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by Spackletweet

I have first hand watched these guys in action. It was the worst paint job I have ever seen. It was a fairly large apartment complex that the kids painted, or Better said, tried to paint.

The end result was that the place had to be repainted, but only after proper prep work was completed. Peeling paint, and a ruined lawn were the biggest problems.

The boys cleaned the paint equipment out improperly pouring large amounts of paint and paint wash into the lawn every day! The grass was killed and the ground was getting hard. Never seen anything like it.

You could see peeling paint everywhere! Even driving by in a car at 35 miles per hour the street side buildings displayed a fresh color of peeling paint; everywhere at the second story level!

Why do people trust teenagers and young students with home improvement? The end result can be a nightmare.

When homeowner friends decide to do they’re own painting, I am glad to give them guidance. I have helped many people in this way. Professionals, owners of companies, even other contractors (of other trades) have asked me many how to questions. Many times painting contractors will call each other to talk about the best way to solve a paint problem.

I have been painting for 30 years and I still learn things all the time. How on earth can a boy (by most measurements) learn to contract after a 5 day crash course on How to Paint?

One thing is sure, if you hire student type painters be ready to cut them a lot of slack, because they will need it. And the national corporations that are actually behind the program of sending out untrained, well meaning kids; are counting heavy on that slack.

One summer in my area of the world, the boy painters were really out in force. One of the contracts the kids landed was a house. Somehow that house was painted in a day; prep and all. The homeowner drove up as the young guys were finishing up the work.  The homeowner asked that his house be returned to the original color. After some awkward moments it became clear that the energetic brush pushers had painted the wrong house. The “right” house was next door.

All in all, the students don’t really effect my work load. If anything they are the perfect competition.

College Works Painting Reviews
Although, College Works is a nationally know company some bad publicity has risen recently. There has been some hinting at some shoddy practices in the way that they treat customers and staff alike. Picking through the conflicting posts, in an attempt to get to the truth of the matter, is very difficult, considering the sheer volume of information online. The internet is a powerful tool for finding information, but its success is also its downfall. Even the most thorough research can simply muddy the waters and leave the researcher even more confused.

Avoid a Painting Scam
With many homeowners vulnerable to scams and dishonesty on behalf of contracting companies, doing a little research may be a wise thing to do. Most scams are the result of flaky or inadequately trained employees. Contractors may promise a first rate performance, but deliver much less, leaving the homeowner frustrated and annoyed.

A painting scam may involve lazy, incompetent workers that lack motivation and the proper skill to perform at the high level their company had initially promised. Showing up late, moseying around the jobsite with no real motivation or purpose and acting in an inappropriate way may be some of the behaviors that many homeowners may find irritating. These workers can ruin the entire home improvement experience for the homeowner, as they may begin to feel that they have become victim of a painting scam.

Many companies do not give too much thought to their clients. This may seem strange to many, as their clients are the ones that keep their business afloat by hiring their services, but many contractors place little importance on the wishes or needs of the homeowners. By only caring about making money and not placing much stock into the satisfaction of their clients, many contractors should suffer.

Unfortunately, these contractors running what many would consider a painting scam are saved by the lack of research done by their future clients. By placing little importance into doing a quick check into the reputation of the company they are about to hire, many homeowners end up hiring a contractor that places little importance on their project. With inadequately trained workers and a general lack of regard higher up, consumers are left wondering what went wrong.

After their lawn has been treated as a personal garbage bin, the workers have consistently shown up late or not at all and all of the neighbors are annoyed, the homeowner usually begins to wonder where they made their first mistake. Often, the first mistake was made when the homeowner was too quick to pull the trigger on hiring the contractor. There are great informative resources available to consumers looking to avoid faulty or flaky contractors.

Homeowners can avoid a painting scam if they just take advantage of these resources and find as much information as they can. This is usually done very easily in a relatively short period of time. In fact, taking the time to check into a few companies before making the hire may end up saving a great deal of time and a great deal of hassles.

