EXOVATIONS

I got my house painted last year at this time and now paint peeling off my metal door that leads to the backyard. A young man came out and said it isn't covered under warranty because he claims that its not his paint that is failing. Poor customer service after the fact. I have recommended this company for the great job they did but if this is how they treat customers after the job is done, I will no longer do so.

After consulting neighbors, Kudzu, Angie's List, and others, and having four companies give estimates, I hired Exovations to paint the exterior of my house. Their price was the highest, but I felt most comfortable with them as a large company compared to the only other painter with which I felt comfortable - an individual. Throughout it all, Exovations was professional and communicated in a timely manner. And their Web site is thorough, even allowing me to use PayPal.

The job was to paint over all painted surfaces. They were also to clean the inside of large, screwed-in storm windows and the outside of the permanent panes of glass they covered. The crew worked very hard for hours and hours. They finished on time.

I hear every job like this has a punch list. Ours did, too. However, I feel some items should not have been on the punch list in the first place. They include sanding and repainting areas where old paint was flaking, replacing a cornice because the repair job they did looked terrible, and cleaning window panes after making them dirty in the normal course of work. This last item was especially disappointing. The outside window panes of the house were clean when Exovations arrived. They did not clean them when done. Nor would they clean them when asked on the punch list, saying they don't clean windows.

Speaking of windows, Exovations did not clean the storm windows or the opposite windows even though that was in the contract. When given this on the punch list, the end result was that they cleaned the windows badly. I had to show them the bad work, have them try again, and even give them my own window cleaning gear because theirs was not effective.

Finally, there are the little things that the project manager said I was "pretty particular" about but for which I disagree. Examples include the following, which make me wonder whether to recommend Exovations to others: You know how you paint in a gap between two pieces of wood that aren't flush with one another by painting thicker than on the surface? Exovations didn't. When presented with ground cover, do you try to avoid stepping on the plants as much as possible? Exovations didn't.

After seeing the above review on Angie’s List, they posted an apology and said they would contact me. They called, came over, agreed with everything I said, said their prep work obviously was lacking, offered to replace my plants if they die, and set up a day to fix everything else.

After their follow-up work, the flaking areas still show old flakes, but not as bad. They did paint over them thick enough to cover them adequately. The flaking isn’t as bad, but it obviously was not sanded smooth. All the storm windows but one are now clean, with the one not clean having been worked on, but not well. All the window panes were cleaned well. I thought I would receive a follow-up phone call after this, but didn’t.