Best Quality Inc

I hired Mo to paint our exterior. He did a decent job and so I hired him back to stain our deck. I trusted his judgement about the approach to stain our deck - colour, transparency, etc, and I completely regret it. Our deck had developed some stains from tree sap. Mo was unable to remove it with power washing and cleaning, which is understandable. He recommended we stain dark to cover up the stains. However, what he didn't mention is how quickly and easily even a semi-transparent coloured stain will peel. He stained our deck in October (which wasn't ideal in the first place - which he should have mentioned), and then by snow melt there were already so many peels and places where the stain had come off. Keep in mind we were super careful not to scrape it with a shovel and this happened even in places untouched by a shovel. After consulting with a few others, I believe that he did a poor job in his application - his coats were way too thick, with not enough drying time in between. The wood underneath the stain isn't even stained - it's just its original colour, which also suggests he did a poor job. At that point, everyone started telling me what a bad idea it is to stain a deck so dark in colour for this very reason. What's the point of covering some stains when the paint peeling looks so much worse?! I would have expected a professional painter to have made me aware of that, OR at least if you don't think it's a problem and it shouldn't peel so quickly, then it means that you didn't do a good job.

Right after he finished the work and it dried, I told him I wasn't happy. He didn't offer any solutions. After the stain started peeling, I contacted Mo twice, by email and by text, and got no reply. I think that tells me all I need to know about his professionalism and integrity. His painting was also pretty sloppy in places (drip marks), and not to my standards. He also missed a lot of spots that I had to touch up myself.

Bottom line: I think he's a decent painter, but unfortunately he fell really short of expectations for our project and made no effort to try and resolve it. I wouldn't trust his judgement or integrity going forward and I completely regret letting him touch our brand new deck and wasting our money. I would not hire him again or recommend him to anyone.

(Unfortunately I can't get photos to upload at the moment)