5 Things to Consider When Hiring a Residential Painting Contractor

Painting your home is a serious matter and you want to do it the right way, lest you suffer the circumstances. If you have thrown up the white flag and have decided to forgo your DIY plans and hire a painting contractor, you need to know what to look for before you say, “You’re hired.” When it comes to painting your home, you need a contractor with not only experience, but also a passion for the job. If you are going to get a bunch of guys in there that don’t care much about their job, you are going to wind up with a bad paint job. Here are five things to consider when hiring a residential painting contractor.

1. Make sure to do your research online. A quality residential painting contractor will have peer reviews online. All you have to do is search the contractor’s name online and you will be able to find a number of results. If they are all positive, perhaps a meeting is in order. If they are all negative, you can move on. Also, you want to be weary if the contractor has no reviews at all.
2. Ask your friends. Chances are that your friends will know of a painting contractor. Chances are that one of your friends, family members or coworkers has hired a painting contractor to repair the interior or exterior of their home. Sometimes asking a friend or family member can be the best way to find out if a contractor is not only reputable, but also has fair rates. Not only that, but having first hand accounts that a painting contractor did an excellent job is much better than reading reviews online. Sometimes those reviews are written be the contractors themselves.
3. Always compare prices. You never want to go with a painting contractor on the first quote you get. Chances are that there is another contractor out there with lower prices. Also, if you do enough research, you could find the lowest price and then have another contractor beat that price. When you want to place a coat of fresh paint on your home’s walls, sometimes you have to get savvy when you are looking for a painting contractor.
4. Make sure they have an insurance policy. One of the most important steps to becoming a painting contractor is having an insurance policy. An insurance policy will cover the painting contractor in the instance that there is damage. If one of the house painters accidentally spills paint on hardwood floors or an expensive piece of furniture, you want to make sure there is some financial back up – just in case.
5. Experience is everything. If the house contractor you are meeting with doesn’t have a lot of different jobs under his or her belt, chances are that person doesn’t have the most experience and therefore might not be able to complete the job according to your standards. So, when you are meeting with contractors, be sure they can show proof of experience, or else you’ll be sorry later.