Olger Fellas

I know there is quite a lot of almost all positive feedback on them which is why we contacted them.

One specific question - anyone use them for new construction (with the needed priming and trim filling, etc)? We have a mix of new and old.

Thanks.

I have not, but be careful with them. Depending on the crew who actually does the work, their performance is actually rather mixed. The crew who worked on our exterior trim was pretty disappointing.

Yeh, I know that is the risk with any of the larger crew based companies. But the individuals we have got quotes from are way more expensive. In gerenal it seems as if painting prices have gone through the roof since we last did a major painting, which was a decade ago.

That is certainly possible. It seems like pricing for all the services in the world have grown exponentially in recent years. Just keep an eye on things, and if you don't like what they are doing, speak up. We let it go at the time, and in retrospect I realize we should have made them change what they were doing that I didn't like (not sanding the areas that had been chipping, so the edges showed through beautifully on all the white trim). Yes, I'm a chicken, and I believe Olger would have made good on it. I just didn't try.

If you had the work done in the past few years and it is chipping again give him a call he will come and do touch ups for free most likely. We had one window which was probably a replacement frame compared to the others that peeled about two and a half years after we had the house painted and he had someone come out and repaint it. They also painted a few spots on the foundation wall as well which we hadn't asked about as it steemed to be normal wear and tare

I'm pretty sure @tarheelsinnj used Olger's crew for carpentry and was pleased

try DLO contracting.

201 704 0940.

Try Hugh Strong - he's got a smaller crew but is consistent, reliable and honest. He knows his stuff and is reasonable. 862-485-2816.

We contacted Olger Fallas and DLO to get a quote on repairing/replacing/painting a buckling plaster ceiling in one of our bedrooms. Both were scheduled to come at two different times on the same day. DLO (Luis?) never showed up, and never called, and Olger Fallas' guy came 2 hours earlier than scheduled, called me when I wasn't home but happened to be on the way, looked at and discussed the job with me, said he'd have an estimate to me via email by the end of the day, and that was the last I heard from him, which was about 3 weeks ago.

Good luck.

I had a horrid experience with Olgar Fellas crew. Some of his crews are great, I did not get that. Dealing with contractors who have crews is always a crapshoot.

I will never hire another contractor that does not do the job themself.

afa said:
I'm pretty sure @tarheelsinnj used Olger's crew for carpentry and was pleased

Yes, I did. We used them for exterior painting (aluminum siding) and a few light carpentry projects around the exterior, plus installing new windows on our enclosed porch.

We were/are very happy with the work. Olger was at the job site frequently; we saw him nearly every morning as I recall. So he may not have done the work personally but he was certainly supervising

At the time I had the exterior painted (may still be true), Olger was working with Tico's, which did trim repair carpentry and also replaced my roof and undertook a pretty major garage project. I got great, responsive service by coordinating work with both companies.

jasper said:
We contacted Olger Fallas and DLO to get a quote on repairing/replacing/painting a buckling plaster ceiling in one of our bedrooms. Both were scheduled to come at two different times on the same day. DLO (Luis?) never showed up, and never called, and Olger Fallas' guy came 2 hours earlier than scheduled, called me when I wasn't home but happened to be on the way, looked at and discussed the job with me, said he'd have an estimate to me via email by the end of the day, and that was the last I heard from him, which was about 3 weeks ago.
Good luck.

@jasper, we had Wilber repair and finish our plaster ceiling in the living room and they did a great job. Their carpentry estimator wanted us to replace the plaster with sheetrock but Wilber came out himself and looked at the ceiling and told us that it could be repaired. Olger Fallas also gave us an estimate but it was higher than Wilber's.

dg64 said:

jasper said:
We contacted Olger Fallas and DLO to get a quote on repairing/replacing/painting a buckling plaster ceiling in one of our bedrooms. Both were scheduled to come at two different times on the same day. DLO (Luis?) never showed up, and never called, and Olger Fallas' guy came 2 hours earlier than scheduled, called me when I wasn't home but happened to be on the way, looked at and discussed the job with me, said he'd have an estimate to me via email by the end of the day, and that was the last I heard from him, which was about 3 weeks ago.
Good luck.

@jasper, we had Wilber repair and finish our plaster ceiling in the living room and they did a great job. Their carpentry estimator wanted us to replace the plaster with sheetrock but Wilber came out himself and looked at the ceiling and told us that it could be repaired. Olger Fallas also gave us an estimate but it was higher than Wilber's.

Thanks, dg, I'm going to call Wilber today. The ceiling is in imminent danger of falling down, and it's in boy jasper's room... thankfully not over his bed, but worrisome all the same.

TigerLilly said:
Try Hugh Strong - he's got a smaller crew but is consistent, reliable and honest. He knows his stuff and is reasonable. 862-485-2816.

