Justin from Calgary

We recently had the main floor and upstairs of our NW Calgary house painted by CertaPro and we were very, very disappointed. We had 3x consultations & quotes done and, because quality was very important to us, we actually went with the highest quote, (CertaPro). Our justification was that since we were doing it in the summer, we didn't want summer students to do it; we wanted certified professional painters to do it and we were willing to pay for that level of quality. We made a point of booking it while we were on vacation so that it could be done on time without us getting in the way. The only thing that went to plan was that it was done before we got home...kind of. The whole house was incredibly dusty but we weren't too fussed about this because when sanding drywall mud its inevitable that dust is going to get everywhere. What bothered us was/is the overall lack of quality. The holes that were filled, sanded and painted were painfully obvious to the naked eye. The cutting around windows and door frames was amateur at best. There were multiple places where they had brushed the trim with the brush, (and no, it wasn't old paint on the trim, it was the new paint). You could easily see where the paint had bled through tape (hint: truly professional painters don't use tape). They even managed to paint an entire wall that they weren't supposed to....they had to come back, take samples of the old paint from a different wall to return the wall in question back to its original color. When we asked about the qualifications of the painters that did our house, we were told that they were professionals but I just don't see how that can be the case. We had our garage painted last spring and because its just a garage, we specifically hired a different company that utilizes students. We just wanted it painted, we didn't need a professional level of painting. Those kids did a better job in the garage than what the professionals did in the house. I'm certainly not a professional painter, (I'm a long ways from it) but I'm confident that I could have done at least as good of as what CertaPro did.it certainly wouldn't have been any worse. Once we saw all the issues, and then went through the hassle of getting them to come back and repair it, we thought it was reasonable to expect some kind of discount on the final invoice. We weren't expecting much in this busy economy but some kind of recognition of the issues would have been nice. We were told that the fact that they did come to repair (their) issues was sufficient compensation. We were told that we should be thankful they repaired it as quick as they did, (which was more than a week after the painting). On top of this they gave us a whopping $100 discount. If high quality is important to you, I/we strongly suggest using a company other than CertaPro. If you're set on using them, I would at least ask for a copy of the tradesman certificate of the specific painters that they will be sending to you so you can be sure you're getting professionals.

We were starting to get mold in our shower grout. We had them come and do a deep clean and reseal. It's certainly cleaner than we've ever been able to get it. It's too early to say if the reseal has worked but so far we're very happy.

James performed a home inspection on a home that we were buying. All of the other conditions had come off but as soon as James did the home inspection we walked away from the purchase. He found a number of issues, (some major and many minor) that we had not seen ourselves. Not only did he see these problems that we had not, he was also extremely professional. I highly recommend him.