Painting Services - Hiring Expert Painting Contractors

Hello out there again, and welcome to our painting services hiring expert painting contractors blog post on our Cheap Calgary Painters internet web site. These how to paint blog posts on our website should help you paint out a higher quality paint job, and also help you when you decide you are going to hire in a painting contractor to complete painting services for you. 

When deciding to paint the interior or exterior of your house, your first instinct may be that you can do it yourself. And you probably can. But remember, your time is valuable, and painting is a skill that requires considerable expertise to pull off perfect paint job results. If you are not a seasoned professional you will probably make a mess. 

So consider hiring a professional painter to paint your house. Using a professional painting contractor takes the stress out of painting the inside or outside of your home, and finding the right one is the most important decision in order to achieve the best results. In this painting services - hiring expert painting contractors blog post we'll share tips to help you choose a reputable painting contractor. 

Someone with good experience that knows the best products and tools needed to do the job right. So let's start by discussing why you should hire a reputable paint contractor. You see many of the tasks involved in painting projects, such as sanding surfaces, working on ladders, using power equipment, or sometimes using solvents and other chemicals, can be hazardous. 

Experienced painters proving professional painting services understand the appropriate steps needed to avoid these hazards. Especially when it comes to surface preparation safety. They're also familiar with the appropriate paints and tools, as well as how to use them effectively to ensure a quality finish.  Reputable painters also know how to handle and properly dispose of hazardous waste. 

So once you've made the decision to hire a professional painting contractor, it's time to specify the work with each painter. Make sure you receive an estimate for the same work from all painters and paint contractors and painting companies you call in for a free painting estimate or one of those free painting price quotes. Prepare a list of what needs to be done and be sure to include what paint color and gloss level you like. 

The best painting finishes on complete interior repaints or complete exterior repaints come from painting all the surfaces you can with a spay painting machine. If the painting contractor you call in for an estimate is talking about brushing in and rolling in any ceilings, siding, or trim, you probably have the wrong painting contractor in front of you. Sad but true.

Also a completion date should be provided. Now once you have three qualified painters in mind invite them to visit your home and have them provide a free painting estimate. For each estimate received make sure you get the details in writing. For example a painter's contact information, your contact information, specification of the exact work to be done, including all areas to be prepared and painted,  products and colors to be used, including brand names, completion date and total cost. 

Next you'll want to check each painter's references. A qualified painter should be able to provide you with at least one hundred or two hundred good references and happy customers they have previously completed work from. That's the biggest way to sniff out the fake it till you make it painters from the higher quality and experienced painters. Which one of those painting services providers do you really want painting or repainting your house or home?

Pro painters will usually provide references, and you don't really need to ask for them. A professional and expert house painter should be more than happy to show you the contract information and job details for at least the last hundred customers or so. The work completed for each referral project should be similar in size and scope to yours, and some should be a few years old to see the quality of the work over time. 

If possible ask to see some finished projects to verify results. For exterior work its easy to drive by a couple dozen exterior paint jobs your so called pro painter has completed. Inside's can be a little bit more tricky, you are likely better off trying to make arrangements with the last hundred or so interior customers your painter painted out - as your pro painter is likely busy painting and probably doesn't have the time to arrange for you to pop in and look at the work.

Most painters and painting companies that provide high quality painting services usually have an invoice book or a contract book that contains a list of this year and possibly last years customers and  clients. You can usually arrange to review the book and see what your busy pro painter has been up to, just to be sure that you are in fact dealing with a pro, and not a newbie who really doesn't have all the practice and the experience that they claim they do after all.

Ideally you'll want to call each referral, and ask the following questions. Did you get a showroom quality finish? Was the job completed on time? Were you satisfied with the results? Did the final cost match the estimate? Was the painters work disruptive? And would you hire that painter again? Everyone comparing estimates should ask for a breakdown of material and labor costs so you can make a fair comparison. 

