You Want A Painting Estimate Now

You Want A Painting Estimate Now

You want a painting estimate now but are your prepared for what you may hear?

Do you know what type of company you would like to hire?

What? You didn't know every company is different?

Remember the painting industry is not robotic, every painter, every company does things differently and each will have different costs associated with "their way"

Before you send that email or call that painting company you chose from facebook or Google, make sure you know what is important to you and your family for the work you want done. 

This can included

• The time frame
• How much preparation of the surface you want ( it is not standard from company to company) 
• The type of paint you want to use vs your budget, remember you can go from $15 a gallon of paint all the way up to and over $100 PER GALLON
• What will make you thrilled once the project is over, what will you remember about the job
• Have you had issues in the past with other companies

The Time Frame

The time frame is very important, most companies will surely be 4-6 weeks out with scheduling, please plan your projects ahead of time when possible, there is always a chance a project can be done ahead of that time frame when time and schedule permits. But if your time frame is less than a week, you will have an issue securing a highly sought after professional painting company or painter.

Let them know right away on the phone, a good company will ask this BEFORE coming out so they can avoid wasting anyone's time for a time frame they could never meet.

Preparation

No two companies will prepare your walls the same and it doesn't mean any one company is right or wrong, some companies do high end work where every inch of the surface is perfect and budget is not an issue for that client while other companies give you a general patching , hitting small dings and dent, maybe not all of them will be done but the majority and than there will be companies in between. 

Without explaining what you want your project is ripe for missed expectations and trouble, the experience will be miserable if you think your getting one job but receive another.

Don't be afraid to have an open and honest discussion with the contractor you're going to select because it is certainly a relationship. With any type of relationship if there is no communication there will be issues.

Paints Used

Paint prices vary so greatly, you can get a lower grade paint for a quick color change for an apartment for $15 or less in some cases or you can go all out and spend over $100 for a custom hand made paint from Benjamin Moore. Somewhere between those two options are many, many other choices depending on the performance you wish for your home or business.

Here are some questions to ask yourself

• Will you wash your walls?
• If so will you scrub them?
• Do you have children and pets?
• What type of sheen (shine) or lack of do you wish?
• What colors are you choosing?
• How often do you repaint
• Do you want a zero voc paint?
• Do you or anyone in your home have asthma or allergies?

The Vision

When your project is over a good company should know and meet what your vision is for your project.

We all have a vision, whether you got it from Houzz, Google, saw a friends home, a picture on Facebook or simply came up with it on your own, that is a vision and we want to know what that looks like so we can meet and exceed it.

A picture, drawing, link or video is a great way to share this vision, having a working relationship with any contractor will surely make your painting project a great one

We love to paint homes

We love our work 

What’s not to love about making people’s dreams for their home come true? We get to see this process start from the first day at the estimate when they explain to our estimator what their vision is for a room or the entire home, whether inside or out paint can do so much and quick.

Transforming a home can be a life changing thing for some families, people save to be able to do a professional paint job and we take that seriously each time.

Does everything always go perfectly? No not every time but the thing with us is we stand behind everything and we preach accountability to everyone around us, and if we see they do not understand accountability they aren’t around any longer.

We have had a lot of great painters that turned out to not be a good fit because as soon as something goes wrong (and it does) they blame everyone else, that is the perfect time to see someone’s true colors. We work hard to keep good people around us who are professional, respectful, dependable and great at communication. To find these people takes a lot of hard work , sometimes we can’t tell right away but people always show their true self in tough times.

What does this mean to you? It means you have nothing to worry about, even in the rare case something happens you can rest assure it will be corrected any way possible and that means a lot in this day and age with contractors.

We are a small company who specializes in customer satisfaction, we just happen to paint.

The best clients become our raving fans and tell everyone, their friends and family, click on our social media posts and keep in touch with us.

It’s great when we are out in the area, at a store and someone comes up and tells us how much they love us and the job we did.

