Local Exterior Project: How to Prepare Your Exterior For Painters
When you hire a painter to paint your home’s exterior, you might think there is nothing left for you to do apart from booking the project. That is not the case though! The more non-paint related things you can do to prepare your home and save your painter time, the more you do to save yourself money! If you have an exterior paint project coming up soon; here are some helpful things you can do to get your home ready for the painter!
Prepare Before The Pressure Wash
Mow Lawn and Trim Plants
When you book an exterior paint project, your home will be scheduled for a pressure wash. Before the painter comes to pressure wash your house, mow your grass and trim any plants that are touching your walls. The painter needs about 18 inches of space between the wall and the leaves.
Move Patio Furniture and Decorations
Move lawn ornaments and patio furniture away from the house. Things like barbeques, picnic tables, wall hangings and frog figurines in your plant bed should all be taken well out of range. Any woodpiles or garbage bins also need to be moved. If you need help moving larger pieces of outdoor furniture, make sure you talk with your painter about it beforehand!
Close All Windows
Don’t forget this one! You definitely want to have all your doors and windows closed before the pressure washing begins! If you find that any of your windows leak even though they are closed, make sure you tell the painter. This way they can add caulking to those places to prevent water damage in the future.
Prepare Before Painting
Cars and Campers
Make sure you park your cars, campers, boats etc out in the road or inside your garage! The outdoors has a breeze sometimes. Even paint aimed carefully at your home can sometimes be blown a few feet over onto your car in the driveway! It is best if you can have all these moved the night before the painter arrives. This saves time in the morning and the painter can park in an efficient place with their tools. Bonus- you do not have to run around in your robe while you park vehicles all over the street! 😉
Sprinklers
This is another one you will want to turn off the night before! You want your home to be dry in the morning for the paint to adhere properly. And you definitely do not want the sprinkler to turn on mid paint job! On a hot day it might be refreshing for the painter…but it will not help your project get completed any sooner. 😉
That pretty much sums it up! If your dog is like my dog, they will instantly find a freshly painted wall and go lay against it…so you probably want to keep them inside too! 😉
To book an estimate with Sir Paints A Lot, click here! If your paint project is for your interior and you’d like to know how to prepare for that, check out this blog!
When you hire us, it is important for you to know who will be working in and around your family and your house. You can trust that Sir Paints A Lot takes as many steps as possible to ensure that the people we hire will be safe, honest and reliable. Let me tell you more about our hiring process!
Hiring Step 1: Character First, Talent Second
We can teach anyone how to paint with precision and efficiency. Well, anyone who is willing to learn! While experience can be beneficial, we believe the most important thing to consider when hiring a new team member is character. This isn’t always an easy thing to discern right away just based off of job application forms and previous work history. We never skip the interview!
Hiring Step 2: The Interview
After the applicant completes our form, which can be found at www.sirpaints.com/career, we will call the applicant for a phone interview. What sort of questions do we ask during our interviews and what are we looking for? Well, the first thing we look for is how the applicant responds to the unexpected pressure of the phone call. We need to know that the applicant will not become overly stressed and panicked every time something unexpected comes up at the job site.
We also look for enthusiasm and clean language. Painters spend several hours inside our customers’ homes and it is important that they are capable of keeping their language professional. We always call the references provided, and if they are not able to give us any positive remarks, or were not even aware that we would be calling them; it is likely that the interview process for that applicant will end there.
Interview Stage 2
But for applicants who did provide good references and informed them that we would be calling, we will take our interview to the next level! We will ask deeper questions about their work ethic and motivations. We want to find out how hungry they are to be a part of our team and what opportunity they see for themselves in joining us. Are they looking to be a part of something, or simply punch the clock for a paycheck?
We really dive into the team player mentality, because painters work as a crew. If one member is much less invested in the outcome of the job, it negatively impacts everyone else on the team. We look for humility and the willingness to learn and admit to weaknesses, with a desire to actually overcome them. We try to get a feel for their interpersonal skills by asking questions about how they handled past conflicts or frustrations with others.
Ultimately our interview process is very lengthy, as we want to ensure we are hiring the kind of people who do what they say they will do, and respect the people they work with and the people they work for. We want to have peace of mind that they will care just as much about the outcome of your project as you do, because they respect you and they hold themselves to a standard worthy of respecting.
Hiring Step 3: Background Check and Drug Test
Regardless of how amazing of an applicant we think we found after interviewing them, we still proceed with the background check and drug testing. We are fully aware that some people are excellent at telling you what you want to hear and we do not want to send anyone into your house until we can be sure that they will not be a risk to your safety or your property.
As you can see, our interview is really the most important part of our hiring process. We ask several questions about past situations and conflicts, previous jobs and work ethic, hobbies and motivations, family and friends, and strengths and weaknesses. We make sure our new hires can work well on a team and keep a positive and professional attitude. Experience is definitely a bonus, but only if the character comes with it!