Had bad experiences with him several years ago, would never use again. The wallpaper he put up in my bathroom is peeling off the walls and the paint job on the bathroom ceiling is peeling and flaking. (We have both a vent fan and a dehumidifier in the bathroom!) Plus he went onto my neighbors' property and moved their stuff around without asking them or me. Plus he was gruff and unpleasant. Never again.

Had a great recent experience with Hugh Strong. He was very pleasant, his price was fair and his crew was fast, neat and did a wonderful job painting my basement, cleaning my deck and painting part of my exterior which was needed to correct a mess left by a contractor whose name I got on MOL. Different strokes for sure!

We had Olger and he was very pleasant, his prices were reasonable, and he tried to fix everything that we were not happy with. At times extra crew were hired who got a little sloppy, but all in all we were satisfied. Please note that his last name is spelled incorrectly on the thread title. Think Fallas, not Fellas.

We had a great experience with Olger Fallas. Since we moved here in Feb we've had them do three jobs for us, one of which was correcting someone else's mistakes. Any issues that we had with the work while it was in progress were corrected. He'll be the first person we'll call for things in the future.

We used Olger Fallas for the interior of our house. We were less than happy with the results. Although Olger was there frequently, we obviously had the "B" team. The woodwork in particular is awful. No real preparation was done. The little they did was not dusted so all the woodwork is bumpy with sawdust and the chips that should have been sanded away are still visible. When we pointed that out we were told that we were being too fussy. Especially with doors there should be a decent amount of sanding prep so that after they are painted you can still close the door easily without it sticking. We recently discovered that the top trim of every door and window was not even painted. I guess they feel that if you can't see it they don't feel it's necessary to paint it. Not a fan.

Treetops, who did you talk to that said you were being too fussy??? That is totally unacceptable. Yikes.

treetops said:
We recently discovered that the top trim of every door and window was not even painted.

Do professional crews typically paint the top of the trim? In both houses we've bought, it hadn't been done until I got around to painting the trim myself.

Same here. They did a great job in one of our bedrooms. The crew installed new crown moldings and bottom trim molding around the floors. The crew we had was very thorough and really took their time in redoing the room. One wall was pretty bad but when they finished, the wall was flawless. We also use Wilber's for jobs. For us, both estimates are pretty close and are satisfied with their work. Before we hired Olger, we were able to view his carpentry work and paint job from a friends home. They did an excellent job in enclosing a porch and installing a small deck. That sold us in hiring him.

ETA: Both companies (Olger's & Wilbur's) are rated highly on Angie's List.

It's a funny thing about the tops of doors... when I painted some of the rooms in our West Orange house before putting it on the market, I found that many if not most of the door frames were unpainted at the top. I find that extraordinary. OK, you can't see it unless you get up on a ladder, but still... it can't be good for the wood to leave it unfinished for decades, can it?

PeggyC said:
It's a funny thing about the tops of doors... when I painted some of the rooms in our West Orange house before putting it on the market, I found that many if not most of the door frames were unpainted at the top. I find that extraordinary. OK, you can't see it unless you get up on a ladder, but still... it can't be good for the wood to leave it unfinished for decades, can it?

Why? What's going to happen to the wood

If left untreated, won't it absorb moisture, make good fodder for insects, etc? Or, alternatively, dry out? I don't know. Why do we never leave furniture unstained, unsealed, or unpainted? At the very least, it's incredibly lazy workmanship to leave one side undone just because no one will see it in the normal run of day-to-day life.

PeggyC said:
If left untreated, won't it absorb moisture, make good fodder for insects, etc? Or, alternatively, dry out? I don't know. Why do we never leave furniture unstained, unsealed, or unpainted? At the very least, it's incredibly lazy workmanship to leave one side undone just because no one will see it in the normal run of day-to-day life.

It's inside your house in a controlled environment.. If you have insects, and moisture issues in your house above the trim, then u have much bigger issues. As for drying out the wood is kiln dried so u want it "dry". The fact that it has lasted decades should tell u it is not an issue. And it is only the top of the trim that was left unpainted so it will not absorb or release moisture from the air like the wood joists in your house.

True. I suppose it's just my OCD side rearing its ugly head again...

PeggyC said:
True. I suppose it's just my OCD side rearing its ugly head again...

Yep, I can be that way, too, and paint accordingly. But I have a hunch that if homeowners rubbed their fingers up there*, most would find it hasn't been painted in a long, long time.

*See, just to prove the veracity of my opening clause, I don't have to rub my finger up there to know -- because I dust there all the time. This, I believe, can be construed as a cry for help.

Olger Fallas recently stripped and painted our house's exterior, and we've been very pleased with the price, the crew, and the results. No argument with those whose mileage varies...

-s.