Lee’s Pro Painting

I’m hoping this is for the correct Lee’s painting service — as a couple of reviews that exist are for the Seattle area (maybe they paint there as well? I’m in Portland, as is another reviewer).
This is a Korean-​American family business, and perhaps it helped a bit that my wife is half Korean (she didn’t speak Korean with the painters), but we encountered little-​to-​no problems in communicating our desires when it came to painting the exterior of our 1912 craftsman «4-​square» home, especially since they had many years of experience painting similar homes in our neighborhood (they came highly recommended by a friend in the neighborhood, who also has a craftsman). Also (not to be understated), their bid was dramatically less than the other handful of painters we consulted.
We had to work around their busy schedule (which was not a problem for us — maybe for some?); but once, they started (as one reviewer noted) they were like a hurricane, working hard and efficiently.
We even «changed» the job on them mid-​process a bit; we asked to have a third «accent» color for some of our trim — though they felt it was a bit unorthodox (based on their having painted similar homes), they listened, adjusted and completed our request. The results were pleasant beyond our expectations — and even they were shocked at how good this last recommendation played out.
THEN, we asked them to paint our porch as well. They added this without a problem.
Lastly, Mr. Lee left us extra paint (for the base color of our home, as well as the two different accent colors — white and black), along with some porch paint. He said that due to one side of our house receiving harsh direct sunlight during the summer, some of the paint might chip prematurely in that area (after four years). It’s been nearly seven, and nary a chip has occurred — suggesting the quality of their initial job.
Many of our neighbors (who we know spent far more on having their houses painted) asked for his information for future reference, and were very happy with the results of a home that makes their neighborhood look better.

Lee’s painted the interior to my home and did a great job! I had trouble finding someone who could paint a home with super high ceilings, and they had no trouble and came in with a very fair price… considering the size of the job.
If you’re going to have your interior painted, I would highly recommend Lee’s, but brace yourself. They come in like a hurricane, move furniture, cover everything, and your house will look like a war zone for a few days, but when they’re done, they clean up, move out, and you’re left with a freshly painted home that looks great.
They were good enough that I had them replace all baseboard molding and refinish interior doors.
After talking to 10+ painters, I haven’t found anyone better and highly recommend them.
I took off one star because there was a little bit of overspray left that I cleaned up, but that may have been my fault anyway. I had other contractors working at the time too.

Before starting my review I want to say I don’t take pleasure in panning someone. But I feel it’s more important to warn people who might otherwise hire him because of a low price estimate. So, what are the problems with Lee’s «Pro» Painting?
Mr. Lee doesn’t speak English and he has no one to interpret for him. So unless you are on site to direct him as he works, forget it. My parents were first generation immigrants but they learned the language. This is harder for some people, but if you can’t master the language, find someone to communicate for you. He doesn’t take responsibility for that.
He doesn’t take responsibility for good craftsmanship either. His website claims he can do patches and repairs. Two dog doors were patched so badly on the sheet rock our handyman had to redo them. Actually we have been paying our handyman several days’ labor to clean up after him. There are drips of one color over another. Edges are overrun with adjacent colors. Places that were spackled were not sanded and look rough. Surfaces have not been covered with enough paint, so the sheen is uneven or background color shows through. There are drips and runs on fixtures and other places that weren’t supposed to be painted. Fixtures were not properly reattached. Switch plates were lost and one was screwed in so tightly it was cracked.
He doesn’t take responsibility for his time estimate. He ran over by several days, nearly delaying the contractors who followed him with the risk our home would not be move-​in ready.
He doesn’t take responsibility for completing the job. He left our laundry room unpainted.
He doesn’t honor his original cost estimate either. He inspected our home before providing an estimate. There was an outbuilding interior that we hadn’t included. So I told him the square footage, described the room and sent pictures. This was not good enough because of course he doesn’t speak English. In the middle of the job he demanded more money to complete it.
We really did try to direct him, giving him a detailed written checklist with our color formulas matched to each room. This wasn’t enough because he couldn’t communicate with the paint store to find out they could make our formulas or match our colors. So I called and found a paint store to match the colors and sent him there. We sent color swatches to him and them. So, for the rooms that were painted the colors were correct. We had someone on-​site to see if the work was being done, but he couldn’t see everything at the end of his work day because plastic sheeting was masking the work. There’s only so much you can do if someone doesn’t understand you, can’t properly estimate a job and doesn’t take pride in a job well done.

They did an alright job painting. They were careless about moving our property surrounding our house and broke some things. They refused to admit this and would not pay for the damage. This made me mad and I don’t think I would recommend them in the future. I gues if you don’t care about your property then go ahead and hire them because the painting was done decently, though not spectacular.