Axcell Painting And Decorating

We were unhappy with the overall work. Were looking forward to the final product but it didnt turn out

Axcell is a very good company to engage. Professional, competitively priced and excellent workmanship. This was the second time I used this company and will do so again.

I am a repeat customer of Axcell Painting; my first experience with them was excellent, but this latest experience was very disappointing. My review is long, but I want to make sure customers know what they are signing up for. In the end, I am satisfied with the final painting job, but it came at the expense of a lot of stress and tears, and an increase in overall cost.

TL;DR: Axcell initially sent a painter to paint our house. We were very unhappy with the quality and it took quite a long time for Axcell to respond to our concerns, resulting in unnecessary stress and anxiety. Eventually, Axcell sent in another team of two painters to fix the work, and they did an excellent job.
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We hired Axcell to repaint a house we had just bought. One of the conditions was to have the job completed before we moved in and they had a two week timeframe to do it; they were confident they could complete the job in that timeframe. Delays happened that were outside of their control, and we understood that would mean the project would have to continue after our move-in. But, clarifying what these delays would mean for project completion was not well-managed, and this brings me to the first reason why I removed a point in my score: communication.

Communication: Initial communications were great Rob immediately responded with an estimate, and was prompt and showed up on time for a walk-through of our home to confirm his estimate. However, once the job was booked and the painter was onsite, communication started lacking. From the start we had difficulties with the painter; we felt he wasnt responsive to concerns we brought to his attention, and he thought we were pressuring him. Rob asked that any communications go through him, which I understood. However, calls and texts to Rob often went unanswered. Additionally, on several occasions, Rob would tell us he was going to show up to verify our concerns and the painters work, and would not show up nor answer our follow-up calls asking where he was. This left us in the position of having many concerns that were not being addressed and left us frustrated and unhappy. In the end, he did end up addressing our concerns and sending a different team to fix the work, which Im sure ended up costing him time and money. Had this been addressed earlier when we brought it up, it would have saved everyone a headache.

Quality of Work: We went with a high quality paint Benjamin Moore Aura. The colour we selected (Simply White one of Benjamin Moores most popular colours), though, seemed to cover very poorly and required additional coats. This was the main reason for project delays and also significantly increased the price of the work due to the additional paint and labour required, but I cant fault Axcell for this. The reason for deducting a second point for Axcells score is due to the quality of the painting job which I believe did not meet industry standard for quality for the reasons detailed below:
1) Prep The painter did not adequately prep the walls (patching, sanding, etc.), nor vacuum/wipe down baseboards before painting them, resulting in bumpy texture and bad patch jobs.
2) Tools Im not sure what was going on, but the roller left a lot of lint on the walls. Very visible and the #1 concern regarding the quality of the work. The painter didnt sand in between coats and the lint kept piling on as coats were added. Running your hand along the walls felt the same as running it along a textured ceiling. And from my communications point above, concerns raised about this were not being addressed initially. The painter also didnt bring a shop vac to vacuum particles (and didnt feel comfortable using ours when I offered), and simply painted over the dust on the baseboards. However, the team that came to fix issues and finish the job did sand and repaint the particularly bumpy baseboard areasand yes, they brought a shop vac.
3) Cleanup The painter did not adequately protect surfaces, so there ended up being splatters everywhere, as well as paint on hinges, light switches, hardware and on the hardwood/tile. To his credit, he did try to clean up, but missed half of it. I didnt have the energy to micro-manage the cleanup, so I just took this one and spent a few hours to do it myself. The team of painters that came to fix his work covered and protected all surfaces well, and properly cleaned up any messes they made.

Promptness: Notwithstanding the two week delay on finishing the project, there were several no-shows on both the painter and Robs part. The latter was especially frustrating because we would arrange our schedules to be present at agreed upon times, and Rob would not show up. Sometimes he would let us know that he couldnt make the appointment (always after the passed appointment time), but most of the time he would be a no-show (and wouldnt answer the phone when we called to inquire whether he was coming). Third point taken off.

In the end, Axcell sent a team to correct all the issues, and James and Devon did amazing work. They were nice to deal with, attentive and responsive, and paid attention to detail. However, if you want a painting service with good customer service, and peace of mind that you can be hands-off and the work will be done on-time, on-budget, and a quality result, Axcell Painting may not be the company for you.

Rob kindly visited our house and passed on valued opinions on what could and needed to be done.
The paint crew worked long hours to get the job completed before the movers were to arrive. Five additional painters were provided.
I would highly recommend Axcell Painters. They worked tirelessly, were pleasant and werent satisfied until they met their high standards.

There were four rooms to be painted... the bathroom had some patching that needed doing and the other rooms had small patching issues. All walls were to be painted and all the trim. In the kitchen and bathroom, the ceilings also had to be painted. Our painter (Bruce) gave great attention to detail and was a perfectionist. The job took a little longer than estimated, but cost a little LESS than estimated and we are absolutely and totally pleased with the end result.. Thank you Axcell Painting and thank you Bruce!

Highly recommend! We have used them often and always been entirely pleased. You should be reassured - first, there rarely are any problems but if one should arise, Axcell immediately fixes it. In our case, a mistake was made in the paint shine - Axcell immediately offered to repaint the room at no cost and at our convenience. Mistakes happen. It's fixing them that is important. We easily give them 5 stars and recommend them to all our friends.

Bruce did a fantastic job to prep the walls where many areas required some touch up/patching. The walls and trim were painted with care and it looks like new now! Bruce took much pride in his work and we were in good hands. The price was very competitive.

The work done on our kitchen cabinet doors is more then we expected. Dealing with Axcell has been really first class all the way. They made sure that we were happy with the end result and we diffently are. We highly recommend Axcell Painting and Decorating. Thanks to Rob from Axcell for being so easy to work with.

The team at Axcell Painting did an outstanding job cleaning, sanding and refinishing my outdoor patio. It had been a few years since it had been done (too long!) and it was in dire need of a facelift. I couldn't be happier with the care and effort that Axcell put into this job. The deck looks better than it ever has, and the job was completed on-time and on-budget.

I am so happy with the work I had done by Axcell Painting. My cabinets look brand new. Every person I dealt with within the company was trustworthy, polite, professional and went above and beyond to ensure client satisfaction. I highly recommend this company.