The following tips should be kept in mind when you are looking into finding a quality oriented professional painter:
- Quick Timelines. Most painters that have an established reputable business will have their schedules booked out for some time. The days of calling contractors in any field and having immediate availability are gone. Trades people are in high demand due to a lack of workers going into the trades. If you are looking for estimates and a contractor has immediate availability it may be a red flag. However, jobs do get rescheduled or pushed off, and weather can be one of the hardest scheduling hurdles. If you want a quality job and to save a little money, please plan ahead on any project in your home.
- Cheaper Is Almost Never Better. In the situation of seeking high quality, often the cheaper quote will not be what you are shopping for. A low costing quote signifies one of three things:
- 1: They do not plan on taking all the necessary steps to provide the grade of quality desired. Time is money, and if they did not figure in enough time, there will be shortcuts taken.
- 2: Overhead is low. An experienced painting company will know their worth, as well as pay their painters a good wage. Liability and workman's comp insurance are expensive, and you do not want someone underinsured working on your home. Reliable transportation and equipment are essential to completing your job on time. This isn’t to say that a one man show company with low overhead can't produce quality.
- 3: Materials: When having a painter work on your home, a huge percentage of the cost is the labor. Many times, a lesser quality product will be used to help offset some of the labor expenses. Depending on the type of job, materials can be as small as 5% of the total cost of a job. Why wouldn’t you want to use the best paint available?
- Experience Is Important. Experience is valuable! Not only in the sense they know the correct procedures and materials to produce a good product, but they also have years of knowledge in what to do to avoid problems. Every paint company and painter has made mistakes, that is normal and part of learning. Accountability and learning from these mistakes are what helps them grow.
When you are reviewing estimates for a quality paint job, keep in mind; time frame, cost, and level of experience.
