Finding a Salt Lake City Painter

If you’re like a lot of homeowners you enjoy doing projects around the house but if your home is very large or higher than one story, painting can be a bit daunting especially where heights are involved. Finding a professional painter to handle the job might be the better and safer option when dealing with ladders and high places. A Salt Lake City painter can safely and quickly complete the job for you.

The reason you want to paint your home is to keep it in good repair and maintain appearances, but if the paint job is bad or the materials used are inferior, you won’t be happy with the end results. It’s easy for someone to say they’re a painter but it really requires some specific skills to do a good job so you’ll need to do a little homework before you hire just anyone for the job. No matter what the size of the project is, you need to feel assured that you’re hiring the best painter for your specific job.

Where to Look for Your Prospective Salt Lake City Painter

If you decide to have a professional Salt Lake City painter do the job there are several places you can start your search. Home improvement centers and paint stores are a good place to check. Many contractors, including painters will use the bulletin board to post their information. Use the computer to do a search online for a database of local qualified Salt Lake City painters. The certification process that is sometime involved can be take time and money and usually only professionals will make the effort.

Find out if anyone you know has ever hired a painter in the past. If someone has used the services of a painter, they’ll probably be willing to show you as well as let you know if they are satisfied with the work or not. If you examine the work and like it, ask for contact information for the Salt Lake City painter.

Meeting with a Salt Lake City Painter

Don’t hire a Salt Lake City painter simply because he offers you a cheap deal. Spend some time talking about your project with each painter you consider hiring before you ask for an estimate. Ask a few painters to visit your home and do an onsite walk through with you. Talk with each one about their knowledge and years of experience as a painter. Ask if they have done any work with other established local contractors. Being hired by other contractors is often a good sign that their work is up to standard.

Request proof of current state license and insurance policies from each Salt Lake City painter. It’s important for a Salt Lake City painter to have liability insurance in place to protect you and your home from damage. If they have employees that work with them you need to make sure they also have workers compensation insurance. Should a worker be injured while on your property you could be held liable for medical expenses if there is no workers compensation in place. Any painter you consider hiring should be bonded. If he abandons your project for some reason you will be protected and can see that the job is finished.

Obviously you should ask the Salt Lake City painter for references and check them out but don’t just depend on references to help you make your final decision. Having references is always a good idea but remember that are any discontented customers out there, they won’t be on the list. Call your local Better Business Bureau to check for any past complaints. If you do find any you need to know what they are and if they were ever taken care of. An occasional complaint isn’t uncommon but how the painter takes care of it says a lot about his business practices.

Once you have your short list of painters, you’re ready to ask for some bids. Every Salt Lake City painter approaches the job differently, from the products he uses to the final cleanup process. This can make comparing bids confusing. There might also be different methods used in preparation work. One painter may only use a pressure washer for exterior preparation while another might painstakingly scrape and sand the entire surface. The varying amounts of work can make a big difference in the numbers you see on your bids. You need to give each Salt Lake City painter a list of everything you would like to see in their bid. By setting some guidelines you should get back some uniform bids that will be much easier to compare.

The Salt Lake City Painter Contract

Once you have the Salt Lake City painter you want for your project, you need to put together a contract. There are a number of things that should be included in a contract, including a summery of the job and how it will be accomplished. It’s also important to include the type of paint and the exact cost for materials and labor. Any contract should also contain all necessary contact information for the painter along with his state license number and copies of insurance policies. You should also make certain that a specific completion date is included.

Find out if the painter includes a guarantee for his work if there is a problem with fading, chipping or peeling within a specific amount of time. If there is one make sure it’s also in writing that the painter will fix the problem at little or no cost to you. The paint itself will probably have a warranty but that doesn’t include the expense of having the work done all over again.

You want to hire a painter you can rely on. A lot of the work will probably be done when you aren’t around so it’s difficult to know exactly what’s being done. And once the job is done you really have no way of knowing if the surface was actually primed or how many coats of paint were used. It’s just as important to hire a reliable Salt Lake City painter as any other contractor and you need to find the one best suited for your project.