Interior and Exterior Painting Contractors
|
Hiring professional painting contractors
Completing a painting job of an interior room in your home is a satisfying and quick way to give a room a new look and increase the real estate value of your home with a fresh coat of paint. Painting walls, ceilings and mouldings is a relatively easy painting job to complete without a contractor if you are prepared for the tasks that a painting contractor will do to keep the rest of your room paint free and looking professional.
Painting contractors may seem like a luxury, but when you consider the prep time involved in painting and making small repairs to surfaces that need paint, by the time you have done everything properly you will have saved very little money and the painting job will often take much longer, leaving the room to be painted out of use for longer than if you had hired a professional painting contractor to do the work for you.
Exterior Painting:
Painting contractors for exterior painting jobs bring the best value for the dollar with them. To prepare a house for an exterior painting job can mean a lot of hard work and dangerous working conditions if you are not a skilled contractor. The exterior walls to be painted should be thoroughly washed to provide an adequate surface that will be easy to paint and that holds paint well enough to make all of the work last. Caulking should be done in all areas where existing caulking is breaking down or is non existent. Caulking is not a substitute for patching leaks in your exterior walls as it is only a cosmetic fix. Caulking will eventually break down, and if you have used it to repair a leak in your wall, you will be facing the same problem again without repairing the underlying problem.
All windows and doors should be covered to avoid splashing paint on these surfaces and drop cloths should be used around the perimeter of your home. A painting contractor will be able to do all of these things with ease, and you will not have to worry about whether or not you had set the scaffolding up properly or if your rickety ladder is up to the task. An exterior painting job can be a monumental task, especially if you are not confident with heights and repairing your exterior walls so that your painting job looks good.
When selecting an exterior paint, one with a low gloss finish will show less imperfections than a high gloss paint. A contractor will be able to better estimate the amount of paint that you will need to purchase to paint your exterior walls. This will depend largely on the type of exterior walls that you have and the existing finish on the walls. Rough surfaces can hold 20-30% more paint than a smooth wall and wastage can become a factor in this calculation if you are using a spray gun over a paint roller to apply the paint.
Interior Painting:
Painting interior walls is the most common DIY painting job for homeowners to undertake. The room that is being painting will need to be prepared with coverings so that you do not ruin other surfaces, appliances and furniture. If you rush through covering up the surfaces that you do not want to get paint on, it will be a big headache to clean paint drops from everything that has been contaminated; it is important to be thorough at this stage of interior painting. Get some decent painting tape from the hardware store and apply it to all edges where you will need paint to stop at. If you are not a detail orientated person, some extra coverage with news print can help avoid splashes of paint on windows or mouldings.
When you are painting drywall, first apply a coat of primer to prepare the drywall for painting. After you have applied a coat of paint, it is good to give the surface a light sanding to remove imperfections before applying a second coat of paint. This is especially important when you are using a high gloss paint that will tend to show more imperfections than a low gloss paint. The second coat of paint should be applied across the pattern that you used to apply the first coat of paint, helping to remove brush strokes from showing through in the finished coat.
Depending on the job, homeowners can undertake a lot of interior painting projects themselves without much difficulty. If you have multiple rooms to paint or are looking for enhanced finishes and styles, having painting contractors call you with free quotes can drastically cut down on the time it takes you to complete a painting project when a professional contractor paints your rooms. Calling in the experts when you have an exterior painting job to do will also save you a lot of aggravation and potentially dangerous work. When you choose a contractor to paint your home, it is important to ask them some questions about their company and how the painting will be done.
Some questions to ask a painting contractor:
Are you insured with liability insurance for property damage and worker insurance for personal injury to yourself and workers?
Do you have any references from previous painting jobs that I can contact?
How long have you been a painter? Will you be doing the interior or exterior painting yourself?
Is there a warranty available for labour and material costs?
Get a Painting Contract in Writing
And most importantly, having a contract in place before you begin painting your home is a wise move and any reputable contractor will agree to a written contract. You can view sample contracts from Contractor Quotes to help get you started, but it should only be used as a guide and you will need to have the contract reviewed by a professional to account for any local bylaws and regional differences that can affect your contract.
|
|