I hope this helps you feel confident when you hire us! To schedule an estimate with Sir Paints A Lot click HERE!
Information is out there everywhere you look! We all absorb information differently. Videos are just one way out of many that we can learn about a product or service we are interested in. While it sometimes feels quicker to simply read over written reviews; there is just an authenticity with video reviews that makes them stand out! Let’s talk about why!
The Five Senses
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes…. Wait….That isn’t right… And many reviews you read over don’t seem right either! How many times do you come across a 5 star review just raving about something that everyone else seems to hate? (It’s not a conspiracy..people do get paid to do this… ) And how often do you notice that many of the 5 star reviews listed beneath the product you are considering are not even about That product?!? How many times have you ordered 2 sizes up (based on many reviews that the item runs small) only to receive an item 8 times too large? It is safe to say that we as humans have learned to take written reviews with a grain of salt. And Pepper.
Sight
When you watch a video review, you are not just reading words on a screen and wondering who wrote them. You are usually seeing real people reviewing a real product that is most likely visible in the video. Their expressions are visible while they speak and you can tell if they are actually happy with their product or service. It’s true that some people are good actors, but our eyes are good at picking up on that when we really look! Take this review for example- we just love the body language!
Hearing
Hearing real people talk about their experience adds an element of relatability. Our ears also have the capacity to pick up genuine tones and fakeness. When we are able to hear what people are saying, and how they say it; it is easy for our brains to decide if they really believe it or not. It’s true that some people are good liars…but our ears are good at picking up on that when we really listen! Especially when we can Also watch them 😉
Here is a good one you can listen to (especially since some of the visual cues are limited 😅 )
Smell, Touch, Taste
Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose….errr Technology is not quite so advanced yet that we can smell or touch or taste a product through a screen. 😉 But being able to see and hear about something at the same time does help our brain to fill in the gaps. There are less gaps to fill when we watch a video review than when we simply read a review. This is why a commercial showing a juicy cheeseburger covered in cheese makes us think we can almost taste it! When you read those words, you may have pictured it…but when you watch it, you get to skip a step!
As you can see, there are several things about video reviews that help others learn about our services in a meaningful way! If we have the opportunity to work for you, your feedback is very valuable to us. We appreciate your willingness to be vulnerable for a minute to share your authentic experience with others! Hopefully at the very least, you have a song stuck in your head for the day! Thank you for taking the time to read about video reviews and why they matter! Check out our interactive video review map to see what others in the area had to say about their experience with us! https://sirpaints.com/review%20map/
Click here if you would like to book an estimate with Sir Paints A Lot! Thank You!
The initial feeling of excitement when you decide to have your house painted is a rush for sure! Buuuuut it can wear off quickly. You begin to realize how many things need to be done between the moment you decide to paint and the moment the painting is completed. Fantasizing all the different color options is only one task on the list, and not the first! So first things first! You need to decide WHO will be handling your paint work for you. Step 1 is a huge decision! It will impact the whole process, so here are some helpful things to consider when you choose your contractor!
Most of us take the time to look at online reputation before we call for an estimate in the first place… but is that enough? The crucial question is “Which business page has the most Facebook likes?!?” Winner! Done! 😉 Kidding… If only it were that simple! While you can put some weight into the way a business interacts with the social community; it is much more important to see if they have actual references and reviews about the experience they provide to their customers. If they do not have online reviews; can they give you references in another format?
Even a well liked business with lots of good reviews can be irresponsible though… And just because something bad hasn’t happened yet doesn’t necessarily mean they are prepared for it. Make sure the contractor you want to hire has a good business insurance policy and worker’s comp for all employees. If the contractor you want to hire uses sub-contractors; make sure they have these things too! A contractor whose stability is based off of more than social perception is critical!
Experience and Service
When we think of “experience”, we tend to just think of “how long” the contractor has been in business for. That is not the best way to look at it. Someone could be running a painting business for 50 years and only paint one house a month. On the flip side: Another contractor could be 5 years into their business, but have experience running 4 jobs a week. While you want to be sure that your contractor knows what they are doing, it is also important to ask about the “experience” they offer.
Does the contractor provide a clear outline for the services they will provide for you? Do they have a warranty on their work or materials? To find out how to spot a good warranty; click here! Is their communication with you going to make you confident that you are a part of the plan? Or will you be left in the dark, hoping they don’t finally show up for the project when you’re in the bathroom. 😉 (A personal fear of mine haha!) The quality of your experience depends greatly on the quality of your contractor’s service and communication.
Follow Up
It is pretty common in the trades for a contractor to come and go as they please. Everything happens on their time, with very short notice for you, in most cases. This can leave you under-prepared for the conversations you want to have with them, and frustrated with poor communication. They can leave just as quickly as they came and not really care either way whether you are satisfied with the service you paid for or not. The final bill can be hugely different from the quote you received, and you can’t expect communication to improve at this point.
