KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Maria Canant said the contractor responsible for painting her Overland Park home didn’t do a good job.
Canant showed us how she can scrape her fingernail across the doors and trim, and the paint flakes off.
“If you just take your nail, you can just scratch away,” Canant demonstrated. “Our trim was oil-based, and he just put on latex paint over it. You can’t put latex straight over oil enamel; it has to be prepped.”
The company, TMC Contracting out of KCMO, did the job while the family was on vacation in October.
After finding the issues with the paint job and other damage, the Canants had the owner, Tim Miller, come back out in November to fix it.
Now they’re in an even bigger dispute. The Canants said the paint job is still not up to par, though at first glance everything seemed fine.
“We’re going to court because the cost to redo the damage is now three times what we paid for original work,” Canant said.
Her bids show it’ll cost around $12,000 to strip everything, start anew, and stay in a hotel for up to two weeks while the job is redone.
The family had to stay in a hotel the second time Miller worked on the home, and they say it came out of their pockets.
“It’s just an overkill on her part and asking too much,” Miller said in a phone conversation with 41 Action News.
Miller said maybe the job wasn’t done 100 percent the first time but doesn’t believe it needs to be totally redone a third time.
“We got done with the project, they signed off on it. We took a big hit on the end of the project, and they were satisfied. Gave us a five-star review and they were happy,” Miller told us.
Canant said she gave Miller a preliminary five-star rating on the website Thumbtack, where consumers can browse through reputable companies for certain jobs. She said Miller also asked for a five-star review, and she gave it to him before she noticed problems.
The Canants have since filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office, and Thumbtack.
Miller hasn’t responded yet, though he told 41 Action News he will.
“I want it remedied, and I’m not comfortable giving him a third, fourth, fifth time, especially when he’s been unresponsive,” Canant said.
Miller said he still stands by his paint job and if Canant “just lived in” her house, the paint wouldn’t scratch off.
“Nobody walks through their house and scratches their paint job. I don’t walk through my house and scratch it. It’s on there. Your house is going to get normal wear-and-tear,” Miller said.
But Canant said it’s unacceptable.
“Paint is not supposed to do that with good bonding and cured time, which, it’s been well over two months,” Canant said.
Miller said his insurance won’t cover what the Canants want because it falls under warranty.
Canant said consumers should always ask a contractor exactly what the company’s insurance covers, and if it includes unsatisfactory work.
Canant also said one of Miller’s subcontractors stole several hundred dollars out of their daughter’s piggy bank, but Miller strongly denies it.
