Painting - Will I need to paint walls after applying knockdown to ceiling?

Hi. We recently had a contractor replace our dining room ceiling. It was part of a larger job contracted out by our homeowners association. I asked if we could have something other than pocorn applied to the ceiling and was told about knockdown. The contractor said that it would be a few hundred dollars more, which was fine. After the knockdown was applied there was a white strip about 6-8" wide going around the room. They painted the room and have now presented me with a bill for over $1300. Unfortunately I didn't get anything in writing. I have talked to a few guys that do drywall and they have all told me that the paint should not have been affected and if it was they contractor should not try to charge me for fixing it. Can someone please clarify this for me? Thanks!!

When you say 6-8" strip, do you mean they failed to apply the texture? If so, they need to fix their mistake and not charge you anymore money.

They applied texture everywhere, but after they were finished, there was a 6-8" white stripe running around the four walls under the ceiling. They have now billed me over $500 for repainting the four walls. is it normal to have damage to your existing painted walls after the knockdown is applied?

It is always preferable to paint the walls after texuring the ceiling [it's best to paint the knockdown also] What they should have done is mask off all the walls so they wouldn't have been affected. I'm suprised none of this was discussed prior to the work being done. Did they also repaint the walls for the other owners that had popcorn work done?

They didn't have to paint the walls in the other units after the pocorn was applied, because there was no damage to the paint. I was really suprised myself, because we had popcorn applied in the garage section and it looked fine when they were finished, so it didn't occur to me that it might need to painted afterwards. I have been making some calls and everyone I have talked to seems to think that they didn't tape the walls properly. I also found out that the association has already been billed or replacing the ceiling itself. The only out of pocket expense for us was to be the difference between the price of the popcorn vs. knockdown. Any advice for how to talk to the contractor? Thanks agin

I wouldn't think you would be obligated for the painting charge since it wasn't discussed prior to being done. Be firm and pay for what was agreed to be done [knockdown texture] If you want to reimburse the contractor for painting the walls without authorization - well that's between you and him. I don't think you could be held liable if you don't.

Don't you think it should be up to the association to foot the cost of repairing what their contractor did? We just went through applying a knock down to our ceilings and the only way I can think of how it could have left a white stripe on the walls is if the contractor didn't mask off the walls before shooting the ceiling. ????