Painting: am I being unreasonable?

Hi all,

I could use some opinions here.

I hired painters to paint four modestly-sized rooms in our older house
(sizes range from about 15x15 to 8x12). Price was $2.1k, in a lowish
cost of living area. These guys came highly recommended, and they've
certainly been fast. Paint is mid-grade, some latex, some oil. The
contract specifies "patch, paint, trim"

My issue is with their wall and trim prep, or lack thereof. It's an
older house, so there are places where the old paint had chipped
(especially on the oil-based trim), places where drill holes in trim
needed to be patched, etc. With the job almost done, I'm seeing a
number of places where holes have been painted over but not patched,
and places where we'd patched previously but hadn't sanded the patches,
that were painted without sanding. In short, these guys put paint over
whatever what there, without much if any patching. (I have seen no use
of sandpaper or patching compounds, although I haven't been hovering
over them all that much.)

Should I be insisting on better, or is this pretty standard? My
feeling is that I could have done better had I done it myself, at least
in terms of wall and trim prep.

Thanks!

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Painting: am I being unreasonable?
    ... You are probably unreasonable as far as the painters are concerned. ... Paint is mid-grade, some latex, some oil. ... My issue is with their wall and trim prep, ... and places where we'd patched previously but hadn't sanded the patches, ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Painting: am I being unreasonable?
    ... I hired painters to paint four modestly-sized rooms in our older house ... Paint is mid-grade, some latex, some oil. ... My issue is with their wall and trim prep, ... and places where we'd patched previously but hadn't sanded the patches, ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Painting: am I being unreasonable?
    ... I hired painters to paint four modestly-sized rooms in our older house ... Paint is mid-grade, some latex, some oil. ... My issue is with their wall and trim prep, ... and places where we'd patched previously but hadn't sanded the patches, ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Painting: am I being unreasonable?
    ... Especially where your contract says specifies "patch, ... I hired painters to paint four modestly-sized rooms in our older house ... contract specifies "patch, paint, trim" ... and places where we'd patched previously but hadn't sanded the patches, ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Completey OT... House Painting Question
    ... With things like this it's better to not shop price but shop quality. ... Painters save money by using cheap paint, using less coats, avoiding trim ... MOST IMPORTANT - Put the EVERYTHING in writing on a CONTRACT. ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)