We're getting our bathroom redone. The contractor offered to do the painting of the bath and closet and gave us a quote saying:

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Furnish labor and materials to paint new master bath and walk in closet. With 1 prime coat and two coats of finish paint including trim.
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My wife emails asked:

do we know what brand of paint the painter likes to use?


The contractor ('s wife who handles the office stuff writes back:

Benjamin Moore paint. Is there a specific brand you like?

Then when my wife asks when the painter would be coming, got this:

Painting quote did not include paint itself; painter suggests one gallon for the closet area, and two gallons for the bath. Typically, a flat finish is used. A gallon of ceiling and trim paint are also needed, John typically suggests trim used in eggshell finish as it's easy to clean and provides a nice contrast.If you want us to pick up the Benjamin Moore paint ,we can and then bill at conclusion of job. Please note we would need Benjamin Moore color names and numbers.

And my wife talked to the contractor and he said primer and ceiling white are in the quote.

A) why not consistent
b) WTF!? "Furnish labor and materials" doesn't include all the paint?

We're losing faith in the quality / habits of the contractor and this is just one more thing... are we wrong?

 

The customer is always right except if I'm the contractor. JK. If you have any doubts, don't sign anything. Look for some other quotes.

 

Maybe the Painter and his Spouse just have a problem in communicating a common message ?

Point out the discrepancy and see if they can reconcile the difference for you.

 

reconcile? Yeah, the paint isn't included (but the ceiling white and primer are).

 

There's sometimes confusion regarding a contract, I don't like it any more than the customer does.

The cost of 4 gallons of paint shouldn't be a deal breaker. My main concern is if the job will be done to your satisfaction. If you have any doubts about the quality of work, that's when I would cancel the job. Having extra paint on hand will benefit you IMO.

 

If they can't get a simple thing like that straight, how good can they be with the rest of the job?

 

Seems pretty clear to me that ALL materials are included. If they are changing it, i'd walk. Next they will only put one coat on when you paid for two.

I don't know of anyone who would put flat paint in a bathroom.

 

Handy - thanks. I like your mindset. Care to do work for me : )

As a side note, they initially said to 'go to xyz location for the bath fixtures', I work with them / know them. We pick things out there, they say 'we'll give the prices to [your contractor]. I realize / accept he should get 'something' for the referral. My / my wife's thinking is that he gets a better than retail price, sell to us at retail and he gets a cut. or similar. But no, they give him prices, he marks them up, sends us quote a) that adds days till he sent the marked up prices / slows things down / what if I want to change this or that...repeat the process? and b) we wound up getting pricing for the exact items elsewhere. the contractor's prices ranged from 50% lower to 50% higher for identical parts (rather than say a consistent 10% markup). So my fear is that anything more we get from him would be really expensive or really cheap. We wound up buying from others to avoid his wild prices.

And the contract is 4 lines. If something that simple is confusing (and I have a need to keep things simple), I really cant cope : )

'furnish labor and materials'... can you legitimize in any way that does not include (some) of the paint?

And not that it was a great / lowball price - we're going elsewhere for the painting and the price WITH ALL paint is $1200 rather than the $1150 he quoted us (with us having to supply most of the paint)

It's just my OCD / obsessiveness that I get offended / feel I have to run things past others to see if I am missing something to try to see how he can say 'paint isn't included' when he says 'furnish labor and materials to paint....'

 

x - I know 1 person - my contractor : ) what WOULD you use? matte? Eggshell?

Thanks for your (and everyone else's) comments!!

Besides just wanting to be able to read something and it being clear, all the choices for things really is frustrating to me. Paint color, then paint grade, THEN paint finish : )

 

How did your checking with his References pan out . . . . particularly on the subjects like those you're having concerns with; Contract Omissions and Mark-Ups ?

 

Bathrooms get steam and splashes on the walls, so the higher the gloss the better. I use satin or semi-gloss on bath walls.

 

X: thanks!

Vermont - went solely on good friends using him for a bath remodel (and they used him for other simpler plubming things over the years).

They are less money conscious, certainly less analytical / OCD, did a simpler layout, we have a mutual friend for the fixtures and they went to him directly for the fixtures / didn't get to see wild prices from contractor : )

 

As stated above bath rms should always be painted with latex enamel!! The sheen doesn't matter so personal choice generally prevails there. IF there is a shower in the bath rm the ceiling should also be painted with latex enamel! I generally go 1-2 sheens higher on the woodwork as opposed to the walls.

BM has great paint but like all paint manufactures they also sell cheap paint that IMO isn't fit to be on the walls. You need to know what line of paint is being used, not just the brand.