Important questions you need to ask when hiring a painting contractor

One highly effective way to improve the appearance of your home, in addition to following a Home Remodeling & Renovation Guide, is to undertake a painting job in both the interiors and exteriors of your house. It is a very difficult and overwhelming task, but if done properly then the results would be amazing to behold.

One of the first questions which you will need to ask yourself is whether you have got the required skills and know how to tackle this job by yourself. You cannot take any risk with this job and make it look amateurish so you should make it look perfect. If you are unsure about your abilities to do it, then you can hire professional painting contractors also. 

You will not like to invest a lot of time in a work which will not make you happy and content in the end. You will need to be happy with the results that you get and ensure that no damage is done to the integrity of the house. You should have already seen plenty of shoddy paint job done in several flats and apartments, and hence you are aware of how unimpressive that looks. There are certain easy ways to find a good painting contractor, you need to ask these questions to yourself before you hire one:

1. Is the painting contractor referred by anyone?

2. Are the painters all licensed?

3. How experienced are they in their work?

4. Will you be comfortable working with them?

Getting referrals from people: One of the best methods is for you to look for referrals. You need to talk with relatives and neighbors and check whether they recently had hired the services of any painting contractor themselves. Check whether the service provided was neat and clean and if the painters were punctual. This way you will get trustworthy leads. When you are not able to find any personal referral, then you ought to check on the internet and the yellow pages in order to see who are the best painting contractors working in your area. There are painting stores who will deal with a number of contractors regularly and hence they will also be able to recommend to you good ones. When you get a referral for a painting contractor from a pain store then you can be sure that that store will provide the contractor with the materials for the paint job and hence, there would be a good guarantee of the materials used and if any issue crops up later then it can get sorted out between them. 

Importance of a proper license: You need to always hire contractors who are licensed by the State and stay away from any handyman. Handyman may do a lot of damage to the house you live in and would not give you any recourse either. Handymen will be having only five numbers in their licenses and painting contractors would be having six numbers. Low numbers on the license would mean that they are experienced in their business. Also, the State licensed contractors would have a $10,000 bond for protecting their clients. 

It is also crucial for you to check when you hire state licensed contractors that the license that they use is active. You should check with contractors and the official license boards on the internet. You can just enter their license number and you will be able to check their status. 

How experienced are they? You need to hire contractors who are experienced in their job. You should check the years of experience that the contractor has, specifically as a contractor and not as a painter. Being a painting contractor is a much more responsible work than being a painter and hence you need to check on the years of experience that the man has spent as a painting contractor. 

Expenses and prices involved: You should not be hiring on the price only. If you get low estimates then you must have sufficient reasons for that. You can find a lot of ways to reduce the price, like cutting down on the preparation works, number of coats to be painted, quality of the paint, insurance liability avoidance or even illegally not paying the compensation for the workers. There would be times when cheap bids may go on to cost you a lot of money through both time and energy and also added to it is mental aggravation. A bad paint job will last for a long time in your house if you do not strip or replace those surfaces that were not properly painted. 

There are a few issues that you should ponder on, like for instance if the contractor will be paying his employees proper wages, including overtime and health care benefits are provided or not. Thus, if you see the estimates quoted before you to be significantly low then you should seek out the reasons for that, if it is not the employees who are being paid less, the quality of the paint and materials used might be subpar quality. It is always prudent to take estimates from three different contractors before settling down and choosing one. 

Comfort levels: It is of immense importance that you should hire a contractor who you are comfortable working with. The two of you should have a healthy rapport. He needs to consult you before taking any crucial decision and give you daily updates outlining the progress of the work being done. You will have the contractor and the employees working in and around your home so it is important to feel comfortable with them around, especially when you will not be home yourself. You can find the best painting contractor in the area that you live in by searching on the internet or by looking for word of mouth and personal referrals.

Conclusion

Finding the right contractor for your project can seem daunting. But you should follow the questions outlined in this article to help you choose a good and professional contractor.

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