You Don't Have To Spend A Fortune To Get A Great Paint Job

You don't have to spend a fortune to get a great paint job

When your looking to paint the exterior of your home we know the first worry may be the price.

How much will it cost? Can we afford it and who will do this work?

How do we know we're not being overcharged?

These are all great questions and ones that are normal to ask and worry about but let me ease your worries, if you do your homework you can find a great painting contractor who will do a professional job and one that you will be proud of. Here are the things you need to do.

• You must know exactly what you are expecting when the project is done, a professional estimator should spend time finding these expectations out and providing solutions to meet these 
  

• Be open to discuss the budget. Let me say that again, BE OPEN TO DISCUSSING THE BUDGET. You must be open to discussing the project's budget, you may not know your budget and that's fair but a great estimator can give you examples of other projects they have done and their costs to help you zero in your costs.
• Be open about the experiences you have liked and not liked with past contractors. This will help alleviate any issues on the new project by bringing to light past issues the contractors will be wary of.
• The time frame of the project. Your time frame can directly affect the cost of your project, an immediate need will certainly increase your costs by having to bring in painters that were not scheduled for a project or bringing in the fastest painters who demand more money to complete projects in a fast and professional manner. Or when work is busy some contractors will pick and choose the work they do. See how many will even call back in the summer when they are busy. Do you really want those types on your project?
• Micromanaging your project can actually affect the cost. Spending too much time micromanaging a project will slow down production, make the contractors nervous and not want to be on your project. Hire someone you trust and let them do the work. No one likes someone looking over their shoulder.

By following some basic rules you can certainly keep your costs down on a painting project, failure to do these can certainly increase costs before and throughout the project.

Ryan Amato Painting wins top job award 2018

Ryan Amato Painting wins American Painting Contractor Magazine Top Job Award 2018 for their work on the Paxinosa School project in Easton,Pa 

APC Magazine has announced the winners of its 2018 TOP JOB Awards, sponsored by Zinsser. This year the publication is recognizing 31 painting contractors for excellence in the craft of residential painting.

This year’s winners tackled challenges across a wide spectrum of projects, from faux finishes to failing finishes, and historic renovations to modern wallpaper-heavy solutions. Winners demonstrated an ability to solve complex challenges, exceed customer expectations and create long-lasting finishes that show mastery of the craft.

“We are thrilled to win this award as it shows the dedication to our projects from our crews and staff”  says owner Ryan Amato

This has been an amazing year for Ryan Amato Painting with winning countless awards and can be a testament to the quality and service we provide

How much is it to paint my shutters?

How much is it to paint my shutters?

It's almost exterior painting season and we get asked all the time about painting shutters.

Drive into any neighborhood and you will see those faded ugly vinyl shutters.

Painting them is a great way to preserve them and really get a huge bang for the buck.

The issue is to do them yourself your talking about heights, ladders and making sure you don't get paint on your home. The professional painter to the rescue To paint your shutters is something we do all the time, we can paint them on your home with little to no disruption to anything else.

Using a great quality paint from Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore certainly will guard against premature fading again and being able to keep them clean.

You still will have some maintenance on them, a once a year washing is best to protect the paint and make it shine but little else is needed at all. We even suggest painting new shutters before hanging them up to guard against the fading.

The most common vinyl shutters on a standard two-story home should cost you between $50-$75 per shutter to paint them depending on their condition, the heights, and access.

It is generally a one day project for one painter and can be done in an assortment of great deep colors to compliment your home. Give us a call for any of your shutter painting needs or any other exterior painting projects you may have in mind. 484-821-7112

Your puppy is ugly and negative people aka bullies

Your puppy is ugly and other positive comments online

I love YouTube, I will say it again I love YouTube, I use it at work, at home and it keeps me company at the gym on those never-ending treadmill sessions. I also use it myself for our business uploading videos, tips and other things to help clients and other companies.

