What To Know Before Hiring A Painter In The Denver Area
What to look for when hiring someone to paint your home.
There is no shortage of painters in the Denver area. So how do you determine who is the best painter or painting company for your project? Here are important key points you may want to consider before hiring a house painter.
When it comes to painting, you will get what you pay for.
This statement can not be any more true, especially in Colorado’s unregulated residential painting industry. Simply put, anyone can call themselves a painting contractor in Colorado. Before losing hope know that there is a good amount of really good painting contractors out there ready to service your needs. Here are key points you may want to consider when soliciting a painter.
Let’s say you want to have the interior of your home painted. You get three bids ranging from $4,900 to $8,300. Why the huge difference in price? The cost gap is for two or more reasons, here are the most common factors…
- Insured. Professional painting contractors will have great insurance, all for your and their protection. Moonlighters will have the bare minimum if any at all.
- Skill Set. Professionals are well trained and seasoned to handle whatever it is that comes their way. In most cases, they have already troubled shot all the pros and cons before starting the work lessening the chance of any price increase or hidden cost. Good painters are not the cheapest ones on the block.
- The prep work. This is the same for exterior painting as well. It might take just a few days to do the painting, however, the fact remains it will take twice as long to prep the rooms or exterior of your house before painting. A low-end bid might include the obvious prep work that is visible, but does it include the caulking of joints that you can’t see from the ground? Does it include primer when and where necessary? Is the correct product being used? This know-how only comes from well train painters that have years of boots on the ground, knee-deep in the trenches of various painting projects.
Make no mistake, not all painters do the same kinds of work.
You really don’t want a commercial construction painter painting your furnished house, or an exterior painter painting the interior of your currently lived-in custom home. These are two completely different jobs. Two completely different skill sets. New construction building painters are used to empty open spaces with next to no trim work with no carpet or flooring. Exterior painters are used to painting the outside of the house in less than a few days with little worry of breaking anything valuable. As an example a seasoned, experienced custom home painter will spend the appropriate amount of time making sure furniture is covered and secure, trim is properly taped and masked off, two coats are applied by hand with a roller and brush, and in some cases with a sprayer.
Avoid regret. Do your due diligence.
- Misrepresentation. Many painting outfits now these days are Paint Brokers. This means that he or she will sub out the work to a second or third party for half the price you are being charged. This can lead to costly mistakes for the sub-labor in most cases are responsible to buy the material and do the labor for half the price, causing them to cut corners wherever they can. You will also want to want to see if the painter is misrepresenting themselves in other ways. Remember: many are calling themselves professionals with no real credentials. Here are some key points to take note of.
- Look to see if the painter is registered with the Colorado Secretary Of State. Professional painters work in the open, not in the shadows.
- Check the Google Business Listing. Professional painters want to be found. Check to see if the information is up to date and if they regularly post updates as well on their online presents. Basically, you are looking to see if the business is not a spoof.
- See if the house painter lives up to the hype, read the Google Reviews.
- Ask lots of questions. A professional painting contractor is calm and very knowledgeable in his or her craft ready to explain everything in detail educating you, and walking you through the process.
- Images. Check to see if the picture you are shown is really the picture of their work, like on their website or in print. A professional has a well-documented image portfolio.
- They should be clean in speech and in appearance. Professional painters wear the appropriate painter’s gear or uniform. Professionals do not show up in blue jeans and weekend t-shirts.
- Financing. A well-organized painting contractor will be willing and able to finance your painting project from start to finish 95% of the time depending on the size. It is not uncommon for a painting contractor to submit a bill in the form of a progress payment which in general amounts to less than the amount of work completed, or when a project takes on more detail due to design changes. What you should not do is give money upfront or pay in full before the work is complete and to your satisfaction.
- It does not benefit you to say you need the job done in a hurry or right away. You may very well find yourself open to predator contractors or bad actors looking for a way to take advantage of your situation. Hold that information for the ones you find best for you. Then see if that outfit can service you. Most painting outfits are about a week out in some cases up to a month, I know that seems long but it’s worth the wait.
- Pay as you go is in most cases, the old bait and switch, this is a common trick used to charge more money by having you buy the materials and they do the job at a said price. More times than often you will spend 30% to 60% more at the end, with the chance of not having the project completed at all because the painter ran to do someone elses job. This will cost you more because no painter likes to clean up another one’s mistakes.
These are a few helpful tips to remember before soliciting a painting contractor for your next painting project.
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