Peter's Painting and Plastering Limited / Painters / Painting Contractors in Lower Hutt

I was recommended Peter as "the cheapest painter in Wellington", and not simply wanting a cheap painter I looked at the "no cowboys' reviews", which were excellent, as you can see. However, my experience was not as the reviews here. Peter was very friendly and offered to do all sorts of things, some for free. He was indeed cheap, but his… job was rather cheap too, and I had problem after problem, some of which (I must say) would have been sorted out much quicker if I had been living in the house (it was a rental) and lived in Wellington. Some of the problems included:

- no matter how much I asked, Peter refused to give me an invoice, but was very quick to insist on cash to be deposited in his account ($5000 at a time ahead of work) with no receipt. Peter promised to write an invoice at the end of the whole job (very strange), and when finally he gave me something it was a scribbled note, with very little of the information that an invoice requires, on a scrappy piece of paper, useless. I'm not sure what the story is, but if you are have a rental property painted, I'd stay away as its impossible to get an invoice for tax.

- Peter actually reneged on some work promised. e.g. not fixing a window that was part of the (non-invoiced!) verbal agreement and that I paid for, instead he did a couple of smaller and cheaper jobs.

- promised photos never came.

- Peter really pushed me on timing, and started earlier than I agreed, which really upset the tenants.

- He also would not reply to e-mails, even when I begged - he is not clear on the phone, but insisted on using the phone rather than doing e-mail (no paper trail?).

- The work was done quick but rough - quite a few tops of doors and windows were not painted, a big crack in the front door was simply left, rotted timber wasn't fixed (until I pointed it out by pushing my finger through the final job), new concrete steps consisted simply of concrete being poored over old brick steps (which in a few weeks started to break up!), scaffolding was put in front of the tenent's front door so she couldn't get out - this was eventually removed but not scaffolding blocking the stairs and she eventually gave early notice and I had to let her go (leaving an empty flat), a door that had been agreed to be painted black was painted grey and when I asked him why he said his wife had said "that would be nice" (go figure, I assume Peter just happened to have some left over grey paint in the back of the van),

- Despite being very friendly, working with Peter from a distance was simply a nightmare, and I warn anyone of doing this, he was very stubborn and in the end I just could not trust what he would do or what the quality of the job was. However, if you don't have much cash and don't mind a really "quick" job, Peter is probably your man (but you will need to pay up front without an invoice, and keep communicating with him in person about the job)."

Cheers "

His team will return next December to paint the remainder of our three-level house. We are delighted by the… quality of the work, and the very reasonable charges."

Our house is a 100-year-old villa. We wanted a slightly complicated paint job done, with trimmings, sills and weatherboard in separate colours, a small amount of fancy iron-work by the front door, etc.

They did an extremely good job, very promptly, and at a reasonable price. We would happily recommend them."