Tips For Choosing A Painting Company For Your Home

When it comes to painting, whether indoor or out, you either love to paint, or you hate it. Perhaps you’re one of those people who enjoy changing up the colors on the inside walls of your home on a regular basis. There’s not a hard and fast rule about how often that should be done, but we all know that, as a general rule of thumb, the exterior of your home should be painted about every five years.

Some brave souls plan and tackle this chore as a weekend do-it-yourself project. Others wouldn’t touch a bucket of paint with a 10-foot pole. If you’ve decided that your home’s exterior needs to be painted, but you’re not sure how to go about hiring someone to do it for you, no worries! Here are some tips:

1. Ask for Referrals

Perhaps your friends or even your neighbors have recently had their home painted, or know someone they can recommend to you. You will feel more comfortable if someone personally-known to you can give you the name and number of “their paint guy”.

2. Consider Your Climate

Make sure you take into account the time of year you plan to have your home painted. For example, if you live in Florida, don’t choose to have your home painted during the rainy season. You’ll only be setting yourself up for frustration.

3. Make sure your Home is in Good Condition

You don’t want to call a painter to your home if you know there are issues that you should have already taken care of. Do you have an overgrown shrubbery that needs some major trimming? Perhaps you’ve been meaning to get rid of that broken porch swing. Maybe your gutter has come detached from the roof. These small issues are quick fixes, and therefore won’t be a future hindrance to your chosen painter.

Once you have compiled a list of painters that you’ve obtained from referrals, advertisements and phone book or internet searches, you’ll need to contact each one and decide who is best for your situation. Some questions you should think to ask them are:

1. What is the estimated cost to paint my home?
2. Do you allow clients to supply the paint themselves?
3. What prep work will you [the painter] need to do? Will that affect the estimate?
4. How much time will it take to complete the project?
5. What kind of warranty on your work do you offer?

Depending on how many companies you choose to contact, this can get a bit tedious, and you may even forget a question or two. For a complete list of questions, feel free to visit The Road to Domestication for a free printable entitled: Questions to Ask of a Painter. Print as many as you are in need of, and you will be able to keep your questions (and the answers) very well-organized and recorded.

Once your company has been chosen and your appointment scheduled, breathe a sigh of relief that YOU will not have to be on a ladder painting the exterior of your home on your own.

When the painter arrives, make sure you provide a greeting, and allow them to get to work quickly.

When the job is complete, make sure the services are paid for, and make sure that you have on record the brand and color of paint that has been used on your home. That way, you can always make small touch-ups on your own to keep the exterior looking fresh.