Hiring painters - expectations

[ny biker]

This week I've had painters doing work in my condo. Though things look good from a distance, I'm disappointed by the the quality of the work when I look up-close. I expected them to use painter's tape or an edger or something to get clean lines around the trim. Is that unrealistic?

This is the first time I've ever hired anyone to paint for me. If you've gone through this before, what was your experience?





Also they rushed to finish (stayed 3 hours late -- I had to go out to dinner to get out of their way) because they were told they had to finish yesterday because of a snowstorm shutting things down today. They did not do a good job cleaning up. I had to vacuum my bedroom at 10 pm last night before I could sleep in it. Despite repeated requests by me to cover my furniture, I have white dust all over the place and white paint stains on my red loveseat. I turned off the heat pump and fan each morning but they turned the fan back on so the dust circulated everywhere. This is the filter that I removed from the air handler last night.



This is an old building -- they were supposed to follow EPA guidelines for working with lead paint dust.

They will be coming back for "touch ups" so I need to figure out how much rework I should ask for.

Thanks for your input.