West LA Painter

James Lee was on site and provided a written estimate within hours on same day (a Saturday) as calling his answering service. I called him one more time before the job and one time during the job. These calls were returned extremely promptly also. I was very impressed with his responsiveness as you can tell. This means a lot to me. The foreman of the crew working on my home was Song. Song is a good communicator even though his English is not perfect. I never had any trouble understanding what he was talking about and neither did his workers. The whole crew was very punctual and very neat. I didn’t find one drop of paint where it didn’t belong. Window masking was well done. Every home owner appreciates this kind of attention to detail. They did some things I wasn’t expecting such as some light pruning of certain plants close to the stucco and removal/reinstallation of about 15 large patio screens and 2 patio doors. They also moved patio furniture out of the way. Their patching of stucco and wood cracks was very well done also. James and Song both said upfront that puttying a wood surface was not guaranteed and this is understandable since wood expands and contracts a lot. Where some stucco had been previously damaged by sloppy window installers the scratch coat was visible, Song and the crew did a very nice job of patching these areas. We had let the house go too long before repainting so there was quite a bit of wood sanding and priming to do on the ends of the rafters and all of was done to my satisfaction. We were allowed to select our preferred brand of paint. James clearly states upfront that some brands do cost extra. In our case we selected Dunn Edwards which has worked well in both interior and exterior applications and was not considered an extra cost paint. Since we did not change any colors, one coat of paint was satisfactory on the siding and eaves but James did assure me that if a second coat was needed he would do it. Where there was sanding and priming, he used a prime coat and a finish coat. The stucco was primed and finish coated as it had not been painted before. All siding was semi-gloss originally and was repainted the same. The top coat on the stucco is flat. The crew left me almost a gallon of each color for any future touchups. With regards to the interior work, they were extremely fast, thorough and neat. One wall in the bathroom had been substantially patched after a repipe job many years ago. The wallpaper had covered many sins on this wall. James’ crew (a different crew from the exterior workers) did a great job putting a new skim coat where necessary after removing the wallpaper. In short, we had a great experience with House Painting Inc and highly recommend them.
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