Ryan Amato Painting Wins PDCA PIP Award

Ryan Amato painting has won the PDCA PIP best commercial interior painting project award.
The Painting and Decorating Contractors of America (PDCA) is the only trade association dedicated to the success of painting and decorating contractors. PDCA provides members with industry-specific tools to become better painters and business owners through participation in education programs, local networking meetings, use of PDCA Industry Standards and more. 

"We are honored to be included with some of the best painting contractors and owners in the industry" Ryan Amato said
"To be honored and recognized by your peers is a feeling that is hard to describe."

The project that won this award was right in our hometown of Easton,PA.
The renovation of Paxinosa Elementary school. For us, this was one of the largest projects we had done up to this point. 

With a difficult schedule and always changing paint conditions, we finished the project on time and within the budget.

What to expect when painting your kitchen cabinets

 What to expect when painting your kitchen cabinets.

Ok, so you made the decision to have your kitchen cabinets painted but have no idea how this will go or where to start.

When you call for an estimate from us we will take some basic information and direct you to our webpage where you can fill out this questionnaire. 

Once we receive this back our estimators will take a look at it and based off of the many other jobs we have done give a rough estimate without having to come out yet.

If this rough price fits within your budget one of our estimators will schedule an appointment to come out and go over this whole process with you. At this point, a firm price can be presented based off of what needs to be done.

The estimator will be counting doors and openings, asking some questions about colors, sheens, what you're expecting and how much you're prepared to maintain the cabinets. With any painting project, there will be maintenance. If hit hard or scratched the paint may chip and this goes for any product used on cabinets whether lacquer, epoxy or acrylics. We will show you how to touch these up easily with professional results.

You also have the option for a clear coat should you want to protect them even more than a standard paint job. You can also have the panels caulked for an additional fee. We typically would prefer not to do this as we want them to be able to move a little however we understand the cosmetic issue and when going from a dark color to light you may see a shadow in the areas not caulked. 

Once the project begins you can expect some light scuff sanding, deglossing using a chemical and some more cleaning. That typically takes a day. This is where some jobs may be different, each job is prescribed its own process which may or may not involve priming, it is dependant on what the current surface is. Should we prime we typically use an oil based primer and then two top coats using an acrylic coating. We choose acrylic as it moves more (think expansion and contraction) doesn't yellow or amberlike a lacquer or oil may. The surfaces on the job usually are brushed and rolled while we may or may not take the drawers and doors back to our shop to spray.

We have found we can achieve a fine finish by brushing and rolling just as we can by spraying. Each project is different. With the proper prep and products, your kitchen cabinet painting job can turn out great. Sit back relax and let the painters do their thing.

Paint It Forward

We were thrilled to call our 2017 Paint It Forward winner today.
Thanks to a Sherwin Williams sponsorship and the generosity of our staff we were able to give a $3000 paint job to Peaceable Kingdom , a facility that is a nonprofit shelter for animals.
Animals for us are dear to our heart as Ryan himself has adopted two dogs from the local shelters and have become a huge part of his family.
We cannot thank everyone enough in supporting this cause and we cannot wait to do it again next year.
Stay tuned for before and afters of this project.

Expectations are the key ingredient

Expectations are the key ingredient when hiring a contractor or painter.

When your hiring a painting contractor letting them know your expectation for your project is very important.

Think of it this way, when you go out to dinner do you not tell the waiter or waitress exactly what you want to do you simply say I'm hungry bring food?

You would never think of doing that even for a $10 meal so why would you do this for a job that could possibly cost you thousands of dollars? It makes no sense.

Don't be afraid to let them know you expect a lot of work in prep or no you would like to save money and you're only concerned with changing colors.

Here is a video I just did explaining this.

Dealing with clients who are irrational

Dealing with "that" client

When I started my own business after about a few months I realized a hard lesson.
Not everyone respects the other person or has the same values as I do or our employees do.

This was a hard lesson at first and made me question many things, were our systems wrong? Did we do something or not do something we were supposed to do? Was our work just not great on some jobs? What broke down?