As I said it’s not perfect, we have had disgruntled clients as well as painters, that is going to happen when you do so many jobs and work for people and with people you don’t know personally, we try hard to qualify our clients and painters but every now and then some slip through or we make a mistake. Anyone company who says they never have made a mistake isn’t telling you the truth.

I get the great opportunity to meet, train and teach and learn from many other painting contractors across the United States as well as some of the largest and best and trust me we all have the same issues. Employee issues, client issues, expectations are unreasonable or just very difficult people.

But to push on and persevere and grow is what makes it all worthwhile , remember the great clients more than the few bad ones, remember their is always a bad apple in the bunch. It doesn’t mean you do bad work. 

Get to know us: Tag Entwisle

Get to know us 

Tag Entwisle

Tag is our operations manager and comes to us from his past management experience with Gold's Gym and Amazon. He brings a devotion to the company culture, great communication and always strives to be a role model to our staff.

We were lucky enough to bring Tag in, his current role has the responsibilities of managing all the painters and crew leaders, the daily schedule, making sure all the clients are satisfied. He developed a year long training system for the painters.

Accountability is a must for Tag and expects and demands it from everyone around him but at at the same time is fair and loyal.

He has overseen many different projects from commercial painting, small and large to residential interior and exterior projects.

He has worked directly with Benjamin Moore to learn all the new products as well as the ones we currently use each day.

There is no rest in our office but when Tag has free time he loves working out as well as spending time with his to girls. Fun fact Tag has competed and will be competing again in bodybuilding show.

Welcome to our company

Welcome to our company

Here is a brief glimpse of my painting company through a typical week.

A lot more goes into painting your home than just showing up and throwing some paint on your walls.

From the initial call to the estimate to all the planning that goes into the project there is a great team of people involved in accomplishing a great paint job.

When I started my company my goal was to help people get their goal of painting their home in a professional manner but also within their budget while giving our great people an awesome place to work. So much goes into reaching that goal that is never seen. It is not an easy job, to say the least making everyone happy and some people that could never be happy no matter what you do. But after all the great clients, reviews and awards we have won it has been a success.

Of course, we get some clients that just are not happy or believe they had a bad experience and we try hard to not have that happen or rectify it, I guess they say you can't make an unhappy person happy no matter how hard we try.

Benjamin Moore Scuff-X vs the competitor

Benjamin Moore Scuff-X vs the competitors pre cat epoxy

A head to head match up

It was a lazy afternoon in our office and as I was cleaning out a few things it popped through my head to show everyone else what we already knew about Scuff-X  in the office and some of our commercial clients know.

So I pulled out the competitors pre-cat epoxy water-based formula and grabbed a gallon of Scuff-X. For those who don't know Scuff-X is a single component paint that resists scuffs before they start.

Time to paint

I went over to a wall I had already primed and has two coats of flat paint on it and marked out the walls into two square sections and applied two coats to each square with each paint and let dry for hours.

Hiding and coverage

Once that was done I removed the tape and here is where the amazing results start. The first thing is the hiding and coverage of Scuff-X were clearly better than the pre cat, we use a lot of pre cat and trust me we know the coverage and hiding issues it has with most colors. I used the same roller cover for each a 4inch by half inch sleeve from MAB we had lying around the shop.

The Real Test

Here is where Scuff-X shines, I took a plastic spackle knife and ran it across each surface multiple times, there were NO marks on the Scuff-X, in fact, I damaged the drywall with marks and not the paint. The pre-cat side was a mess, marks all over. I then took my sneaker which if you have kids at home or in a mudroom know these create a million marks. I ran it across each side and again the pre-cat failed miserably. I was lucky enough to use this when it first came out in my basement stairwell as a test before we used it on any clients projects and we have ZERO marks.

Impressive

If you have a commercial or high use area such as a doctors office, waiting room, gym or any other space I highly recommend this product, it will certainly save on repainting costs down the road.

here is the actual video from these tests