Not trying to rough you up there Wd. I popped a red flag in your first sentence. You hired a handyman to prepare for your painter? I'm honestly surprised that your painter would agree to those terms. I wouldn't, and I've had similar propositions.
Well... sort of. I actually hired two.
1. I hired a contractor who charges a little more than most but has a good reputation and has been around for a long long time. My paint contractor acturally started out with him. Let's call it ABC Contracting.
So the discussion was, ... can I replace part of the failed lap siding and rot without completely ripping off all the lap and residing with Hardy - which was very expensive.
Also, I wanted to replace the vinyl skirting with a wood plank skirting - and in a manner to make it accessable at any time and from any point.
And I wanted it trimed in a style common to old houses and I wanted all wood primered front and back prior to painting.
2. I called a well known painter in the area (lets call him XYZ Painting) to give me a bid on the painting. At the time there was lots of prep work. The bid was very high. XYZ explained that a good job was all in the prep.
And I believe him. I had a professional painter paint and do the prep last time. I should post the pictures of the porch skirting - it was cedar plank and was painted without any primer .... at all. It is all peeling off.
Handymen hang pictures, unstick stuck windows, repair broken glass, replace some rotted trim, and other such things, they don't do paint prep. And homeowners shouldn't either really. Sorry if that sounds brutal, but I have plenty of experience to back that up, and people aren't served by hearing what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. Probably a reason so many don't like me.
I love you. There is a reason people shouldn't do their own corporate tax returns and a reason the last three letters of my handle here is "CPA". I get you.
After two plus decades in this business I'm still learning and sharpening my skills. I'm not trashing them, or your guy, I'm merely putting things into perspective. When I look at those pictures, that is what I see. I don't see any professionalism in that work, and I'm concerned that things that could affect the long term durability will be missed, aside from the aesthetic issues present in the pics.
That is my concern as well.
But I am not getting what I want even from my contractors and I am stuck kind of in the middle of this project. Example - I physically built, primed and painted a 4 foot proto type of the underpinning. The underpinning was built off site. When it came back the color was wrong because... "Sherwin Williams can't match your color". And some of the trim went up without front and back priming as speced. And it goes on....
The thing in retrospect would have been to call a James Hardy contractor and told him to do the whole house - too late now.
I've had some homeowners over the years who wanted to help, and save money. I had one guy who decided, while I was at lunch, that he was going to sand all the drywall patching I did in his dining room, quite a bit of it. He took a piece of eighty weight paper he had on his tool bench and went to town. What he didn't sand practically down to nothing was left so horribly scratched that I had to re-spackle all from scratch, a complete do over. There are others, but you get the point.
I do indeed. Plus it takes us 3 times as long to do anything and that's before spending half a day thinking about it. I was out today sanding a piece of trim with 150 after priming. I am not a painter. That's why I hired.....
I have had some luck in the past by the way. I had a guy that took care of multiple rental properties and had access to lots of labor. Really - he was pretty good. This guy isn't that guy.
Again, I'm not trying to put you or your guy down. We're here to help people get a durable, quality finish, and sometimes that means being straight up. My best advice to you would be to call your pro painter, your "real" painter, in and tell him to finish the prep and do the painting. It might cost you a little more now, but a problematic job will be more costly in the long run.
I may have to do that but it really was cost prohibative. Seriously. If I had it to do over again, I would fork out 25K to the James Hardy rep and so go for it. I can't now.
Really, this is a DIY forum but DIY is always dicey. Some of the short cuts for the painter involved facing the facia with hardy - it paints easier and it is pre primered. Some of it meant replacing old pine trim with Hardy trim. What you saw in the pictures was new. All the trim boards have been replaced. Some of it is just scraping and priming that still needs to be done.
How bad is that botch up? Can it be fixed? Approach? I am pretty befuddled at this point. I am going to primer and paint some raw wood just to protect it. After that.... - If you were in the Dallas area I would have you come bid it.
wdpcpa
