Strokes of Genius Painting

Paint & Wallpaper Contractors
Ottawa ON K1K 2C5
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Paint & Wallpaper Contractors
Strokes of Genius Painting
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83%

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Reviews for Strokes of Genius Painting

Average customer rating:
9.4 10 (113 reviews)

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YAN  in Ottawa
YAN in Ottawa
1 review Ottawa, ON
7/10

Paint the apartment

The work is acceptable, paint is nice. Overall, quality of work is okay but need to improve services. There were couple of times, It was late for the appointment, and once did not show up due to sick. I wish I had known much in advance. For other people it may not been an issue, however, I don't live there and had to driver to the apartment every time. Also, I was informed that my receipt would be sent out on Saturday however, with delay I got it until Monday. important to the business success. I do not mind to wait however, is not going to send or at least give me a date of the receipt. Also, Daniel is not very disorganized, he is always late. We set up the first appointment on Sunday at 11:30, however, he did not let me know in advance that he can not make it. I drove to the place earlier and called him at 10:45 am to confirm, and he told me he could not make it, why he can not just let me know earlier? I actually had to drive 30 minutes to get there. Second time, he was late for 15 minutes, and I was late for my work. Third time, he was late for 30 minutes, I had to wait outside in the cold weather. I am not very happy about the services at all. Again, if you can not make it, you need to let me know in advance, I am busy too, and I do not prefer to wait. Also, if you said you will send to me then do it, if not, please provide a date of sending to me, no replies is not really nice.

Review has 1 previous version
Approximate cost of services:
$860.00
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Company Response

Thank you Yan.

Private User
Private User
Private User reviews Ottawa, ON
8/10

Details we missed

We hired SOG to paint our home. Upon initial inspection we felt they did a fairly good job but there were some issues. They did not paint the full way around the air intake registers (leaving the old paint clearly visible), they got a significant amount of paint splatter on our tile and hardwood floors, and even painted over some of our light switched. We pointed this out during the walk through after it was all done, and although we were reassured they would come back to fix these issues they never did.

I would have rated this business a 10 had they followed through to finish the job properly, but the fact that they never did leaves me wondering how much you can trust them.

Moral of the story, withhold payment until the whole job is done correctly.

Approximate cost of services:
$2,500.00
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Company Response

Thank you for taking the time to review our services, we appreciate the feedback both positive and negative. As you have elected to use the Anonymous User option, I am not sure which project this was, but I do apologize if we committed to come back for touch ups and somehow got our wires crossed. I can guarantee you it was not on purpose, and we do have a three-year warranty in place on all of our work, which includes returning to take care of small items that might've been missed (we try to be as careful as possible, but especially on larger projects there might be a couple items to address after the crew has finished, and we always come back.) If you would kindly send me a quick email at daniel@strokesofgenius.ca or call my cell 6136974711 to let me know the details of the project, I will happily send One of our staff back this week to address any outstanding issues, or make up for the shortcomings you listed in another way.

Sincerely,

Daniel Smith
Owner

Diane & Rene in Kanata
Diane & Rene in Kanata
1 review Ottawa, ON
10/10

Interior House Painting

I hired Strokes of Genius Painting to paint the living/dining rooms, loft, foyer and hallways including all doors and trim of our new home. The ceilings in the foyer and living room area are 18 feet high and needed 2 coats of paint. The trim was a darkish grey colour and needed 4 coats (more about that later). I chose this company after obtaining three quotes. The reviews on this site led me to contact this company in the first place. Their price was the lowest of the three quotes and the paint they quoted to do the job with was Benjamin Moore Aura. A high quality paint. This was important to us. David, Rob and the others did a good job, were friendly and professional. There was a massive snow storm day one which understandably delayed the work a little so they put more painters on site day 3 and had up to 6 people on the job at one time. Day 4 had 5 people painting. It was realized on Day 4 that more than the quoted 3 coats would be needed to cover the dark trim. Daniel, the owner of Strokes of Genius, offered to have the 4th coat completed at his cost. He wanted the resulting paint job to look good. We quickly agreed to this. The walls, ceiling and trim all look fantastic. The floors were vacuumed and all paint drips were cleaned up. If we get the rest of our house painted we will definitely hire Strokes of Genius Panting to do the job.

