The Educated Painters

We recently hired Mark and his Educated Painters company to paint the exterior of our 1950’s Pasadena house. The house had not been painted in 20 years and the condition of the exterior wood was pretty bad in places especially on the sun facing south side. Mark’s team of three spent 10 days sanding, repairing and priming the wood for the house, garage and shed before applying a single drop of exterior paint. The painting took another 5 days. The results are truly amazing. He and his team took the time to address all of the problem areas before repainting. He also assisted with selection of colors. If you want a painter that is concerned with details, I have no hesitation in recommending Educated Painters.

Educated Painted have been painting the Community Center of La Canada Flintridge and they are wonderful. There was lots of weather damage and they made the outside of our building look spectacular. Now, we are on a quest to fix up the place room by room. Recently, they completed painting our large Creative Arts Room. It was a pleasure to work with Educated Painters. Mark and his crew are wonderful, skilled, polite and have really made the place look great.

mark and his crew did another job for us and it turned out beautifully. he also did touch up work on the exterior and it looks like new. his workers were on time or early each day and hard working. i would highly recommend them if you want quality work.

Mark Harris and his «Merry Band» of craftsmen have just completed painting our 1920’s Pasadena Tudor and we are thoroughly delighted with the way our house looks.
Dealing with Mark was a pleasure; from our initial meeting he understood our needs, his suggestions and eye for detail made the process a stress less experience. Educated Painters were able to complete the work on schedule and on budget; everything from staining to carpentry to wall paper removal to restoration work was done with care and craftsmanship. One final thought, Mark is a wonderfully positive individual and his associates are a most polite and hardworking group of individuals, I honestly feel that their wonderful positive energy has now become an integral part of our lovely house. Our only regret is that we did not know about Educated Painters 5 years earlier!

Mark and his crew just finished our house, it was a large project with significant repair and prep work required. We bid the job out to multiple high quality painters and Mark’s price was fair. His crew is great, with good attitudes, respectful of our property and privacy, and with extreme attention to every detail. We are artists, very picky, detail oriented, some say too much so. No matter what we threw at Mark during the project, he accommodated with a smile. You will not find a more positive painter. We could not be more pleased with Educated Painters, now our painters for life. Highly recommended.

I had Mark and his guys paint my new place before I moved in which was amazing! To be able to have all the work done before I was inhabiting the space was so much easier. I grew up on job sites with my Father who was in construction and have seen my fair share of poor painting jobs and this was the complete opposite. I have never seen anyone paint as straight a line without taping it off as these guys! The final product was beautiful and extremely well executed. Communication was great, easy to work with around my schedule. Thanks Mark!!!

The Mark and his team from the Educated Painters (EP) recently completed the exterior painting of our historic 1913 craftsman house in Pasadena. We bid the work out to 4 painters and EP’s estimate was very budget friendly — especially in comparison to the high bid! Our house hadn’t been painted in over 20 years and needed a substantial amount preparation and repairs to the wood work.
It was a big job and Mark and his team definitely knew what they were doing. Examples include: custom matching the paint and stain colors we wanted, using salvaged wood from other craftsman houses for some of the wood repairs (this is important because they don’t sell wood in the sizes that were used back in the day so the salvaged wood looks perfect!), custom staining all of our wood framed window screens, replacing over 100 wood shingles on our siding. We also added several items during the process (building a small fence, installing a salvaged door, sand blasting our front porch, +more) and his pricing and/​or references for these additions were always very fair. (Most contractors will bid low then plan to get you on the adds you forget to mention during the bid process.)
Like I said, it was a big job and it did take longer than originally planned, but with all the amount of wood work and adds, the extended timeline was understandable. And Mark communicated with us throughout the process; often coming over and walking through the job to give us updates and get our direction on different decision points.
In the end we got it done right, and did so within the budget we had gone into the process with. Can’t ask for better than that.
(Subsequently hired EP to paint our living room. Great job there too.)

I just had my 1921 redwood ship-​lap siding home repainted by the Educated Painters. The time and care that they all put into the preparation of this house was more akin to restoration than «just» painting. Short of re-​siding the entire house (at impossible cost), it looks as good as is humanly possible. The owner and entire crew were nothing but helpful and polite, hard-​working people.
After the initial work was done, and the final check was written, things seemed to «do a 180». I will add here that the original contract was for a certain dollar amount; after hearing much belly-​aching about how much of his OWN money he had put into the job, I split the difference with him and ended up paying 17% over and above the original contracted amount (plus, of course, the extras for his «neurosurgeon» and carpenter). I had been assured that certain things would be done by the crew; and then those things would be done by the carpenter (at extra cost). Some of these things were not done. About 2 months after the completion, I was «given» a worker for ½ day to make things right. He did his best to fix things but could not resolve all issues (one of which was that the siding was actually two different colors — the only resolution would have been to re-​spray the house; I was basically blamed because I had chosen a rich color). I note that this company gives a TWO WEEK guarantee and, although verbally assured otherwise, I see now that «it is what it is.» Nails are already protruding through the paint, and cracks have appeared — which, by the way, are being blamed on the fact that it is an old wooden house (which it was at the beginning!)

Mark and his crew did a phenomenal job on our historic (1920’s) wood house. The detail work on our house is crazy… plus the fact that it gets baked in the Pasadena sun. We had no problems whatsoever with response time. His crew showed up when they said they would and got the job done well and on time.

