How to deal with a bad contractor?

[Rehaan Khan]

I hired a contractor who left his workers unsupervised, they painted the whole house but did a terrible job because the paint didn’t stick. The contractor tells me I should’ve gotten better quality materials and wants to be paid for the paint. 95% of the project is still left. I’ve lost time & money. How would you guys deal with this? I can’t afford to pay him for a lousy job and stay on budget. 

[Bruce Woodruff]

a) What does your Contract say about how to deal with sub-standard work? Usually when paint 'doesn't stick', it is because someone applied water based paint over oil based without priming first. Is this what happened? Did the painter spec out this in the proposal?

b) Did you buy the paint? (Hopefully not) Was it top quality? (Hopefully) If it was not top quality then he will have a point.

Customers should NEVER buy any materials or products. This comes up all the time, and this is just another reason why it should not be done. It gives the Contractor an excuse/reason. "Oh the customer insisted on buying the materials, it's not my fault"