Approximate cost of services:
$6,000.00
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Company Response

Thank you Diane & Rene.

Alex in Ottawa
Alex in Ottawa
1 review Ottawa, ON
10/10

Lived up to high expectations

We picked Strokes of Genius on the strength of their top rating on HomeStars, and they delivered! The painters were friendly, accommodating, and did a fantastic job! The price was in line with what we expected and the service and quality were top notch. We've since recommended Strokes of Genius to a few friends and would not hesitate to do so again.

Approximate cost of services:
$1,000.00
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Company Response

Thank you!

Blair in Ottawa
Blair in Ottawa
1 review Ottawa, ON
10/10

While house paintes

We just moved to Ottawa and the house we bought needed the whole main floor and upstairs including ceilings to be done. We hired Daniel and his team and they did an exceptional job, super professional the workers were all very personable and thoughtful :) and not to mention they did a great job and quickly too. I would hire them again and again and I would definately recommend to all that I know. Thanks Daniel and your team for making my house a home with beautiful paint!

Approximate cost of services:
$4,000.00
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Company Response

Thank you!

Allan Prochazka from Ottawa
Allan Prochazka from Ottawa
2 reviews Ottawa, ON
9/10

Exterior Painting

We have hired SOG on two occasions now. First, in 2012, we hired SOG to paint the entire interior of our home. We were very pleased with the timeliness and quality of the work done, so when we decided to have the exterior painted this summer we did not hesitate to hire SOG again.

While we had a couple of issues this time around, Daniel was diligent in resolving everything to our satisfaction. SOG stands behind its work and we won't hesitate to use them for future jobs.

Review has 1 previous version
Approximate cost of services:
$5,200.00
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Company Response

Thank you!

Mark lyons in Ottawa
Mark lyons in Ottawa
1 review Carp, ON
10/10

Whole exterior and partial Interior

Dan is very reliable! I found Dan off the Internet and we are very pleased with the results.
His crew are professional and very tidy. Dan quoted my exterior home (aluminum siding) and the garage and both turned out exceptionally well. The garage was a little more difficult than expected and he sent 4 men to complete the job at his cost.
We were so impressed that we have him do several rooms in our home and they too turned out amazing.
We have owned several homes and have used many different painters. We will never use anyone, but Strokes of Genius going forward.

Approximate cost of services:
$8,000.00
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Company Response

Thank you!

steph9999 in Stittsville
steph9999 in Stittsville
1 review Ottawa, ON
10/10

Interior painting

We engaged Strokes of Genius Painting to paint the interior of most of our two story, four bedroom home (including a family room with 18 foot ceilings). Previous owners had a less than professional painting done in the past. The job included walls, trim and some ceilings. The painters did a fantastic job. Daniel provided a fair, competitive quote and was responsive to questions and concerns. Most importantly, it is the professionalism of the actual painters Corey and Kevin that stands out and the quality of their work. They are extremely skilled, courteous and very hard working. They too were responsive to any concern or question that arose. We are extremely happy with the work.

Approximate cost of services:
$5,000.00
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Company Response

Thank you!

Jeta in Ottawa
Jeta in Ottawa
1 review Ottawa, ON
10/10

Drywall Repair

I hired Strokes of Genius Painting to fix a hole in my ceiling due to a plumbing issue. Daniel was quick at giving me an estimate and send a contractor in that weekend. I have had baid experiences with contractors being late, unreliable and just generally not knowing what they are doing. This contractor was great; he came right on time, explained everything he will be doing and was super friendly. He finished the work early and again explained what he had done and even gave me suggestions for painting (as I was doing it myself). Daniel was kind enough to provide primer as I only had paint. I received the bill soon after and there was no surprised. I will definitively hire this company again for future work.

