Painting your home’s exterior is probably one of the largest and most complicated projects you can take on as a homeowner. Doing it all by yourself is nearly impossible, yet it still has to be accomplished to restore the glory of your home, or maybe prepare it for sale.
By all means, hiring an experienced exterior painting contractor is the best way to have your exterior repaint job executed faster, safely and professionally. And perhaps the second biggest challenge is finding a reliable, and experienced painting contractor in Eugene, Oregon.
While there’re dozens of painting contractors out there, finding a contractor that offers value for money by producing long-lasting and stunning results can be quite a gamble. This article seeks to take the guesswork out of way by sharing the 5 most important things you should consider when hiring a painting contractor.
Here you go;
Ask Around for Referrals
Your first task would be to actually find a number of painting contractors and vet them against your painting needs. One of the best ways to get referrals is by asking your friends, family, neighbors or colleagues. The best thing about referrals from your inner circle is that you can actually visit the painted house and asses the quality of the painter.
If you can’t get reliable referrals from within your inner circle, your next best option would be to head to search engines such as Google and other platforms such as Angie’s list for referrals. Next, narrow your searches to local painting contractors within Eugene, filter the available options using the next checkpoints.
What Services are Offered?
Not all painting contractors are made equal in terms of the services they offer. Different painters specialize in different painting areas. Some have specialized in commercial painting, others in residential painting, while some simply call themselves general painters/contractors.
Before you even find out what services your potential painter offers, identify and define your painting needs. If you have a multi-level home on a slope that needs exterior painting, for instance, you need a contractor that can handle this unique situation. So even if you find an exterior painter specializing in residential houses, go further and ask if they can handle hard-t-reach areas such as the eaves of a multi-level home on a slope.
Licenses and Insurance
Any reputable painting contractor that handles people’s properties worth thousands should have the appropriate paperwork in place. For starters, your potential painter should be licensed to operate in Oregon State and should have no problem displaying a copy of their license.
Additionally, always strive to work with painters that have insurance for both their business and employees. Insurance ensures that if anything goes wrong on your property during the painting project, the damages will be covered by the painter’s insurance policy. In addition, if any worker gets injured while on the job, you’re not liable for the resulting costs.
Painter’s Experience
You want to check if your preferred painter has the required experience to take on your project. While new painters, can do a pretty good job too, they don’t have much to paint you in terms of references. Ideally, you would want to see a few photos of their past projects and even talk to some of their previous clients. As earlier mentioned, your preferred painter needs to have considerable experience (2-5 years) in exterior painting.
Request and Compare Estimates
By now you should have about 3 painting contractors you’re considering hiring. Request estimates from each of them and make comparisons. Don’t fall in the trap of selecting the least costly option for your exterior painting job.
Most homeowners tend to choose the cheapest option from hiring a painter to selecting paint and materials. They generally think that selecting the cheapest option is the best way to go about things. The best price in most cases is not always the lowest one. Instead, you should look to get value for your money. You should consider hiring the contractor that offers the best value.
Conclusion
Choosing a painting contractor is more or less like choosing a tailor, you get what you pay for. If you take some time and do proper research, your efforts will show in the pristine final results that you will get.