Visible seams under new paint in my Orleans home, whose job is that?

Visible seams after painting point back to the finishing: the joints were either not finished to a level that suits the paint sheen chosen, or the compound was not primed before painting, or both. Start with whoever did the finishing and the priming.

The Gypsum Association's GA-214 guide, an industry recommendation rather than a Code requirement, describes six finish levels. For flat paint the guide lists Level 4: tape embedded, three coats on fasteners and accessories, and two additional coats on flat joints. For gloss, sheen or dark paints, or where lighting hits the wall at a critical angle, the guide lists Level 5, which adds a thin skim coat over the entire surface. If the paint sheen is higher than what the finish level was prepared for, the seams that were invisible before painting become visible once the sheen catches the light. Ask the finisher which level was quoted and which level was delivered.

A few things affect what fixing this involves:

• If the seams need another coat or two of compound, sanding and priming, that is finishing work.
• If the finisher recommends a Level 5 skim coat over the whole surface, the scope and cost are larger.
• Whether primer and paint are included in the fix, or whether a painter handles that separately, should be settled in writing before anyone starts.
• If the house was built before 1990, anyone sanding the existing compound should know the age of the house; Health Canada advises testing before work that disturbs older surface treatments, and a positive result means calling ottawaabatement.com before any sanding happens.

On the question of whose responsibility this is: if the original quote named a finish level and the work did not meet it, that is a scope dispute. Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002 says services are deemed to be of a reasonably acceptable quality, and where an agreement includes an estimate, the supplier may not charge more than 10 per cent over it. If no finish level was written into the contract, that conversation is harder to have, which is why the level should always be named in the quote.

Before any remedial work starts, make sure the scope, the finish level being corrected to, the price, and the start and completion dates are all on paper and signed by both sides.