Approximate cost of services:
$215.00
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Company Response

Thank you!

cje from Ottawa
cje from Ottawa
1 review Ottawa, ON
0/10

House painting

Daniel took my deposit of $1100.00 and proceeded to never return one e-mail after that related to the work I needed done. Yes, I had to revise my schedule based on other work being done in my house, and informed him of that fact 6 weeks before his work was planned. But he NEVER responded to me. Not to tell me that the new schedule was impossible for him to meet, nor to tell me that the deposit was non-refundable. No contact AT ALL, ever. I never threatened to post bad reviews - I just asked for my deposit back via e-mail. And was not even given the courtesy of a response. What avenue do I have other than an action in small claims court, when I can't even get a response from a company? While he can make up facts related to responses and threats as he pleases on this forum, I hope people will at least be wary.

Approximate cost of services:
$1,100.00
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Company Response

Thank you for taking to this forum to give your perspective on events. Sometimes, people wonder if Homestars actually allows negative feedback, owing to the fact that our reputation here is so pristine going back several years, so it is actually nice to see a post like this from time to time to show those browsing here that this is indeed an open, transparent and uncensored forum. I would, however, like to give my perspective on things:

In early May of this year, I met with this individual at a home they planned to purchase. A week later, I met back at their current residence to quote some additional painting to be done there before move-out.

On May 10, we signed a contract for both projects, to be completed on concurrent weeks in June. She gave us an industry standard non-refundable booking deposit of $1100, as mentioned in her review, which, as I explained, would hold her place in our busy summer schedule.

A few weeks later, I received an email saying that because they had elected to do a kitchen renovation before painting, they would not be able to proceed with painting on the dates we had set and would confirm in June when they would be ready. I agreed and put the projects into our "Limbo" schedule, as asked for as much notice as possible to make sure we could accommodate her new dates.

Instead of giving us this courtesy notice, she instead called us in late June asking us to come in the very next week to complete the work. We could not accommodate these dates, so she decided to hire her renovation contractor to do the work instead.

When I spoke with her next, she informed me that she had now hired someone else to complete our contract for the new house, and additionally, that they had decided to do the painting on their old place themselves, so that essentially the entire contract we had agreed to and signed in May had now been completed. I was understandably surprised, because generally people do not sign contracts and then disregard them completely.

I told her then that our booking deposits are non-refundable for exactly this reason, but when she asked if I would look at some other painting work to be done at the new house, I agreed to take a look and quote it, and then apply the existing deposit to the new project.

In early July, I did just that, went back to the home on a Wednesday and spent still more of my time taking new measurements for additional painting to be done. I told her it was extremely busy for us and that I would try to get back with pricing as soon as possible.

When I had not yet had the chance to prepare that quote by Monday of the following week, she sent me an email to say that she had decided to have the renovators complete this new work also, and that if I did not refund her deposit post haste, she would post negative feedback on our Facebook page (which she has done), here on Homestars (which she has now done) and file a claim in Small Claims Court (which I understand she intends to do.)

As much as I prefer not to have negative feedback floating around online about us, because our reputation is extremely good and very hard-earned, I did not feel that it would be right to concede to these bullying threats when we were not the party who did not respect the contract agreement that was signed.

I should point out that we have refunded our 'non-refundable' booking deposits from time to time in the past, when clients have had true changes of circumstances, or legitimate reasons why they needed to cancel a contract. In this particular case, however, I believe that this individual simply decided they did not wish to honour their contract, and could apply maximum pressure to get what they wanted. So I have decided to stand by our policy, and will gladly defend myself in Small Claims court to that end if need be.

NB: We have operated under the trade name Strokes of Genius Painting for 13 years, and that has never changed. In June we dissolved an old corporation in order to merge it with a corp from our sister renovations division. I assume this is the "shady" practice being referenced above.

I apologize for the long response, but we take our reputation and integrity very seriously and simply could not leave these negative public comments on here without thoroughly addressing them.

Thank you for reading,

Daniel Smith
Owner/General Manager
Strokes of Genius Painting

The reviews on this page are the subjective opinion of the Author and not of HomeStars Inc.

More about Strokes of Genius Painting

At Strokes of Genius Painting, we pride ourselves on delivering quality, guaranteed workmanship at a reasonable price. . . AND on a reasonable timeframe! We are a 100% local company that has been serving the Ottawa area for over 20 years. Our reviews speak for themselves-- many years of overwhelmingly ...
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