Another good indicator to hiring the right painting contractor is to pay attention to each painters presentation. Are they polite, professional, and dress appropriately? Presentation will most likely reflect the type of work they do. Ask to see a red seal certificate so you know your painter at least went to painting school and didn't get the professional painting experience from dad, grandpa, or from some other person that didn't go to painting school either.

Proof of insurance for the workers and liability insurance is another big hurdle to get over. The city requires all businesses that complete services for the public to be licensed with the city. Workers compensation will only deal with legitimate corporate company identities and won't provide wcb insurance to small potatoes fake it till you paint it painting companies with no corporate backing.

Painting can be dangerous work, accidents happen all the time, so it's important to hire an insured and qualified and city registered painter, so you're not held responsible for any injuries to the painter or crew members if something happens. Contractor licensing laws and regulations vary in location so be sure to check your local city website for more information on laws in your area. 

And most importantly, get it in writing. An iron clad contract that specifies the project scope. This should include details on how surfaces will be prepared prior to painting, and how your property will be protected. It should also include how surfaces will be painted. You want to hear a lot of talk about spray painting or you probably got the wrong painters in mind. 

The exact paint products to be applied, at what time, schedule, and payment terms. Most painters probably are out to get you. And most painters know that most customers are out to get them. You will both likely have to find a way to meet in the middle. When making payments avoid paying cash without a receipt of some type. If this is not an option you got a cash monkey that's probably gonna take the money and run or wreck and ruin you house or both.

Be sure to get a receipt upon payment and deposit. Check works well because the cancel check is a good payment record, but most smart painters and painting contractors and painting companies won't start the job or buy materials until the check has cleared at the bank. That could add another week to the job if you are looking for a faster start. 

And don't pay more than 50 %to 75% of the entire job up front. Half the labor cash down, and materials up front is more than fair. You are hiring a painting contractor or a painter to complete work on your house or home, you can't also expect them to provide you credit with no interest and take all the risks, and just hope that you will pay them in the end. Good business works both ways.

And keep all payment records, get a picture of your painters identification cards, and only make your final payment once you're completely satisfied with the quality of the work. Lots of fly by night painting companies out there are long gone after the check clears and you will never successfully get them back in the door for anything. 

And lastly, there are numerous choices when it comes to paint, but not all paints are created equal. Paint performance can vary, so make sure you know what products your painter intends to use. Keep in mind premium paint may cost more, but it maintains its durability longer, so your home doesn't require frequent repainting. Most importantly, make sure the specified paint in the contract is actually used on the job. 

Today we're talking about job site efficiency and orchestration We are also going to talk about some efficiency in tools that can help you achieve your goals on a paint job site in projects where budgets are tight and technical challenges are steep. You really have to make sure that everybody is tasked with something that is well within their realm of confidence. Because it's pretty obvious to painting professionals that not all painters are made the same way.

Once they're in we have to show them what our process is. Every company does it differently. Some painting processes are simply much more effective and efficient than other painting strategies other painters might use for your painting services. Our company has its own processes and methods, and our team leads know what those are. And from them down come the instructions, and that's how the project flows from top to bottom on every paint job.

Pro painting at easy. It litterly takes hundreds of houses and homes. Being one of the lead painters on site with only a couple jobs of experience doesn't count for anything. You'd be surprised to know that about 75% or more of the painters and pros advertising online and on the internet all around you really have no idea what they are doing and never went to painting school.

Being a crew leader for a bunch of misfits pretending to provide fine residential Painting ain't easy. Knowing the fastest way to do anything, and what exactly our plan of attack is, as well as just get people in mind we have different levels of skill, as well as different abilities, can get you the wrong team of painters really quick. 

They can come out to play at different times of the year, mostly in the winter, and chances are good you will get one in front of you sooner or later. Buyer be ware. It's your house and home. Why take chances. Residential painting start to finish is most of the responsibility that comes with the entire job. We walk in and take a look, have the scope of work in front of me. Pro painters know the fastest way to paint or repaint anything. Point out what you need painted and we can give you a price just like that.

