Have you decided to hire a contractor to do the best exterior painting in Walnut Creek? If you have looked at your home’s exterior and realized that it needs repainting, you know that it’s going to be a lot of work that the best professional painters perform well.
Many homeowners consider a DIY painting project – after all, who is not capable of dabbing the brush into paint? However, keep in mind that painting is more complicated than it looks. Any DIY home painter can do small-scale paintworks such as doing cabinets and furniture pieces. But when it comes to larger home painting projects such as painting the exterior, you will want no less than a professional-level finish. So, it makes sense to hire professionals to repaint your home’s exterior and make them look brand-new.
However, not all professional painting contractors are the same. They will always have different years of experience, skill levels, types of services they offer, the number of workers available for a job, the quality of products they’re using, and many other factors.
Painting contractors tend to be local, as there are no national contractors yet. Most painting contractors offer other services such as crown molding, popcorn ceiling removal, wallpapering, and many others.
How to look for the best painting contractor?
While it might be tempting to save money by hiring a painting contractor without a license and insurances by state law, it will only backfire when such contractors deliver an inferior-quality job. Therefore, when contacting contractors that you’re interested in working with, you should not forget to ask them a copy of their valid business license as well as an insurance certificate.
Reputable painting contractors offer free estimates, so make sure to ask free estimates from at least three contractors you may be interested in hiring. Once you receive the estimates, don’t forget to ask the policies of those contractors. Compare the policies and the quotes offered by those contractors and decide the right one from these.
To make sure that you will hire the best contractors, screening each of them is necessary. Interviewing the contractors over the phone is the first step. It’s also good to prepare a set of questions, such as:
- “How many years has your company been in the business?”
- “Do you hire your team or are they subcontractors?” (Contractors employing their workers are more trustworthy).
- “Do you have specific paints you use? How many coats of paints do you recommend?”
- “How does your team handle paint spills and drips?” And so on.
Don’t forget to ask the contractors for references. A reputable painting contractor is willing to provide you with references because it means that they are confident in their work and will not hesitate to give a list of past customers.
Once you have chosen a contractor, make sure that you get every important detail in writing, such as:
- Any applicable warranties
- Payment expectations
- Start and end time for each workday
- Surface cleaning and preparation details
- Cleanup details, etc.
It would also help to know what your chosen painting contractor does. Aside from painting the walls, they usually do other things such as cleaning and preparing the surface, removing fixtures and other obstacles, moving outdoor furniture away, protecting plants and lawn by covering them, priming the walls, and many others.
It’s also good to talk with your contractor to clear all the things that you don’t understand. Reputable contractors will also patiently explain and provide answers to questions lingering in your mind for some time. Here are some examples: ·
- “Will there be any hidden charges beside the estimated cost?”
- “Is the paint cost included in the estimated total?”
- “What type of paint do you recommend for this project?”
- “How many coats of paint do you apply on exterior walls?”
- “Do you use painter’s tape to mask areas that should not be painted?”
Do not forget the warranty! Do not assume that just because you have hired the best contractor in town, you do not need a warranty. You still do need one. Any reputable contractor will not hesitate to provide you a warranty for their work because they know the services they render. A warranty will be useful if there’s a fault of workmanship in the final paint job, and your contractors will fix it for free or for little cost.
And finally, do not make a sizeable down payment or a full payment to get the quality work if you want everything in your control. Pay 20% or 30% of the total job cost first, then hold back the rest of the payment until the painters complete the best exterior painting in Walnut Creek to your satisfaction.