Painting Professionals

2/5 stars August 7, 2012

Review of Mark Harris, "A Few Good Men, LLC" also doing business as "A Few Good Men Painting & Staining" in the greater Minneapolis area:


Poor Estimation of Time/Materials
-He grossly underestimated the time required for this job. He initially told us it would only take 3 days to prime and paint the exterior of our modest 2,800 sqft home; instead the process exceeded 6 weeks. In addition, he failed to show up on the agreed upon day to complete the final touch-ups.
-He was apparently unable to determine the total gallons of paint required to complete the job. This resulted in several extra days of work, which we later learned was actually due to his poor priming work.
Commitment/Inconsistency.
-He did not return each following day at the time to which he committed and was frequently unable to complete the day's tasks, citing various excuses. We had been very patient with him, giving him the benefit of the doubt several times, but he continued to take advantage.
Poor time management
-He apparently failed to complete previous jobs. During the time he comitted to us, he was often running off to previous jobs to addres complaints and perform touch-ups (which we would experience first hand, once he told us that he was finished with our house). As a result, he was unable to spend enough time finishing the project at hand.
Little Attention to Detail
-He constantly performed sloppy painting, which resulted in even more time to correct mistakes. The vast majority of these mistakes required us to physically walk the perimeter of the house to point each issue out to Mark. He clearly lacks an eye for detail, as he did not take responsibility or the initiative to review his work and fix mistakes himself. He actually tried fabricating a blatant lie to avoid having to touch up an area where the old paint color was clearly visible beneath the new paint color.
Very Inefficient
-Mark had to re-paint the same areas multiple times because he would over spray paint onto the trim that he just painted. This resulted in extra time, as he constantly had to back track and repaint.
-In addition, he did not work neatly. He dripped caulk and sprayed paint onto our landscaping rocks, plants, trees, flood lamp, driveway, railroad ties and patio - none of which were ever corrected.
Failed to work efficiently
-His poor priming resulted in many extra days of work and gallons of paint. We were initially led to believe that the cedar siding was much drier than he initially anticipated and, as a result, we even offered to split additional paint expenses with him. We would later learn that all this additional time and psint expense would have been avoided had he primed more thoroughly. He also did a sub-standard job spackling.
Overall Quality of Work
-In a word: poor. He rushed through the project and didn't appear to take pride in his work. Having voiced our concerns about repeated touch-ups, he did bring in a "professional" painter who was able to greatly improve the overall appearance of the front our our house. However, Mark failed to complete various issues on the back and sides (see pictures), which we must now correct on our own at additional expense.

Liz John P.

1/5 stars May 2, 2012

I called Mark and set up a time for him to come out and quote the job. He did not show up or call to cancel.

Debra B.

5/5 stars October 8, 2010

A Fea Good Men and crew painted my kitchen, living room, and they stained the wood parts on the outside of my house.

They were very friendly, helpful, and they had the job done a day before I needed it done. The work was fantastic and my house looks great! They came prepared and didn't leave a mess.

Next week they are starting on my rental property! I am very pleased.

Allison A.