It always amazes me that people can be so nasty but more so they have the time to do it? I barely have enough time in a day to get my things done, I would never have time to troll someones YouTube or Facebook page to write nasty comments. I am impressed they have the time honestly.

Negative reviews

So no matter what video you search for someone will either give it a thumbs down or have a nasty comment, try it now go to YouTube and search puppies, who would hate puppies? You will be surprised, I haven't set this up, the fourth result down for me is "Puppies playing with babies" now that is double the cuteness and it has 15K of dislikes? and reading through some not so nice comments. Ok let's try another search kids like to watch "kids playing with toys"

Puppies and kids are bad?

How can that be bad? well, my first result has 10k of dislikes and comments are disabled most likely because people leave nasty ones. Can ten thousand people really dislike a kid playing with a new toy?

Let's go back to business, I have been lucky on YouTube with people being so supportive, leaving great comments but I am not naive I will get some eventually, now Facebook is another story, we are always on the defensive there and it's not from customers.

We receive messages from other companies pretending to be regular people, spouses putting ads up of their husbands' companies, people telling us the pictures aren't real or the same or they can do it better, faster, cheaper etc. I can only imagine what it must be like to be a celebrity, I do not envy that at all, the money would not be worth the attacks. I also can not imagine what kids nowadays must go through, I can only imagine in age they are already sensitive to how they look when people write nasty things on their pages it must really hurt.

Bullies come in all sizes and ages and can be male or female.

Bullying is not just physical and bullies are not just teenagers in a school, you would be surprised how many bullies we run into, from nasty demanding spoiled clients who verbally abuse our workers and office staff to the general contractors who are so spoiled rotten and are used to getting everything they ever request whether its right or wrong, Kyle could tell you stories of contractors demanding we paint while it's snowing or pouring outside or calling to demand we have painters onsite even though we were there and they have no work ready. Bullies suck no doubt and you cannot reason with an unreasonable person. One day I will do a blog with examples of some of the things we go through with demanding clients that will blow your socks off. If we could only name them.

So what are we supposed to do? Let them bring you down? No way! You smile at them, be the bigger person but let them know they are being rude, I don't let them get away with it, let them know how they are treating you, one thing I always tell our staff is to not accept in any way someone abusing you. pack up and leave or hang the phone up, we don't need those type of clients. 

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST TO PAINT THE EXTERIOR OF MY HOME?

How much will it cost to paint the exterior of my home is a question we receive all the time and it’s a great one.

It seems there is a mystery to pricing exterior painting work so what does everyone do? they open up Google search and call a few painting companies that pop up and hopefully one actually calls you back. That is a discussion for another time.

Once you get someone to call you back they all come out and do a dance around the home and tell you how great they are, they are using the best products, will put two coats on and whatever else they think will make you love them.

Guys, I am here to tell you everyone applies the paint the same way, uses the same stores, some are real insured companies with employees and others subcontract some or all of their work.

The difference that sets us apart is no one trains their painters like us, NO ONE! There are no apples to apples, from the support you will receive on the job to the communication from the office there is no comparison and we believe that.

So back to how much will my home cost. There are many factors that go into that question such as.

• How much preparation does the home need?
• When was the last time it was painted?
• What type of heights are involved?
• What is the timeframe for this work to be completed?
• Are lead-based paints involved?
• What colors are being used and is there priming involved

After these questions are answered and we discuss your expectations for your project AND we discuss your budget which is very important we can come to a professional summary for your proposal and prescribe the correct scope of work for the project.

On the home in this picture which is an actual home we did, I met with the homeowner to discuss his project, it was a new home for his family and wanted a color change. We went over how we would complete this project, we hit it off right away and he felt comfortable using us. For me this is where all the other estimates mean nothing, we were in his budget, we hit it off and our scope of work is everything needed. JOB SOLD: The house we completed would cost in this scenario around $3750-$4200 to paint it professionally.

You want the exterior home painted now what?

You want the exterior of your home painted so now what?

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Painting the exterior of your home can be a tough decision as let's face it you have no idea what this may cost.