Now not all contractors behave this way! But you definitely want to have a conversation with your contractor about what you can expect during the process; from the first estimate to the final bill.
Click Here for our handy list: 17 Critical Questions for Your Contractor!
Thank you for your time! To schedule an estimate with Sir Paints A Lot, click here! Have an Amazing Day!
Fall in the PNW was a little behind schedule this year; but it has finally come and gone! Except it is not really gone… The once bright and yellow leaves are now brown and squishy. They are leaving their dark (yet beautiful) marks all over your driveways and sidewalks. Worse though, they are all over your patio and clogging up your rain gutters. They stick to your feet as you cross your patio to enjoy a dip in your hot tub. 😉 The dry leaves can be blown away; yes…but what about the soggy ones? What about the layers of ash from all the fires that are mixing with rain to make your walls look sludgy? What can you do? Why should you do anything? What happens if you don’t? Well, I am here to answer all of it!
What Can You Do?
I think the title already gave away the big secret 😉 but Pressure-Washing is an excellent way to clean up all the soggy remains of fall! The climate here gets soggy quickly and the leaves don’t have the same opportunity to disintegrate and blow away in the wind like they do in some places. Raking them up into a glorious pile of leaves to jump in is also less satisfying…Unless you enjoy jumping into what feels like fluffy, cold mud. So what does it mean to Pressure-Wash?
Pressure-Wash in Latin is “Pressura-Lava”… a fancy way of saying “to wash with hot lava and pressure”…. 😉 When you pressure-wash a surface, a pump is used to create a high pressure water spray that works very efficiently at removing mold, grime, dust, mud, soggy leaves and other debris from the surface. Detergents can be added to make the washing even more effective.
You can wash away most of the soggy residue of fall with a quick pressure-wash! You can pressure-wash the leaves out of your gutters and off of your patio. You can pressure-wash the ashes and grime off your walls, windows and trim. And you can also wash the stains off of your driveway and sidewalk that are left behind from rotting fruits and leaves! Mold and Mildew removal often requires a detergent to be mixed in to effectively eliminate them; but I suggest a mild detergent either way!
Why Should You Pressure-Wash?
Spring and Fall (and right before a new paint job) are the best times to pressure-wash! We will focus on why Fall is a good time.
Temperature: Most of the time in fall, temperatures are still not freezing. You do not want to pressure-wash in freezing weather as that could create worse problems than soggy leaves. Because of the pressure behind the water; water will reach places it normally can’t when you pressure-wash. You do not want in to freeze and expand in these areas!
Cleanliness: After Summer and Fall, we tend to have a lot of things “left-over” on our home’s surfaces. The popsicles that dripped onto the deck… The pollen that is clinging tightly to the window trim… The leftover pumpkin juices that marked their spot on the front porch…. Ok maybe I’m the only one that throws them out a few days too late haha- but I doubt it! 😉 Either way, cleanliness is next to godliness!
Protection: Believe it or not; all those little things left sticking to the surfaces around your home only get harder to remove the longer you leave them there! Certain molds and mildews can cause a lot of damage once they start growing into the materials that protect your home. This is the most important reason you should pressure-wash in the fall!
What Happens If You Don’t Pressure-Wash The Fall Away?
You’re probably thinking: “Well I have never pressure-washed my home in the fall and it is still standing!” Right? Right. Pressure-Washing is one of those small things that makes a big difference over time! As I said above; molds and mildews will damage the surfaces of the things that protect your home if left unchecked. Paint, Siding, Trim, Caulking… All of these things will last longer if you maintain them properly. Will they disintegrate at the end of winter if you just let the rain clean them for a couple years? No, probably not. Will you be paying for more home maintenance in the long run in the form of new siding or paint? Definitely! Also, you will be more likely to track soggy leaves into your hot tub. 😉
Choosing to pressure-wash in the fall is just a small, important step you can take to maintain your home and lengthen the amount of time that passes before you have to invest in a large, important step.
Can You Damage Your Home While Pressure-Washing?
Yes! This is one reason a lot of people will just let the rain do the work… If you use too high of a setting for the surface you are cleaning; you can absolutely damage the material. For example: Concrete can withstand a higher pressure than your fence or your deck because the material is more rigid. Do your research on the surfaces you will be cleaning and you should have no problems! Here is one very helpful article about how to pressure-wash!
If you work with us at Sir Paints A Lot, we offer a Premium Home Care Package that will have you covered! Take a Look!
Sir Paints A Lot Premium Home Care Package
As Always, Thank you for Reading! For any questions you can call us at 541-600-2025 or visit our website at sirpaints.com! Have a Great Day!!!