There are still trustworthy, genuinely good painting companies out there that will look down on a company running a painting scam. Some painting companies take the time to provide their workers with the proper training they need to succeed. These companies also ensure that their painters carry with them a positive attitude about all of their jobs and the motivation necessary to truly care about their work. These companies are out there, all homeowners have to do is take a minute to look.

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Consumers in the U.S.: DIY Markets in a Down Economy – Bharat Book Bureau – one stop shop for business information
As the worst economic downturn in living memory stretches relentlessly into 2009, American consumers in every walk of life are searching for new ways to cope with their diminished financial circumstances and to empower themselves by taking more control of their lives in uncertain times. One increasingly popular survival strategy adopted by more and more American consumers is to take on routine chores and tackle major projects themselves rather than paying others to do them.

New angles: Long-life paint, high-tech boilers – BostonHerald.com
After 30 years on the air, there’s not much the “This Old House” team hasn’t seen in the way of home improvement problems.

The biggest surprises are the ways to solve the most common problems.

“There are new products on the market all the time,” said Kevin O’Connor, who has hosted the show for seven seasons. “In the Newton project, we are using a new paint called Rhino-Shield that promises you will never have to paint your house again. I don’t know if it’s true, and we won’t know for 20 years, but it’s just one example.”

Other examples, he said, are high-efficiency boilers that extract a greater amount of heat from the same amount of gas or oil that’s burned compared to a traditional burner; building materials such as laminated veneer lumber, an engineered wood that uses multiple layers of thin wood assembled with adhesives and is stronger, straighter and more uniform than pine boards; and plywood that’s coated with a weather barrier.

“These are high-end products that cost more, and smart builders are grabbing them up to build a better house with less resources,” O’Connor said.

But buyers will have to do a cost-benefit analysis. In the case of Rhino-Shield, the product is only available through distributors and can cost two or three times the price of a routine paint job.

Bartering is back – The Irish Times – Mon, Oct 05, 2009
Irish users of Craigslist have yet to follow suit, however. The bartering section on the Irish Craigslist had only three entries last week. One man from Galway was looking for someone to finish painting his house in exchange for free accommodation in the house – he’s emigrating. A 55-year-old masseuse wanted somewhere to live in exchange for daily massages (she does stress there’ll be no funny business) and then there’s a “proactivist” in Vermount who is “working to change the paradigm” and wants somewhere in Ireland to crash for 10 days this autumn in exchange for “art, news and life from Putney”. Don’t all rush now.

The Daily Courier – Yavapai County supervisors reject low paint bid
PRESCOTT – The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors on Monday rejected American Pride Painting’s low bid to paint the outside walls at the Camp Verde jail, and instead voted to hire Listol Painting Inc., the second-lowest bidder.

“We found through the Arizona Registrar of Contractors that the person listed on the bid is not qualified to work under that license,” Facilities Director Pat Kirshman told the supervisors.

Eight companies bid for the job, and American Pride and Painting is the low bid at $43,677. Listol Painting Inc. bid $49,867. Ghaster Painting & Coatings had the high bid at $157,620. Kirshman could not explain the wide gap between the low bid and high bid.

Kirshman said that Listol would need between 350 and 400 gallons of paint to cover the 85,000 square feet of jail walls. He expects Listol to start painting in October and finish by mid-December.

In a separate matter, the board voted unanimously to let the Town of Dewey-Humboldt join the Central Yavapai Metropolitan Planning Organization (CYMPO). Representatives from the City of Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley and Yavapai County comprise CYMPO’s executive board.

Dewey-Humboldt Town Manager William Emerson said that he and the Town Council support joining CYMPO. It will cost the town about $3,000 to join, he said.

Formed in 2003, CYMPO’s goal is to plan future roads and transportation corridors within its boundaries including public transit and bicycle and pedestrian pathways. CYMPO’s boundaries encompass portions of highways 89, 89A and 69 with Prescott and Prescott Valley marking the southern boundary, and the north boundary ending about three miles north of Paulden.

Also, the board approved Management Information Systems Director Michael Holmes’ request to upgrade the county’s Internet connection. County employees and public users of the county’s website should notice in mid-December a faster Internet connection.

Holmes explained that the county has several off-site Internet connections, such as Seligman, that are slow and expensive to use. He wants to consolidate the off-site connections into one large connection.