We called Educated Painters to get a quote on painting the inside of our house. His wife promptly returned our call and setup an appointment to have Mark walk through the house and give an estimate. Mark showed up on time, and after 30 minutes of
— preaching to us about how great he is,
— telling us that he’s a minister, and
— telling us that daycare is «wrong» for families,
he said that he would give us a quote in 3 days. Mark seemed very nice, but you definitely get the preacher feel after meeting him — like he’s trying to convince you of something that you shouldn’t logically believe.
2 weeks and several voicemails later, a quote appeared on our doorstep. I followed up with some clarifications, but never heard back from Mark.
Ultimately, we never used them because they would never return our calls. This is the equivalent of going to a restaurant and never being seated… it’s hard to actually patronize the company if they don’t let you.

I’ve known Mark Harris for many years but only recently called him to do some emergency painting at my home. Sorry for not calling him sooner. First class work completed ahead of schedule. I recommend Educated Painters to anyone who wants attention to detail, high quality work done at a reasonable price. Thanks Mark!

Mark and his painters are a great team and do a very professional job. Don’t believe these negative reviews since there are many excellent reviews in the filtered section.

Wow! I am speechless about some of these reviews. The Educated Painters and Mark Harris have painted our past 2 houses and we couldn’t be more pleased. Not only is the work stunning (no one can believe how smooth and flawless our walls look) but the service was wonderful. We even just had them re-​paint our daughters room after she decorated it herself with loads of crazy paint colors. They have handled all of our painting projects — large to small. No matter what the job, it is treated with the utmost of professionalism and respect. I recommend The Educated Painters highly and have only had great experiences each and every time we’ve worked with them.

If you’re looking for a great crew of painters and care about things like customer service, neatness, details, quality, these are your guys. Personally, I can’t imagine why anyone would give them a negative review for any reason. Just thought I’d reiterate…

My wife and I just had the inside of our house painted and our ceilings redone by the Educated Painters. We couldn’t be happier with the results! Mark and his staff were very friendly, helpful and professional. They got the job done in a timely manner without sacrificing quality.
We moved into a house that needed a lot of work. Mark came in and listened to our ideas about the colors and made a few suggestions of his own. His ideas helped us to use colors that really opened up the house.
After the project was complete, Mark came back several times to make sure that everything was as it should be and that we were satisfied with the job. We really appreciated his high level of customer service.
We will use the Educated Painters again in a few months when we paint the outside of our house.
I would definitely recommend this company to my friends. Thanks!

Clean, efficient, timely and economic! We have a preservation home that they helped restore to it’s original glory! Their staff is a pleasure to work with ~ professionals each and every one! In a time when expert craftsman can seem like a part of the past they shine!

Mark’s team did a good job painting a portion of the exterior and interior of our home before it was featured on a home a tour. Afterwards, however, when we needed him to return to do some touch-​up work, Mark failed to show up when promised and then failed to return our phone calls. Also, my wife overheard Mark (who professes to be a minister) verbally abuse one of his employees. We won’t use the Educated Painters again!

We’ve used The Educated Painters many times over the last 10 years and have always gotten excellent results.
Mark Harris and his team do a first rate job every time, whether painting the exterior, the interior, our deck, or doing the occasional touch up work. We’ve never had any problems whatsoever — they’ve been polite, punctual, and paid attention to detail. it’s no surprise when I see their signs outside the most well-​maintained homes in the area.
Having owned homes in different parts of the country, I can honestly say that The Educated Painters is the best I’ve ever seen. I recommend them without any reservations whatsoever.

Mark Harris, owner of Educated Painters took great pride in the paint job he did on my house. He mentioned several times that the job had gained him clients in the neighborhood. But the paint job was shotty and several exterior eaves began peeling after 2 months. And when it came to follow-​up he was as pathetic as you can get. A lot of the corners and edges were missed or chipped so when we tried to get the paint codes from him to fix the spots he avoided our calls and then blamed his runaway assistant on loosing our paint colors. We spent over $ 5000 on the paint job and he didn’t even have the decency to return our calls. They cut corners, literally, and are a waste of money. The details are what is important. Anyone can paint a house, but between the quality of the paint job, which was hurried and half ass, and then the horrible customer relations, it was truly a mistake for us to hire them. DO NOT HIRE the Educated Painters. They don’t care about their customers at all.

I’m not one to write reviews, but this company definitely deserves one. Mark Harris and the Educated Painters came highly recommended by two of my coworkers and my real estate agent. Mark came out for his initial consultation and what struck me from the beginning was that he actually cared about my home and about my happiness in it. His main goal was not simply to get the job and earn some money — it was to get me the best possible results so I would have a beautiful home. He was willing to give me advice even if I didn’t hire him. But of course, I did hire him.
My house is a 1921 craftsman and it had a lot of wear to the walls, plus years of old homeowner-​applied paint that was in poor condition. His team of experts spent an entire week sanding and plastering and getting my walls into shape. Plus, he and his designer helped me select colors for each room, going as far as painting dozens and dozens of swatches on the walls over the course of several days so I could get exactly the right color in every single room. The colors are absolutely perfect.
Mark checked in with phone calls throughout the process and was always upbeat and able to make me smile, which meant a lot in a stressful time of moving into a new house. He advised me on getting locks for my windows and sent his guys back to haul away the moving garbage to the dump. He and his guys even helped me communicate with the repairmen and technicians who were working on the property at the same time.
And the results of their painting are phenomenal. My old house is in gorgeous restored condition and looks beautiful. Really top-​quality work. Thank you Educated Painters!