Ready to Get Started? Follow These Steps to Find The Right Painter for You!
The time has come and you are ready to hire a painter for your home. Maybe you tried doing it yourself and said f*ck this, I’m hiring a pro, or maybe you just want to save yourself the hassle and get it done right the first time. Choosing a paint contractor can be just as daunting as picking paint colors. As long as you do your due diligents, you should be smooth sailing with fresh colors in no time!
1- Where to find a painter?
Word of mouth is the best form of advertising any business can do. Any company can be flashy with websites, social media posts & vehicle wraps, but if there’s no reviews to back it up, then maybe they’re not the right fit for you. Every company starts somewhere and needs to get up off the ground, so no shame in being the new guy and not having reviews yet. Finding a painter that was referred by someone you know & trust will be the best way to find your painter. If the people you know, don’t have a referral for you, then scout them out on Google, social media, or social groups you may be in and look for their reviews on many platforms.
2- Services Offered & Experience
Make sure the painter you are “interviewing” offers the service(s) you are looking for. While not super common, you may find a painter who does only interiors but you need an exterior painter. Or maybe you need some staining done and that company does not offer that type of service. Not all painters are created equal. Also- ask how many years of experience they have. While some companies may have only been licensed as a business for 2,3,4 years, usually they have more years of experience than that.
3- Cost
If you have a budget in mind, make sure it aligns with your hired painter. If you have no idea what the budget should be, then get a couple of bids. Some times we have no idea how much things costs and we are so out of touch with reality of the professional paint world, which is OK. How are we supposed to know what things like this cost if we’ve never hired a pro before. Just remember, what the professionals price is, is based on their experience, products used, overhead, their time, skill & expertise in the matter. No painter is “too expensive”, we may be out of your budget, which is totally fine, but what a painters price is, is what they value their service as. So just because your budget and the pros price does not align, it just means that that may not be the right company for your project and that is ok. The cheapest company isn’t always the best and neither is the most expensive company. Remember- you can only have 2 of 3 things… fast & cheap but not good, cheap & good but not fast or fast & good but not cheap.
4-Quality of Paint
Comparing bids and finding that one company is way more than the other and you can’t quite figure out why. Their labor is about the same but the paint & materials is way different. Ask the contractors what paint they plan on using. Using a low end paint vs a higher quality paint will play a huge factor in price. We are a little biased to Benjamin Moore paints as that is our favorite paint brand to use. We find that even their lowest end paint still holds great quality, durability & longevity. Not all paint is created equal.
5- Licensing
Is your painter licensed? How do you find out, you ask? Easy peasy. There are website just for that. You can find out if the contractor is licensed in Washington & Oregon. Type their information into the name search of each states website. There you can verify if they have any strikes, complaints or lawsuits against them. A licensed painter will cost more than an unlicensed painter. I do NOT recommend hiring someone who is not licensed. There is no recourse if something were to go wrong. Licensed contractors must be registered with the state & carry proper insurance and bonds to protect you as the client.
So with the 5 tips we listed above, go out and hit the ground running in finding your contractor. Or, just stop here and call us. We have all of the qualifications needed for your next interior or exterior paint project.