MIS planned for the upgrade sometime in 2010. However, Sheriff Steve Waugh asked Holmes to do it sooner because the current connections would not handle the Yavapai County Sheriff’s new remote booking system.

This past July, Waugh went online with the computerized system that has deputies using laptop computers to pre-book suspects from remote locations, which shortens booking time at the Camp Verde jail.

Waugh told the supervisors he currently has 24 laptops in the field, but is aiming to have as many as 125 sometime in the future. Holmes said that the start-up costs would be about $36,000, and he could pay those by deferring other projects that he already budgeted.

In other business:

• Jim Holst, capital improvements coordinator, said that architects are re-drawing the plans for the future juvenile justice center at the Prescott Lakes Parkway site. Supervisors told Holst that they did not want the building to exceed 60,000 square feet.

They rejected a previous design that showed the two-story detention center as one-story, but increased the square footage beyond what the board thought it could afford.

• The board upheld Phoenix Cement Co.’s appeal of its assessed value from the Yavapai County Assessor’s Office on its cement plant at Clarkdale. The Assessor’s Office valued the business at about $128.5 million, and the company claimed its value is $126.1 million.

The board voted in favor of the cement plant because they said a section of valuation formula used to assess the business resembled “double taxing.”

Reader Comments

Posted: Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Article comment by: Right Wing Conservative

Dear Bonkers, wait a minute, having County employees do the work would REQUIRE them to actually do some labor for their pay and benefits. This would be an absolute abomination to ask a County or City employee for that matter to earn their pay. I personally know of one grounds keeper who spends more time playing golf than he/she does working.

Posted: Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Article comment by: No name provided

You people don’t seem to realize that the County uses absolutely no common sense and are truly not interested in “cost”. The County is still paying Jim Holst (who by the way is double-dipping since he retired). Yes the employees in maintenance or the people in the jail could paint. (I’m sure they would look forward to doing something besides sitting in jail) but that conclusion to decide the common sense way is way beyond their intelligence. Might as well let it go, again, it is a done deal.

Posted: Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Article comment by: Parker Anderson

Come on, Bonkers, you know as well as I do that if you pay for cheap, then cheap is probably what you will get.

Cash-strapped folks adopt do-it-yourself attitude – Salt Lake Tribune

Retail » True Value show emphasizes choices, green products.

By Mike Gorrell

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 10/02/2009 06:01:31 PM MDT

True Value’s research clearly showed that its customers were staying home more these days, spending that extra time doing house and yard projects they often hired out before the recession kicked in.

So this week at the Salt Palace Convention Center, the fall convention of the hardware store cooperative called attention to the variety of products, at a variety of prices, that True Value will have available to this new breed of cost-conscious do-it-yourselfers.

“We’re seeing more and more people taking on these [household] tasks, particularly in lawn and gardening and painting,” said Lyle Heidemann, chief executive of True Value, which has 3,825 hardware stores in 50 states and as many countries.

I have thought on this for Pro Painters. People really need to save money, so offer to let the homeowner do the prep. Or show the home owner how you want the masking done. As we all know the prep can take longer than painting, and i don’t really like the prep part of painting as much as I like the painting part of painting anyway. In these times, get creative. One thing that I have done: I took a job doing painting to electrical for a construction company as an hourly employee. At least I have some money coming in. I can still take on painting as it comes up – Spackletweet

A controversy over color in downtown Faribault September 30, 2009

A controversy over color in downtown Faribault « Minnesota Prairie Roots
MARIANO PEREZ, owner of Los 3 Reyes Bakery in historic downtown Faribault likes the bright green color of his bakery.

“In my country, they use this color every house,” says Perez, a native of Molinos, Mexico. It is, he adds, a “happy color.”

But not everyone in Faribault appreciates the vivid storefront in the 400 block of Central Avenue, an area of primarily neutral brick buildings. Perez was approached…..

Half a block from the bakery, Books on Central sports new coats of purple and orange paint. Will this building be next on those pegged for a paint make-over?

In the 200 block of Central Avenue, Banadir Restaurant offers a colorful storefront to those patronizing the Somali business. Will this be the next target?

