Problem w/ Contractor - Updated

[ny96]

I’m not sure what we should do. We recently signed a contract for about $50k worth of work to be done to the outside of our house. My husband noticed this company doing work in the neighborhood and after meeting the guy and getting an estimate, he spoke with his references and everything seemed good. They started the work on Saturday, ripping out our deck to build a new one. They also power washed a wall and today repainted it. They are now claiming they are done with the wall after about 1 hour of power washing and 3 hours of painting. My husband who is wfh said it looks terrible, they did no prep, and the color is off. They claim they spent $1000 on paint and it was a $4000 paint job. My brought up his concerns to the contractor (via phone call) and the contractor told him he was insulting him, and he could just rip up the contract after we paid him for what had already been done. The contractor is coming over on Thursday and I am going to be there. What is the best way to handle this situation. Obviously the best case scenario is for the guy to recognize the shoddy work and pledge to fix it.

We had the 1st floor of our house painted last year, the painter was there for more that a week, and it was much less than $4k.

Update - The contractor came over, apologized, and my H apologized too. The contractor said that going fast is the way he does things, and when I got a chance to examine the work it looked ok to me with a few minor touch ups that needed to be done. We have continued working together and he has done really great work. This is our largest project so far, and I think my H is just really nervous, so I’ve come on board as a go between when something needs to be corrected.

[macmars45]

Did the contract you signed state that the paint job was going to be 4K?

[ny96]

No, the contract just has painting the front of the house as a line item and it’s more than $4k. Not sure how much of it they painted today.

[hbomdiggity]

I hate when people say this, because I can appreciate most residential contracts are NOT detailed, but it’s really hard to know without understanding how the work is described in the contract.

That said, this is not a good sign. I would try to terminate the contract. It’s not the quality of work you were expecting. Get out now before it’s $50k of shitty work.

[lucybrown]

This guy isn't going to recognize the shitty work and fix it. Get out now, if you can.

Regarding payment, you'll have to go by what is in the contract. If you agree to pay $4000 for the work completed already, then he can produce a new contract/change order with that language. Get it in writing and document everything. If you think $4000 is too high and he refuses to lower the price, then unfortunately you're on the hook for the contracted amount. Do not pay him a single penny until you have something in writing.

We're currently in the process of taking legal action against a contractor that did faulty work. $4000 goes fast in legal fees.

[dr.girlfriend]

Ugh. The guy sounds super unprofessional if he's already threatening to tear up a contract just based on some issues. $1k worth of paint sounds ridiculous -- is he saying he bought multiple cans? If so, he can leave the additional ones with you, although if the color is wrong you may not want him to.

Overall, I might consider the $4k a sunk cost (at least you got the deck removed?) and cut your losses.

[midwestmama]

One additional thought is to contact a local news agency that investigates companies/contractors like this. At least it can be a warning to other people not to use this contractor.

[cuadrado]

I would 100% be trying to get out of that contract ASAP just based on his response. So unprofessional. Sometimes with work there are miscommunications, maybe I don’t understand how the process is being done, or sometimes it's just not right. But a good contractor should want you to be happy and be willing to explain and/or fix anything.

[wanderingback]

As someone who is currently dealing with probably the worst contractor on earth who said a project would be done in Nov and it’s now March and it’s not even half way done and comes up with every excuse in the book I would run far from this contractor before it’s too late. I wish we would not have given our current contractor so much money so far because now we feel stuck unless we take legal action or just find someone else to finish the job and start over with paying them. Our project is also around 50k, so you want someone who will do good work and is willing to communicate professionally and accept feedback.