I went back and adjusted our systems, policies, checklists only to find we would still have some issues with only a few jobs but those issues would seem like the end of the world even though they were in the grand scheme of things small.

So what is the problem? I speak to many other businesses small and large and they all have the same issues whether they show on the outside or not. One company shared some horrible reviews and emails that are nowhere to be seen on their website or Google, I find that as a cost of business they have budgeted in dealing with these reviews and tough customers.

Their approach was to just manage the bad ones because they know their systems are tight, some customers there is no system in the world that will put a stop to the complaining.

We have a very tight system where the office will call at the start of the job, a few days in and at completion even while the painters and project manager are on site doing the same and still we have clients attempt to go directly around them to get to me. Although I care about each and every job it is just impossible for me to manage a job site especially when we have very qualified people in place to do this. When I hire someone to work around my home, I trust that they hired the correct staff to handle my project, if something would happen would follow THEIR correct chain of command, not the one I believe is right.

We recently had a client who interfered on a very delicate epoxy floor job, he felt he could manage the project, dictate to the painters how to apply and wanted to help every step of the way, all the while leaving emails and voicemails on how upsetting this was to him. There was a material issue which was a small inconvenience but one that we corrected without any question along with the manufacturer of that material. This still was not good enough and he became verbally abusive via email and phone calls and to quote "this has been the worst thing that has happened in my life"
Now if this has been the worst thing that has happened he should thank god for that. Comparing a paint issue to other serious things that could happen in someone's life makes us shake our heads.

One other issue we have is clients simply do not read their contract and I am not speaking about any fine print, we are talking about the bold scope of work, what will be done and not done. This is listed many times through the process, during a walk through before a project starts and available every step of the way.

Even when an issue may pop up and we explain this process some people, usually the same type of irrational person will push back from any of this and expect the painters to do anything they need to do regardless of how much it costs the company to do it and not charge them a dime for it.

This me attitude is the worst thing about being a business owner, we want nothing else than to give an awesome job and put a smile on our clients face, but when we meet these people who knock that smile off even before we walk through the door it brings the office, painters, and supervisors down and they want nothing more than to finish these jobs and move on. We also add these clients to our do not work for list. I should charge other companies for this list it would save a ton of time and money for them. 

What goes into a commercial paint job.

What goes into a typical large painting job

Blood sweat and tears sometimes

Commercial painting can be a cutthroat business but one that is rewarding when a project is running correctly by the general contractor, the other trades, and our own team.

Should one of those areas slip it creates a cascade of aggravation throughout the whole project, however when all is going great it's like watching a synchronized dance and it is wonderful to watch a large group of trades come together to complete a job.

Let's discuss a typical project. It all starts with a bid invite or rfp  (request for proposal)

They can come to you in many ways, from repeat customers, lists you pay for, your paint store etc.

Once you receive that it's time to determine if a project is right for your team, you should not take every project that comes your way for many reasons.

Once you go over the rfp the estimating team gets to work, there may or may not be a site visit, typically we bid off of blueprints only, never seeing a project until the day we start.

We scour over the blueprints using an estimating program that we can accurately measure all surfaces.

Once we have all of that information and numbers we send it for approval and to put a dollar value on it. We submit it wither via our proposal or an online portal for the general contractor. Some projects you may be bidding to 4-5 different contractors. It's nice to develop a relationship with one and become their preferred painter.

Once you submit your bids it may be months or even a year before you hear anything. Once you're awarded a project is where the work begins. From submittals of all paints and materials used to contracts, insurance and planning the project. It now goes to operations where they will begin putting the plan together.

Once we get a start date we mobilize all of our equipment and do a walkthrough, here is where the project is made or not. If you get a project manager onsite who cannot manage a job site you're all in big trouble. We have been on projects where all of the trades had to come together and run a project in spite of the person who should really be doing it.

As the job is going you will get feedback good and bad and at completion a punch list of all the touch-ups needed, We recommend noting every conversation, email and taking photos as you go because they will come up later on most projects. Be prepared and you may be able to have a smooth commercial painting project.