Reliability and trustworthiness is not only important for painting your house, but for any contracting service you enlist for your house. There are several key indicators that can give away whether a painting contractor is reliable or not.
1st Indicator: Good Communication and Punctuality.
A reliable painting contractor will stay in good communication with you and keep you advised of each step of the process. They will also follow-through on their commitments and be punctual with their appointments. If a contractor is consistently late or not following through, it is time to take this as a warning and choose from your other bids as recommended in our “Save Money, Get Multiple House Painting Quotes” article.
2nd Indicator: Reliable references on command.
Reliable Painting Contractors will usually offer customer references, or will have no hesitation when asked for references. The references should be local and recent. This ensures that the painting contractor is not picking ancient references that were “good”, but few and far between.
3rd Indicator: Small or no deposit required.
If a painting contractor is asking for a huge deposit upfront, like 50% or higher, run away as fast as you can! Most of the time, contractors will ask for a small deposit like 10-30% just to cover the materials which is completely fair. Paint stores like Sherwin Williams or Kwal Paint will not allow refunds once a certain paint color is tinted. Taking a deposit does two things for the contractor, it shows a commitment on your behalf that they can actually block out a week for your project and line up a painting crew. It also allows them to purchase your exact colors without paying out of pocket should you decide to change colors after they have already invested in the color scheme. No deposit is always a plus, showing that they are willing to completely finish the job confident you will like the work enough to pay the full amount upon completion.
The most important rule in choosing a reliable painting contractor; go with your guts. You will sense if something is off, do not let an appealing price woe you into a nightmare job. Also, read our Blog and you will know more than most painters themselves. Thanks for reading!