1913 Seattle House Repaint & Repair Angie’s List Review

March 30, 2013

Seattle-painters-angies-list-review

Shearer Painting did a magnificent job cleaning, prepping, repairing and rebuilding failing trim, and repainting the exterior of our 1913 home — plus priming and painting the new fence around our yard.  The house is large with intricate nooks, crannies, peaks and gables.  There are 3 stories and much of the work had to be done from 40+ ladders.  Once John’s crew started scarping and testing the surfaces, we discovered several seriously decayed corbels 50 feet above the sidewalks.  These were all custom pieces and replacements had to be handcrafted.  The same was true of our entire 2nd story porch railing, some of the fascia, and several exterior rafter tails.

This sounds like we hired Shearer for their carpentry, but actually I hired them 1st for their painting expertise, having admired several jobs Shearer had completed in our neighborhood.  I had appreciated the care and thoroughness they had applied to our neighbor’s homes and wanted to guarantee that for our project.  But, I also knew we might be in for some trim repair given the age of the home and adamantly wanted a company that could bring equal expertise to that part of the job.  John is someone who truly cares and and who has exceedingly high standards.  I am a woodworker – but not one who wants to work 40′above ground.  I was deeply invested in the craftsmanship of the repairs and I was truly impressed with all the work the Shearer team did.  In all, I think we ended up with nearly 175 hours of carpentry – all of which was necessary and efficiently, skillfully, and cost effectively completed.

But back to the painting – it was even more work and was just as skillfully addressed.  John knows color, knows sheen, knows quality and maximizes those to produce a beautiful, long lasting, low maintenance paint job.  He is fastidious and deeply cares about all the details.  His guarantees and his post job check-ins are unusually generous – he takes customer satisfaction extremely seriously.  Initially I was surprised by how much it was going to cost to re-paint our home.  But I had gotten several bids and John’s gave me far and away the best value and clearly the best quality.  I would (will! – though given the job he did, it will be many years from now) use him again and again.

John’s team is talented, timely, fastidious, helpful, and communicative.  I knew what to expect; I knew how all aspects of the job were progressing; I knew my deadlines (for color decisions, etc.); I knew when any needed repairs presented themselves and always had a good estimate of what they would add to the job.  I was afforded all possible chances to review and consult on decisions and options.  In short the entire project was extremely well managed.  And best of all, the results are well beyond my initial hopes and expectations.    I highly recommend Shearer Painting

Member Comments:
Having shared many of the details above, I’ll just add a few more thoughts here.

Do let John know what you want. BUT ask for his suggestions and input.  He knows so many things that I would not have initially thought about.  He offers suggestion but is not at all pushy and will defer to whatever you really want.  Nonetheless it always helped to listen to him and factor in his experience.

He changed my mind re the sheen we used on the fencing and on parts of the house.  He helped us refine our color choice by generously humoring our need to see MULTIPLE samples, MULTIPLE times.  I continue to be  delighted by all of the decisions we made.

John’s team found a new material (Cellular PVC) that we used for our deck rail.  It looks like wood, paints like wood, but won’t peel or rot.  Having already had the railing rebuilt once, this is a godsend.  Plus his carpenters were creative and patient as we determined exactly what configuration we preferred for the posts, caps, and railings.

We had had several of the corbels repaired before – but clearly the repairs were not holding up.  John’s team was infinitely creative in re-engineering replacements for the massive old supports.  It took a little time, but this time it was clearly done correctly, with an eye toward a LONG future life.  And the team was able to effectively balance painting and carpentry, not letting one issue stop progress on the other.

Shearer also picked up all the wood for our fence and pre-primed and painted it at their shop, where it would be efficiently sprayed.   Once the fence was constructed, a final painting in place was infinitely easier and the coverage was superior because of the 1st shop coats.

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