Cooley Painting

I take great pride in providing the best possible painting services at a reasonable rate. I started painting at the age of 16 as a helper and went through the apprentice program the painters union once offered ( local 57 ) I spent 3 years in the program learning the solvents and different kinds of paints and finishes, I was in the commerical and light industrial field, I became a journeyman painter and left the union for a full time position in commerical painting from all phases ( new construction, remodels, and just repaints ) I had to learn to manage projects and lead a crew, on the projects I’d have to schedule/coordinate with all other trades along with the builders, architects, decorators and most importantly the owners. While working for this commerical company as a young man I was taken under a veteran wing as I like to call it ( 40 yr plus veteran ) who was at retirement age but his brother owned our company and this man was one of the best in Birmingham at one time. ( still highly respected ). He really fine tuned my skills and taught me so much more. I learned how to stain about anything possible and match the colors which is very important. Example - making a new raw wood door look like an existing and the stain color is unknown. That’s just one of the many examples. I’ve had to use this learning a lot when refinishing a front door. Most stained exterior front doors take a beating over the years from Mother Nature and the sealer coat is normally cracked, blistered, fading, peeling, etc. then the actual stain color starts being affected. The top of the door looks a bit worn but color is still just like new but the bottom of the door looks a totaling different color or just dry and appears very damaged. Well learning to match stain colors plays a huge role in bringing back the near new finish without having to purchase a new door. I also learned to tint Paint on site if it’s a little off what it needs to be. I learned all the small detailed tricks of the trade which are mostly used in residential painting. I learned that the prep prior to applying Paint or between Paint coats is 99% of the finished product. There’s a lot to prep work, caulking, patching, sanding, and priming just to name a few. I really started working hard to become the best that I could. My goal was the best in bham. I believe I’m very good but there are a lot of good painters and some who can learn as they go but it’s the products and process along with that prep that requires trained skilled painters who have many years hands on and take pride in it. I got real busy doing side work after my 40hr a week job and before I knew it I had plenty of customers telling me I could build a painting company that would do well. Well as a young man married with our first child on the way I was scared but with support from my wife and existing customers along with new customers asking me to provide estimates I took the leap and went for it. I had one mind set, do it right, work hard, be honest and polite and appreciate every project and I could stay busy. I created a legal business in January of 2005 and became partners with my uncle who joined me. We built Cooley Painting Inc to a well running hard working company with a great crew. We grew quickly and stayed just overwhelmed busy. We needed to take the next step to grow the company’s office and we were just exhausted to be honest. We had families growing with very young children and our wives were being overwhelmed at home. My uncle decided he was going to step away as a great offer came his way. He left in 2010 and I kept working as hard as possible and stayed very busy with the great crew I had. 5 years later I looked back and my kids were that much older and my wife was over worked at home because I was hardly there, so I had to step back. I helped most my crew move to other opportunities or company’s and kept just a couple guys and quit all commerical work. We’d been doing both residential and commercial. Since then I’ve only done residential and slowed down a bit more. I like to be on every project to make sure the Homeowners are getting the exact scope of work as promised on estimate or when they hired me and those small details matter to me ( example- as I look at job, owner wants one window caulked and none painted as the works maybe just painting walls ) well I’ll make sure that window was caulked because the owner requested it during walk through and I probably just included it as a thank u for the project we are doing and I try to make sure I’ve done exactly the job I promised and I’m Paid for. Workmanship is very important to me. I’ve stayed very busy and have painted some houses 2/3 times now or one customer has moved 3 times and I’ve been blessed they always call me. That is what I love about my job. I appreciate everyone and their business and I’ve always tried to make sure the customer is pleased or I’ll start over until they are. Thankfully I’ve had great people to work for and Thansk to the good lord I’ve made a living and provided for my family without any major set backs or unhappy customers. This is my 22nd year painting and I still enjoy the transformation prep and paint can do. So honest reliable trustworthy hard working reasonable and a great appreciation is what you’ll get with me. Thank you for reading Eric Cooley