Al and Dave Reglazing

So I hired Al and Dave to reglaze my tub, based mostly on recommendations from Brownstoner. They were supposed to come between 11 and 1 on the 16th of July, and didn’t show up until 7pm.

I am always wary of these situations where one finds oneself the last client in a day that is far too long, but I was leaving town to join my family the next day so I didn’t have any wiggle room there, and I absolutely wanted to have the job done while they were away, for obvious reasons.

I expressed my concern that they wouldn’t rush the job (originally supposed to take 3 hours) of stripping the old paint and spraying the new, but every time I said anything I was met with “I’ve been doing this more than 20 years, I know what I’m doing, don’t worry”, and brushed aside very defensively.

Now I don’t think I’m particularly neurotic about these things, and I know what it’s like to work with someone watching your every move (I’m an artist and interior painter by trade), so I backed off and let them work. My biggest concern was that the tub would not be adequately stripped and prepped before the new paint was put on.

They “finished” after about 1 ½ hours and left, which was basically half the time they said the job would originally take.

I returned to town last night, and found that the paint at the bottom of the tub already had a crack in it. The tub had been completely unused, the house empty, for more than 2 weeks, and allowed more than the necessary cure time. I’ve been a painter long enough to know that when a crack like that appears, the substrate is the issue, and that the tub had been improperly prepped. I suspect that all the old paint had not been stripped off, and that this spot was one of them. Or, less likely, the paint was put on too thick over a spot that wasn’t dry, or was dusty, and the curing and shrinking of the paint was the issue. Either way, this should obviously not happen, and suggests improper procedures. There also wasn’t sufficient debris after they finished to suggest that they’d really entirely stripped the old paint.

I called this morning and explained the situation, and the reaction was the one I fear and suspect most: blanket statements like “My “technician” has been doing this job for 22 years. We NEVER get complaints. The paint was entirely stripped, period.” There was absolutely no understanding, no attempt to peacefully discuss the situation, pure stonewalling, the lady cutting me off before I had the time to finish my sentences. She explained rather haughtily that they would come to “look” at the crack and that she would have to look at their schedule to see if there was any time in the next week.

At this point, I am very very suspect of this company, and have a very bad feeling growing within me about this whole situation. If the script plays out the way I suspect it will, they MIGHT fix the visible crack only, not address the entire prep situation (in my mind, the whole tub has to be restripped properly and repainted), and that their techniques will reveal more problems in short order.

I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and allow them to rectify the situation as they see fit, but will be posting the conclusion of the story however it ends, when it ends.

Does anyone have any experience like this to relate from working with Al and Dave? Are all the reviews really totally raves? Is it empirically true that they’ve “never had a complaint” (in their words)?

Luke Gray