We have a plan of action that get's the paint flying and on the surfaces without making a mess. An organized painting team with mass production painting skills can get a coat on most houses right in front of you in just a couple of hours. Some houses and homes get painted out in a day. Staying on top of the job, dispersing the crew, and paying attention to every detail one room at a time helps with effective paint finishes and tight painting time lines and painting budgets.

Hiring in the wrong painters on the clock can be the wrong move if not most of the time. All of a sudden that painter that paints out most bedrooms in an hour hasn't made it out of the same bedroom by the end of the day on your dollar of course. Most painter bosses have seen all the tricks of the trade and know most if not all of the excuses an hourly guy on your dime can come up with.

In the case of this job that we're on right now, we have more project leads on board because this house is massive, over 6000 floor square space, and another 2800 floor square feet in the basement. 8 foot on this side, 12 foot walls on this side, and here you have it folks, the three story sunk in living room. As you can tell we needed full scaffolding wall to wall in these corners to get up there. Look at all that crown moulding with ceiling boarders. Custom wood work on the ceiling. Top dollars for this. This work is perfect, the painting is going to look awesome.

So we have multiple production managers and paint teams on this house. Basically one paint team per floor in this huge house. The interior designer that we got this paint job from sure picked out some bold colors for this place. Always a pleasure painting for this outfit. The customers are going to be so surprised. But because it's so large, we need the full team of painters to get this painted in time for the move in.

So this is what we did to pull off this perfect paint job. Let's start with the ceiling. This is a full load ceiling with all the bells and whistles. All of this wood work on the ceiling was spray primed and spray painted. Then we masked off the wood work and sprayed in the open drywall areas. Then finished the ceiling up with two rounds of brush touch ups where all the corners meet so that everything is straight and perfect. Look at that. Sharp and clean. Well painted.

The walls in this place were beat. This was a heavily lived in and well loved interior. On these rough shape houses they typically take three coats of paint on the walls and two rounds of drywall patching to really get that into great shape again. This wall here alone had to have at least 500 patches on it, and we had to double patch it twice with the lights and two painters to get everything out.

These high traffic areas were beaten up as well. It's to be expected. From doors and back doors and the bottom and the tops of stairwells are all high traffic areas that often take a beating. So what we did is we rolled in all of the walls first, and then brushed in the rest. After all of that paint dried we can quickly see where all the damage is. We patch all the walls, grind all the mud down, top coat or spot prime all of these patches with two coats of primer or paint, let them dry, and then roll and brush on the second coat.

You guessed it. You can't miss those finer scratches and dents and dings you didn't catch the first time. Another round of mudding, sanding the spots and the walls, spot priming or top coating the new patches with a coat or two of primer and paint, let it dry, and then for the final coat you always want to fiish with a brush first and then roll coat of paint while the brush paint is still wet. Don't let anything dry out. As you can see we pre finished this section earlier so our customer could commit to the new colors they picked out.

Ceiling sprayed, and this trim. All of this trim is spray painted trim. It's a very high quality finish. We don't want to wreck the finish on the trim with a brush and roller. If your painting company or painter is thinking about painting your trim with a brush and roller and you know you have high quality trim, you probably got the wrong painter in front of you. So here we are now, the trim is all painted. Everything pulled, masked off tight, lots of masking paper for the miles and miles of baseboard in this one.

So you see these tight lines on the base board? Nothing beats a tape line for a straight line. It takes more skill to spray paint in baseboards on your interior but it's simply the best painting results possible. Be sure you take a good look at your trim. If it's already sprayed in trim and in good shape you don't want to wreck your trim with a brush and roller. If you trim is beat, hitting the trim with the brush and roller can clean it all up and make it look nice and better again.

Ceilings first, then your trim, and your walls last. You want your ceilings sprayed, your trim sprayed, and your walls brushed and rolled two coats or more on any paint job. The best bang for your dollars and the best way to get your money back on your painting is to pick colors you like and get an excellent paint job you admire. If you enjoy it more, so will the next owner if you decide to sell. For the best results you should think about calling in professionals for painting services in stead of trying to do things yourself.