based on square footage, the Rhino Shield rate penalizes homes with lots of windows or sloping landscapes. They bought 15 gallons of finish coat and used 8 gallons, obviously their square footage methodology was not really that accurate for my home. Since their labor rate is a function of square footage as well, I think I paid too much.
- High pressure/price tactics with carpentry repairs. First they could not tell me what needed repair until the house was stripped, then once stripped, pushed me to accept their carpenter to keep the job moving. My advice is make sure any repairs are done before they get here or have your preferred carpenter on standby.
- They left me with 7 gallons of finish paint, because it is a custom color. Trim paint was white, and one must assume that they had extra, which they refused to leave and rolled into the next job.
- These guys are coin operated and stick to a legal script and contract, no personal touch. If you like doing business that way, this is a pro, I was always a hand shake with an honest operator that let his work do the talking instead of 4 pages of legal ease.
- Guarantee is solid on paper, but it will cost you $450 to have them come out and fix each problem (after a year) – I understand the cost of sending a guy out, but if the product legitimately fails they should eat the $450 and fix it. When my warranteed water pump went on the car, the dealer gave me a loaner and fixed it N/C, no questions, end of story.
It just irks me:
- After ignoring multiple email requests for pricing explanation for over a month, they accused me of acting in bad faith for indicating I would not make the final payment until the question was answered. Guessing that the owner is a lawyer.
- When they took down the gutters, they lost/broke lots of the hardware, which I ended up buying instead of them butchering the situation.
- Windy days in the fall are not days to have a wet paint job – lots of pine needles stuck in the primer and finish coat.
- Every day they used the hose, they left it on.
- They pulled out limbs from the woods to level their ladders – they could have thrown them back in the woods instead of leaving them in the beds.
Time will tell if I made a smart decision