5 Ways to Make Sure your Painter is Doing a Good Job
How can you tell if your painter is just efficient or if they’re cutting corners? There are things you can watch for to make sure you’re not going to be cheated out of good work.
Fixing the wall before painting begins
Wall repairs can be a part of the job that painters may not do a good job in order to save some time. Sometimes if wall repairs are not spelled out in a contract, it’s done at the painter’s discretion. If a lot of repair must be done, they may show you what needs to be done but won’t include the time and materials required in the quote they give you. A painter may ask if you want them to do the repair after they’ve already started painting and will inform you at that time how much more it will cost you.
Cost of the paint
Gloss paint costs more expensive than flat. Different grades of paint are priced differently. And if you choose a dark shade, the price goes up accordingly the darker you go. A neutral colour can be as much as $20 a can cheaper. How does this affect you as the customer?
You may hire a painting company and enter into a contract in which you need two coats of paint applied, and you’ve given them a deposit of $500. A few days prior to the commencement of work, you choose your colour and the painter goes out to purchase the supplies. If the paint you’ve chosen is a deep base colour, and a dark primer coat is also required, they will have to charge you more. Best to pick you colours and types of paint before you provide your painter with a deposit or signing a contract.
Insufficient paint coverage
You may have thought at the beginning of a project that two coats will do it. But often it will come as a surprise that a third coat is required. Your painter may have been aware – after all, he’s a professional. But since you hadn’t reached an agreement about the price of additional coats, if required, he can charge you whatever he wants.
Disreputable painter scams
You’re asked and paid for premium paint. The painter buys one or two buckets of the good stuff and then finishes with the cheapest paint on the market. They may even mix it in with the expensive cans.
They may water it down before it’s brought into your house. Water will help the paint go twice as far but after applied this paint isn’t very strong. It will easily chip, peel or crack. It’s difficult to catch this. The only circumstance in which adding water is appropriate is when the painter is using a deep base paint and it’s too sticky.
All you can do is keep an eye on the fresh cans of paint as they’re being brought into the house. They should look new and there shouldn’t be dripped paint along the rim of the can. If it’s one of those large while 5-litre buckets, try and see if it’s still sealed.
A quote with very little detail
The more detail provided by your painter, the better. Many people are taken advantage of, not only by painting companies, when a quote is submitted without details like the type of paint that will be used, the type of damage present on the drywall and who is responsible for it, who will move the furniture or protect flooring, how corners will be done and the type of caulk if required. Will they paint around toilets or take them off? Do they remove switch plates and put them back on? Who removes draperies and will rods come down or will they be painted around?
Some of these items aren’t included because some painters want to be paid extra. They’ll provide a super-low quote to be competitive or to make sure you choose them but will start adding in little bits and pieces as the job progresses.
Choose a painter that comes with references and speak with former customers to make sure you can avoid these pitfalls of painting.