(NOTE for context I live in a small seaside town where rates of pay are far lower than in big cities. Also I am a disabled pensioner.)
My previous painter/handyman charged me £20 an hour and did a perfect job first time every time. Sadly he retired to Portugal last year which is why I looked for a new painter. Local ones were all charging about £25 an hour so I just picked one who had posted previous work online and seemed to be popular and proactive and was available.
He's so different from my previous guy that I am left wondering whether the following is normal or usual.
As well as my buying the primer, undercoat and paint he used my, or asked me to buy, brushes, rollers, trays, white spirit, caulk, filler, masking tape and sandpaper. Any little thing he bought himself he charged me for.
After he left and I had a chance to look at his work and there were loads of things not done properly. For example wall paint on electrical switches and sockets and hinges and skirtings, skirting paint on walls and dripped onto the vinyl flooring. Woodwork left rough, clearly not prepped properly. I had to spend ages taking photos and making a list and explaining what I felt was wrong. He agreed his work needed revision, and came back and spent most of a day (unpaid) putting right what he'd done wrong. That meant I was stuck indoors for another whole day, lack of privacy, interruptions, noise, etc.
I would have thought that, at £25 an hour, he should not need overseeing, supervision or instruction. Nor do I understand why he didn't just do it right the first time.
The other thing is that he demands payment on the same day. If the money does not go into his bank account by an hour after he leaves, he messages me saying he cannot eat or pay his rent because of me. I've told him I won't pay until his work has been checked as satisfactory. Especially now that I know his work is lacking and I always end up making a list of "snags". He keeps pestering me to pay before I have had a chance to to look at the work, and I think that isn't fair.
When he was upstairs and I was downstairs I could hear him having long, loud conversations on his mobile phone whilst the £25 an hour clock was ticking, but when I mentioned it to him he assured me that he was using one hand to hold the phone and the other to paint.
I was peeved that he left two of my brushes soaking in jamjars full of white spirit on a shelf in my shed, which I found a week later. Presumably he expects me to clean the brushes? My previous man always cleaned up everything, used and cleaned his own brushes and took them home.
My previous painter/handyman charged me £20 an hour and did a perfect job first time every time. Sadly he retired to Portugal last year which is why I looked for a new painter. Local ones were all charging about £25 an hour so I just picked one who had posted previous work online and seemed to be popular and proactive and was available.
He's so different from my previous guy that I am left wondering whether the following is normal or usual.
As well as my buying the primer, undercoat and paint he used my, or asked me to buy, brushes, rollers, trays, white spirit, caulk, filler, masking tape and sandpaper. Any little thing he bought himself he charged me for.
After he left and I had a chance to look at his work and there were loads of things not done properly. For example wall paint on electrical switches and sockets and hinges and skirtings, skirting paint on walls and dripped onto the vinyl flooring. Woodwork left rough, clearly not prepped properly. I had to spend ages taking photos and making a list and explaining what I felt was wrong. He agreed his work needed revision, and came back and spent most of a day (unpaid) putting right what he'd done wrong. That meant I was stuck indoors for another whole day, lack of privacy, interruptions, noise, etc.
I would have thought that, at £25 an hour, he should not need overseeing, supervision or instruction. Nor do I understand why he didn't just do it right the first time.
The other thing is that he demands payment on the same day. If the money does not go into his bank account by an hour after he leaves, he messages me saying he cannot eat or pay his rent because of me. I've told him I won't pay until his work has been checked as satisfactory. Especially now that I know his work is lacking and I always end up making a list of "snags". He keeps pestering me to pay before I have had a chance to to look at the work, and I think that isn't fair.
When he was upstairs and I was downstairs I could hear him having long, loud conversations on his mobile phone whilst the £25 an hour clock was ticking, but when I mentioned it to him he assured me that he was using one hand to hold the phone and the other to paint.
I was peeved that he left two of my brushes soaking in jamjars full of white spirit on a shelf in my shed, which I found a week later. Presumably he expects me to clean the brushes? My previous man always cleaned up everything, used and cleaned his own brushes and took them home.
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