The Moore Brothers Toronto

My experience with the Moore Brothers, in particular Kevin Moore, was extremely disappointing. I chose this company based on their Homestars rating and was appalled by the level of service I received. While the crew was friendly, there were serious issues with quality and professionalism on Kevin’s part. I originally contracted Moore Brothers to remove my stucco ceiling and paint my condo. They ended up having to redo the entire job again because of problems with the original work.
The painting on the original job was fine, but the crew who removed the stucco and re-plastered the ceiling did a terrible job. It wasn't smooth and you could see scuff marks all over from where they scraped the ceiling to remove the stucco. The corners and the edges where the ceiling and walls met were bumpy and you could see excess plaster. Sadly, I found out that when Moore Brothers came back to redo the ceiling, the crew who did the original job realized that they did a poor job because they had no experience doing ceilings, only painting. When they ran into issues, they did not try to get an experienced ceiling person in, but instead finished and hoped for the best.
When I requested that the Moore Brothers re-do the ceiling, I had to follow up with Kevin several times. It was very difficult to get him to agree to show up and view the ceiling – and when he did show up he was late. Besides the initial meeting/project estimate, Kevin never showed up on time and a couple of times during the process, he never showed up at all.
Finally he agreed the job needed to be redone. Once again, I had to follow up with Kevin several times to confirm a date for re-plastering. This time Moore Brothers brought in the master plasterer that they typically use. This turned into a sore point because when I originally scheduled the job, and the master plaster wasn’t available, Kevin didn’t discuss this with me. There was a real lack of communication on Kevin’s part throughout the project. If Kevin had said he needed to reschedule because the master plaster was not available, we could have worked together to find a suitable date to ensure the job was done right. Unfortunately Kevin made the decision to use his own inexperienced crew. Considering how much I paid, I was very disappointed and upset to be an inexperienced crew’s guinea pig.
Unfortunately there were still problems … The newly painted walls were damaged when the crew removed the tape that was holding up the plastic sheet to protect the walls. The tape actually pulled the paint off the walls. The painters tried to touch up the areas, but the paint didn’t blend. The line of touch up paint was very visible. After seeing how poor the walls looked, I asked Kevin to come view the condo. He agreed the quality wasn’t acceptable but then started to complain to me that he was ‘losing money on my job’-- although in previous conversations he made it clear to me that the Moore Brothers do hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work annually. The irony is that Kevin didn’t seem to understand that they were re-doing my job because of they didn’t get it right the first time because of his lack of communication, poor decision-making and project management.
Soon after, I didn’t see or hear from Kevin although problems persisted. He did not return my calls or answer my emails. I felt bad for the painter who was put in the position of being Kevin’s messenger. I heard from several crew members that Kevin was complaining to them about the loss of revenue and that I was being too much of a perfectionist with the painting and that it was ‘good enough’. After hearing this, I called Kevin again with the specific request for him to meet me at my condo so we could go agree on what areas needed to be finished and for him to communicate to me if I was being unreasonable. He agreed to meet me -- but then didn’t show up or return my repeated phone calls. We communicated through texts, and he agreed to repaint the last room. Unfortunately he didn’t tell his painter, and I had to explain to him what Kevin agreed to.
Three days later Kevin did text me to say that he wasn’t calling me back as he was depressed because bad things kept on happening during the project and he couldn’t deal with it. It was easier for him to walk away and let his crew be the interface with me.
In addition to the re-plastering and re-painting, the other problems/issues were: three of my lights broken, my furniture damaged, nicks in my hardwood floor, and a hard water stain in my bathroom on the ceramic tile bathroom floor. Sadly I found most of the damage on my own, and what really disappointed me was that some items were put back in a way to try and cover up the damage.
I tried again to call Kevin so that we could discuss the damage – he continued to avoid my calls. So I communicated in a final email to Kevin that I understand that accidents happen but what really made this so frustrating and disappointing was his lack of communication and his professionalism. I shouldn’t have to walk into the bathroom and be surprised by the stain on the floor when he knew about it. Lights shouldn’t be reassembled hoping that I won’t notice the glass is cracked. I shouldn’t hear that the original team who did the ceiling knew they didn’t do a quality job and hoped the paint would hide it.
The only response I got from Kevin to this email is that he isn’t paying for the damaged lights because he’s lost enough money on my home.
In closing, the ceiling looks great, the walls were repainted and I’m happy with them. I really appreciated the efforts of Kevin’s painter to do an excellent job. I knew he was between a rock and a hard place, but he kept showing up until the job was done right. The master plasterer who redid the ceiling is a master. However, the process to get to a quality job product was unacceptable and has left a bad taste in my mouth.
Unfortunately words cannot express how angry, frustrated, and disappointed I am with Kevin. This was not a cheap job, and it may be a small point to him, but it bothered me that at no point did he offer an apology. He didn’t apologize for the original poor quality ceiling, apologize for inconveniencing me to live somewhere else for two weeks to re-do the ceiling and painting, or apologize for breaking/damaging my belongings or my home.