Over twice as many homeowners hire a contractor to repaint the exterior of their home as do it themselves, and it is important to choose the right one. Here are a number of tips to help select the right Plano Painting contractor for the job:
1)     Meet the contractor at home and ask questions. If the contractor takes a long time to review the paintwork on your home, that is a good sign, and you will get a more realistic estimate. Even an experienced painter will need more than a fast glance at the walls.
2)    Ask about the number and experience of the crew, and who will supervise them while on the job. Often a small business can do a better job, as the owner will be personally involved in supervising his painters. Watch out for a common trick where the contractor promises that that your job will be cheaper as it will be a show house too get more work in your neighborhood, if they do a great job, they will probably get additional work anyway.
3)    Preparation. The quality of a finished paint job is 70% how well the initial preparation was done, not just the number of coats of paint. This part of the job is very time consuming, an often an area where a contractor may look to cut costs. It is an area where most disagreements between contractors and customers happen.. If you want a perfect surface free of bumps or marks from prior paint jobs, you will need to spell that out, and be prepared to pay extra. But if you can live with some imperfections showing through, get an agreement up-front as to what an acceptable finish is. Naturally any flaking or missing paint should be correctly taken care of before any finish paint
4)    Ask about protecting non-painted surfaces or areas, this includes concrete, roofing and garden landscapes. For interiors covering, moving and protecting furniture is a major concern but don’t forget about flooring as well.
5)    Always ask for references of similar work, call them up to see what the thought of the work, and actually go and see the work. You can get a good idea of the quality of workmanship by looking at jobs that were done several years ago. How well a painter’s work holds up is a good indicator of quality and preparation. Also look at recent work in case the contractor has a different crew, with different skill levels. Ask how surprises or unexpected problems were resolved.
6)    Ask about membership in a trade or local business group. It is not a guarantee of quality, but it shows a level of commitment and reliability. Check with local consumer groups to see if the contractor has a history of unresolved complaints and problems.
7)    Always get at least three written estimates. These should include a detailed breakdown of labor, material costs, the number of coats of primer and paint, the brand and type, together with a detailed description of the amount of surface preparation that will be done.
By following these tips from Plano Painting, you will help ensure that the paint job on your home is a quality one, which will last for years.

Tags: painter plano, plano painting

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 1:46 am and is filed under plano painting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.