Your home is your most sacred space. This where we eat, sleep, raise our children, and have our most personal experiences. This is our safety zone, the place we go for time out from the rest of the world. Just as we need maintenance our sacred abode needs it from time to time as well.

Typically we don’t want to do the maintenance ourselves, especially when it involves painting. This means hiring a painting contractor.

When hiring any contractor, you are looking for a company that knows what they’re doing and does it well. You want a company who will get the job done on time and on budget, with no hidden charges. You expect your contractor to clean up every day and respect your property.

Here are a few tips to get the job done right:

Painting contractors are listed in the yellow pages or local classifieds. Reputable companies provide free estimates so it’s always a good idea to get three or four bids.

Neighbors, friends, real estate agents and your local paint store will gladly give you referrals to contractors they have had success with.

Request insurance verification certificates from the contractor.

A few questions to ask when getting your estimates include:

• Did the contractor explain everything in detail from start to finish? Was the explanation clear and was a written contract that explaied the same provided?
• Were you told how long the job would take?
• Were you provided names and addresses of previous work?
• Were you told what materials would be used on your home?
• Was your phone call promptly returned?
• Was the contractor on time for the estimate? This may be an indicator of how your job will go.
• Did the contractor ask for money down? This should always be a red flag, at least for the residential repaints. Reputable painting contractors have charge accounts and cash flow to cover payroll and overhead. Note:(When a job is extremely large, one that takes weeks to complete, it is common to request moneys during the course of the contract. This should be within a contract payment clause).
• Is the contractor licensed and insured? Hiring an underinsured and unlicensed contractor leaves you with little recourse and you could be liable for physical injuries sustained on your property.

Caution:

Do your homework, check references, look at some jobs they’ve done. A very low bid could spell trouble for you.