I’ve never known what business occupies 117 Central Avenue, but the color choice certainly makes it stand out from other buildings. Should this get a face lift too?

Personally, I can’t stand the color of these government-mandated recycling bins, which clutter the Faribault landscape. I also don’t like the blue color the city paints bridge railings. And once my neighbor painted her house a hideous bright blue. I have nothing against blue, but this simply illustrates that everyone prefers different colors.

You’ll find brightly-colored buildings in the La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although primarily a tourist destination today, the area is surrounded by houses with painted sheet walls of varying colors. Photo by Miranda Helbling.

Argentina’s presidential palace is painted pink. This is the back of La Casa Rosada in a photo taken by Miranda Helbling. Different cultures, different colors.

So what do you think? Should Mariano Perez repaint his bakery a subtler green or leave the color he chose?

Arizona Real Estate And The Importance Of Remodeling
Being a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and after viewing so many homes with many clients, remodeling your home may be of paramount importance. In and out of so many homes, people seem to want the newer, more modern style.

Many homes in the Scottsdale, Arizona area are getting older and there is hardly any land left to build new homes. There is plenty of land in Arizona to build new homes, but most of the building is going up on the outskirts of Phoenix in cities such as Surprise, Queen Creek, Casa Grande, and Anthem.

The people that want to buy in Scottsdale are not going to be able to buy a brand new home unless they knock the home down with a bulldozer and start from scratch. If you are a home owner, here are some suggestions that may help increase your re-sale-ability. Granite counter tops in the kitchen would probably be your number one. Try to make sure that the granite you pick out compliments the paint in the kitchen. If the paint in the kitchen is out-dated, you may want to consider re-painting the kitchen, and doing granite counter tops.

When discussing flooring, it seems every one prefers tile over any other type of flooring. Tile in the bathrooms and kitchen would be a great place to start. The really big twenty four inch tile is more popular than small tile. When thinking about doing tile in your home, ask a professional tile expert about which tile would look best. There are so many minor cosmetic things a home owner can do to make the property look more desirable.

So many homes appearances are absolutely destroyed by paint issues. People get bored, or they think they are professional painters, and decide to paint a room bright purple, or pink, or green. There is no problem with painting a room a color you like, but if you decide to sell the home, have all the walls re-painted back to the original colors of the home. Paint is such a cosmetic item, and such an easy fix. If possible, try to have the entire house one color such as white or light beige. It may not be a good idea to have dramatic colors through out the home. Your taste in style is probably not the same as the people that are coming to view your home that may possibly purchase your home.

Light fixtures are a relatively easy fix. Out dated or old light fixtures can be easily replaced, and are relatively cheap. Old corroded faucets in the kitchen and bathrooms is also a relatively easy fix, and not too expensive. Electrical outlet covers, probably the easiest of all, can be replaced extremely easily. If they are cracked or missing, take the extra time to replace them.

When someone purchases a home in Arizona, ninety nine percent of the time they are going to do an inspection on your home. When the buyer does an inspection on your home, their inspector is going to notice every small detail. Many reports include problems such as slow draining sinks and bath tubs, electrical outlet covers cracked or missing, light bulbs out, doors do not open and shut properly, cracked tiles on roof and many other minor issues. The fewer things an inspector puts on a report, the better that is for the seller.

Major remodeling projects might include adding a pool, or a basketball court, or a putting green, or even a playground type structure for the kids. A pool would be an extremely lovely upgrade for a home in Arizona with out a pool. It is so hot in Arizona, and homes with pools are not as common as one would think.

Unfortunately, no guarantees can be made that any of the above mentioned items will increase your property value, or guarantee that your home will sell. There are never guarantees when discussing Real Estate. The above mentioned items may or may not help when selling your home. Do not attempt any of the above projects without consulting with a licensed, insured, trained professional first.Nick McConnell

Executive Sales Associate for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Scottsdale, Arizona. Lived in Arizona all his life, Graduated from Northern Arizona State University and has been a Realtor ever since.

Scottsdale, Arizona Coldwell Banker Real Estate Agent