The painters are still at it spraying our apartment building. Again, our building is the only high rise in Waikiki that has been spray painted instead of roller-brushed. Ever. And for obvious reasons. Just take a look at the overspray problem in the photo above. Our apartment manager said that the painting crew will perform a general clean-up once the painting stage is completed. The more they spray, the more overspray to scrape off, if that even begins to make any sense. What is not too reassuring is the lack of enthusiasm shown by the apartment manager to reconcile the overspray issue. According to the manager's grand plan, the painters are suppose to clean off solely the overspray on the top rail of the railing. The spindles aren't part and parcel of the same cleanup. The above pic is of the vertical post of the railing. Meanwhile, the rest of the narrower spindles are speckled to the same degree.
I think I know what's behind the manager's lack thereof. I'm inclined to believe he personally selected this painting contractor's bid which was half as much as other reputable painting companies. Probably thought that he had a feather in his hat having saved the apartment association a bundle and felt prematurely fuzzy all over. Unfortunately, the cleanup cost would exceed the painting contractor's low bid, itself, and the painting contractor would lose money in the process. Litigation is inevitable when, not if, the painting contractor balks at his obligation. Like the painting contractor will politely agree to take a lost without unleashing an army of excuses in defense of his wallet. Obviously, the situation will not bode well with the building manager's grand illusion as a financial genius to say the least. Meanwhile, he quoted the cost of the cleanup at $40 per apartment lanai (belcony). I mentioned perhaps, $100, but realistically, it's more like $200 per apartment lanai if you expect a professional quality cleanup.
In 2008, around there, the manager selected an inept tile man on the cheap to re-tile the lobby level floors. What a butcher job. Tiles crooked. Some corners of individual tiles sticking above the flat surface. I actually took the tile man aside and told him, "I'm in the trades myself. So, just between you and me, this is the way I suggest that you resolve the issue. Renegotiate your bid with the apartment association, so they pay you to fix your own mistakes. You're the low bidder by a large margin and the association can absorb the relatively low cost overrun. Either that, or the apartment association hires another tile man who is absolutely new to the layout with no guarantee that things wouldn't end up even more screwed up." Well, Mr. Inept Tile Man didn't take my worldly advice. But it's a free country. The gist of this is that apartment manager already screwed up big time trying to improve the common area of the apartment building only to end up accomplishing the diametrical opposite.
2 comments:
you have my sympathy, as I, too, lived in a condo building (Salt Lake). One painter had such shaky hands (alcoholic?) that the dark paint splashed onto the light painted area. I complained and the poor guy was fired and a better painter hired. It pays to have a mouth, I guess...
gigi- well, the only option would be to let go off the inept painter because the cost of cleanup usually exceeds the profit for that section, and that's a huge negative. Here, the painters are applying light paint over light paint, so on the painted areas, we have the reverse situation....are they missing some areas which wouldn't show as much had it been light on dark, or visa versa.
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