One of the most common statements we hear from homeowners is that they haven’t hired a good painting contractor before. Sure, they’ve tried family members, painting on their own, or hiring handymen – all to result in jobs that range from fair to disastrous. Whether you just want someone to clean up your cut lines or do an entire house painting with picture perfect results and zero stress, it’s wise to be aware of the following:

1)    How long will the project take?

2)    Who will be inside my home? What is their work ethic?

3)    How many local references do they have?

4)    Do they have all the credentials of a great painting contractor?

5)    How is the job’s price determined?

6) Is a comprehensive warranty included?

Let’s look at each of these in detail:

Project Duration as Related to Cost

The easiest way to discern a project’s length is by estimating it’s manhours. Once you have that figure, you can divide it by the number of days and people who will be working on the project. A whole interior repaint? Likely 160 hours. A simple bedroom? 5-7 hours. A living room and foyer, including ladder usage, trim painting, and cleanup? Likely within 15-20 hours.

Note that the experience of the painter determines his or her rate. A professional painting company’s workers can usually move 3-4x as fast as the average homeowner and 2x faster than the average handyman, simply because when you specialize in painting, you get really good at it! Given this, a $15 hourly wage for a do-everything handyman can equate to a $25-30 hourly wage for highly skilled painters.

Also note the legality of the company you are working with. If you’re okay with paying someone cash, you can for sure save on the job – but is it worth the risk in liability? For small projects, possibly. But whenever a ladder is involved or a chance you might want that painter to have insurance {for your property} or worker’s compensation {to protect you from lawsuits in the case of injury}, government, tax and legal burdens can add on to a wage rate anywhere between 10% and 30% depending on the factors involved. If you decide to hire a painting company franchise, expect 20-40% of that quote’s price to consist of dues that will fly out to some office in another state and are likely unrelated to your project.

If you’d like to know more about how Elysium prices our work, see our article Determining the Cost of a Paint Job.

Now, back to the timeline. Once a project’s breadth and depth are calculated, you can determine it’s exact timeline. Obviously, four painters can complete a job twice as quickly as two painters. Will the contractor’s crew work consecutive days, or will some employees break off to other projects? Are all your colors selected in advance, or could indecision delay the smooth progression of the job? And lastly, is the estimate accurate? That is, did the person estimating take into account all the appropriate repairs, preparation, furniture moving, setup and cleanup time? These last factors are often crucial, because the “hidden factors” of a job can make up anywhere between 20-60% of a job depending on its complexity.

Finally, the organization of your house painter or company crew is critical. Elysium’s teams arrive equipped with all necessary tools, equipment, and basic supplies to get started the first minute we arrive. Because we assign multiple painters to each project, we can easily have one of them purchase additional paint and supplies as needed but before we run out – something that both saves you money and keeps our work flowing. However, these trips are often minimal as we meticulously plan and measure in advance, minimizing the number of trips to Anderson Paint, Sherwin Williams, or Home Depot. Will your other crews do the same?

Stay tuned for the next article in this series, “Who Will be Inside my Home?”