How & When to Hire an Exterior House Painting Professional

How & When to Hire an Exterior House Painting Professional

How to Hire an Exterior Painting Company.

Anybody can call himself or herself an exterior house painter. Not all painters are made alike. While most cities, provinces and states provide professional contractor licenses to various painting companies and painting professionals, there is really no “seal of approval” that says a painting company is good at residential and commercial panting. Not much out there says the painters painting for the company are any better.

So what do you do when you are looking to hire a paint pro to complete painting for you? Here are a total of six very important painting steps that will go along way toward finding the right company and painters for the job you have in mind and getting pro results.

Ask around. Plenty of people have hired a competitively priced painting contractor and got high quality painting completed for them. Do you know people out there who have used painting contractors for exterior work or for interior work? Might be worth your time to listen to what they have to say and a particular painting company, painter, painting contractor, and be sure to make and take notes of any glowing painting and painting finishes references you hear. Most people know a good painter.

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The Initial call. Some painters and decorators out there can give you a price over the phone depending on your painting needs. Your first call to to a painter or any paint contractors you are interested in hiring to complete work for you should be primarily to get a price range, and to set up a face to face meeting to review the scope of the work you want completed and the price. Feel comfortable to ask a few questions over the phone about prices, turn around time, warranty, etc. Do you have any painting crews available to get me painted today is often a question we hear a lot of.

How long have you been in business? How many interior paint jobs or perhaps exterior paint jobs have you competed? How long to your paint jobs last? How long before you think I will need to paint again? Is any interior paint or exterior paint simply better to paint with than others?  Your painter should be able to give it to you straight on the phone, or you could save the important questions for the meeting.

The first meeting. You should have a bit of information already. Most painters want to get right to the price and the turn around time for your consideration. Other painters might review now, and then contact you later that day, or in a couple of days to get you some prices, estimate, or a price quote.

This is where you should make several evaluations. First, does the person who shows up look like a full time professional painter, and seem to take his or her painting business seriously. Perhaps you are the first estimate of the day, week, month or the year. Does your painter demonstrate that your paint job is important to him and tell you they can paint you out a beautiful finish? Initial first impressions about your painter are often quite very important in hiring an interior paint or exterior paint contractor. 

However, the wrong thing to do is go by how you feel about that person or painter, or painting company or painting contractor. Hiring in the wrong painting professional could wreck your house. There are plenty of professionally painted houses out there that got painted or repainted by professionals. 

Listen to what he says in answer to your questions and what he explains to you about the painting process. A solid professional will make you feel comfortable in the discussion while demonstrating experience and knowledge. Remember – you’re hiring a person (or team) to paint your house, not to attend your cocktail party.

References. During the initial meeting, you should be provided with references from other customers in your general area for whom the painter has worked. The contractor’s website may also have some past-customer feedback. Follow up with these people.

The estimate. You probably can get a general painting estimate over the phone, but getting a specific price for your specific job may not happen in just a few seconds. The contractor will want to look over the work areas, and you’ll likely have to answer a few questions before getting some numbers. Make sure you clearly understand what will be done for the price you’ll pay.

Warranty and guarantee. Before agreeing to or signing anything, understand exactly what the painter promises to do and what your obligations will be during the process. Know what you’re getting and how any defects or damages will be compensated.

In addition, if you’re not familiar with exterior home painting, you should do a little research to find out what all this kind of job entails before speaking with a contractor. This way you’ll have a working knowledge of the process and can ask intelligent questions and better understand the answers you get.

Exterior painting is a serious project that should only be performed by licensed, experienced painting contractors.

In Calgary, homeowners have relied on 1/2 Price Pro Calgary Painting since 1986 for outstanding interior and exterior painting jobs. Call the pros who know at (587) 800-2801.