It may be hundreds, thousands or more and that wonder sometimes can be stressful.

When you decide you need this done it may be for a few different reasons.

• Protection of wood from rot or further rot
• Protection from the suns uv rays which fade surfaces
• Your selling your home and you want to increase the value
• Purely cosmetic and you want to have the best looking home on the block
• The city or township demanded it (codes)

So you can see there are many different reasons or wants to have this done and each has its own set of needs and priorities. If your needing to do it or codes you want it done as fast as possible and usually at a more affordable price as it was unexpected. So maybe you don't put multiple coats on or the prep is not the same as some of the other reason. 

With so many different reasons to have something painted, beautification, safety, and protection there is always a way to tailor your budget to match the job and budget. This is one reason it is so hard to have multiple painting companies come out when you're looking at the price only. They will all estimate it a different way, there are no apples to apples and if you believe you can look at three professional estimates the same when the painting companies can't figure out how to even bid it the same you may have a rough project or just add even more confusion onto an already difficult decision.

You should first know exactly what you would like to have done, what do you expect on that old peeling wood trim and how your expectations will directly affect the cost up or down. A good estimator should be listening to you and not talking the whole time. Their estimate should be tailored to your project, not the companies work tailored to your home.

You want to choose a company that will take the stress away from you, review the process and materials and has a direct written plan on how they will tackle it and then a driven agenda to deliver the result you both agreed upon.

Issues will arise when there is a disconnect between homeowner and estimator and then the transfer from estimator to the painters. Everyone needs to be aware of and agree on the plan before work is to begin. Nothing is worse than a project starting and then the phone ringing as the homeowner is confused or didn't express their full expectations to the estimator and believe me it happens.

"Nothing is worse than a project starting and then the phone ringing as the homeowner is confused or didn't express their full expectations"

How can this be resolved? Review the proposal against the work order. It is important a company walks through before the project is to begin as well as the homeowner signing off on these processes. A lot can be avoided if only there is good communication between the lead painter and homeowner who is in charge. That is another key point, one person should be the direct person to communicate with the painter and one for the homeowner. With too many people involved it can open up confusion and mistakes.

So how much will that exterior paint job really cost? In our next blog, we will give some pricing example of homes we have done. Remember they are examples and each home should be priced on its own but it will be a great sample of what to expect.

Cost or Price?

Cost or Price?

What is your decision going to be based on the cost of the project or the price? You may say what's the difference but there sure is one and it will cost you in the end.

What if I said that lower price that looks all shiny and bright could cost you double the more expensive project by the time the years play out?

Imagine this, you're getting a price on the exterior of your home and you do the get three estimates thing and all your bids come back and you have a price of $10,000, $15,000 and $20,000

Naturally, you look at that high one and think wow, they are overcharging me and you decide to take that low price, they said they are using the same materials and everything is "apples to apples".

So your project cost you $10,000 to start but guess what they didn't prime that bare wood correctly and it peeled off after the year warranty they gave you. (If they even stand behind their warranty)

So you had to hire another company to come out and touch up a few things and that took two days and cost you $1250.00 so now your project cost you 11,250.00

A year later you learn they used a cheaper exterior paint and your paint is fading and chalking so now you must get it power washed and one side that hits the sun repainted. Cost $3750. Your project now cost you $15,000.

A few months later the caulk they used is failing badly, you call the manufacturer but it wasn't applied correctly so there is no warranty and you need to pay someone else to come out again and redo the work. Cost 1 day $600 Now you're at 15,600

Now the big one, you learn on the high areas they only applied one coat of paint and never primed the bare wood and you have rot underneath the gutters. 

Now you must bring in a carpenter, possibly a gutter person and have all of this replaced and painted. Your cost of this work had now crept over that initial bid you thought was overcharging you. It turns out the cost of the project was correct and they had included all of the top of the line products and the prep that was really needed.

So the moral of the story is to not just throw away that initial price, it's cost may be the lowest one after all