Canadian Home Improvement Centre

Our 3200sf house was built in 1998 and we bought it in 2009. At that time the stucco was already starting to chip and crack. Over the next few years this only got worse and I started looking around for companies to repair it.

In 2013 I heard an add on the radio for CHIC and thought they were simply a stucco repair company and had no idea they were mainly a type of "painting" company. Well, Stan came out, gave us his pitch, and although more than normal paint jobs, still came in way less when you take into account how much we had been quoted by other companies to first repair the stucco and then get a regular paint job.

We first had a roofing company come in to repair/replace some fascia, gutters and soffits. Also, our stucco had further degraded with some rather large cracks, numerous small cracks, and large chips. CHIP's crew first fixed all of the stucco, then cleaned all of the exterior walls before applying 3 coats of vinyl, one base coat and 2 coloured.

I should mention that the first coloured coat they applied just didn't quite look right, even though it looked great online during the planning process. We discussed this with CHIC and they created a new colour for us at no extra charge. The new colour was great and we then decided to paint all of our wood trim, windows and fascia with a different colour. This added a nominal extra fee but the finished 2 tone product looks great.

All of the other houses in our neighbourhood have their original stucco and it is faded, dirty and covered in mildew. Our house looks new in comparison and several years later looks as good as the day they painted it.

Within a year of the paint job the gutter repair we had done failed and resulted in a couple of fascia boards rotting out. After getting these boards replaced I contacted Scott about how much it would cost to repaint them with their vinyl. Scott immediately said there would be no charge and came out himself to apply several coats over a number of days.

About a year after that some of the stucco they had initially repaired cracked, we believe due to the house settling. I again called Scott and they quickly came out, repaired the stucco, and again applied multiple coats. This was also free of charge, even though the cause was likely not due to their product or workmanship.

And lastly, in 2016 we had our gas fireplace replaced. This caused the position of the vent to be moved and an area about 4' x 4' left unpainted on the side of the house, about 20' above ground. Scott recommended a stucco specialist who first refinished the area and Scott then came out and repainted the area, 2 coats over 2 days, again without charging us anything.

It's hard to imagine this level of service these days. Each time I called Scott I fully expected to be charged and even offered to pay, but each time, without any hesitation, he would immediately say that there would be no charge.

The saying goes "You get what you pay for" and in this case that premium we paid up front has been paid back dividends several times over. Like I said earlier, even though this costs more than a typical paint job, when you take into account how much repairing the stucco itself would have cost plus the cost of then painting, the amount CHIC charged was more than competitive. When you throw in their after-sales service, 50 year warranty and ease of doing business with them, I have no doubt I have come out many thousands of dollars ahead. When you throw in the peace of mind this also gives you then the decision to choose them makes it a no- brainer.

Scott, thank you for the awesome support.

Cheers,

Amnon

Discovered this company at the Home Show and signed up to be called back for a quote in the new year. We didn't hear from them when they said they would call so we reached out to them instead. We had a personal visit that included a lot of information about the product, timeframe, and warranty etc. and received a quote to get our home done. Price is hard to gauge as it is not only looked at as a square footage but the difficulty of the job at hand. I honestly expected the cost to be higher though it is definitely not a cheap home project to get completed; however, the liquid vinyl coating and repairs to the house stucco have probably prevented a worse disaster from occurring in the future. The samples we gave them came back to us on boards and we were able to get one tweaked to match exactly what we wanted. The work was completed by three different crews and all we fully competent in their work. Our house looks years younger and now we don't need to worry about a lot of exterior problems on the house.

We have a small house and the cost was high about $9,000.00. A high price to pay for painting but the coating is not actually paint. At that price I expected a premium job.

When the day came there were three workmen at my house but two of them quickly left and only one man remained to work on our house. We have a small house. Siding on the lower half and stucco with rock and glass on the top. This was originally applied in the 40’s and 50’s marketed as ‘Sparkle Stucco’. Our house was built in 1956.

The actual product coating seemed OK but here is a list of problems we encountered and complained about during the project;
The vinyl coating colour did not match the swatch that we were given.
The upper siding trim had rock particles on it from cleaning the stucco and they were subsequently covered with the vinyl coating.
There were vinyl spatters on the siding.
There are multiple vinyl spatters on the brick walkway around the house.
Vinyl spatters and overspray on windows.
The front door was spattered.
Wrought iron front stair railing is spattered.
Lava Rock at the side of the garage is sprayed with vinyl.
There are vinyl spatters on the rear wood deck.
Chimney brick repair poorly done.
Vinyl spatters on the blue siding.
There are mortar drops on the walkway beside the chimney. This from the chimney repair.
Small areas of missing stucco at bottom of the back door were not fixed.
The handle on the water valve at the side of the house is broken.
The new hose sprayer is covered with vinyl.
The garage has vertical lines on it from the material used to fill cracks in the stucco.
There are multiple small holes or voids in the garage coating. More on this latter.
Plants beside the house and garage were trampled and spotted with vinyl.
To fix the chimney mortar, the crew had to borrow my ladder and a chisel to finish the job.

Any one, two, or even three of these problems would not have been an issue. But there were so many little issues.

I am concerned that the small holes or voids in the coating on the garage might be problematic. My concern is that moisture will enter these voids and freeze. The company assures us that all their jobs look like this and it is not a problem. I have no way to judge, so we will see. Just about all of our complaints have been addressed by the company with the exception of the voids and issues with our deck.

This has been a sloppy job. Many of the problems could have been avoided with better application of drop sheets and masking. If I were to do it over again I would hire a good painting crew and use an Elastomeric paint.

Addendum:
About 3 months after the job was complete we noticed that our glass deck awning was covered with overspray. This wasn’t easily noticeable from below but as soon as we tried to clean it, it was obvious. To their credit CHIC sent out a man to clean the overspray off the awning.

Found them at the home show & our house had never been painted in the 8 years we have been there. Small cracks all over the stucco. Liked the idea of never having to paint again, the waterproofing & breath-ability. Helpful in choosing colours & patient too! Great quality work, follow up & have recommended them to others. House looks great!