Not All Painters Are Pros

It doesn't take much more than a brush, bucket and ladder to get into the painting business.

Of all the trades, painting offers the most opportunities for less-than-skilled workers to pass themselves off as experienced pros. It's also easy for unscrupulous sorts to work a scam on homeowners. In one classic scheme, the painter charges you for premium paint but applies a lower grade. We recently had a situation where we caught a painter pouring cheap paint out of 5-gal. pails into empty cans of expensive paint; he was charging the customer for the higher grade and pocketing the difference. He was gone by noon.

It's important to hire a painter you trust. Much of the work takes place when you aren't around, and it is difficult to check a painter's work. Once the job is complete, you won't be able to tell if he primed the entire surface or even if he applied two coats rather than one.

The Checkup
Before you hire someone, check his certificate of insurance to guarantee he has general liability insurance, and also verify that workers' compensation insurance is in effect if he has any employees. Checking work quality isn't as easy. Painters will offer photos of past jobs as testimony of their skill, but these won't tell you much. For an exterior job, for example, they're usually shot from the curb. This is too far away to show visible brush marks and wobbly cut lines on windows and trim. You have to go to a site and take a close look.

When you ask for references, the painter will likely steer you to a current or very recent job. Most freshly painted houses look great. But because the real test of a paint job is how well it stands up over time, inspect a job that was done at least three years ago.

Look for the following when you check out work: consistent wear over the entire surface; peeling and flaking; and cracked glazing compound around windows. Also check for signs of overspray, splatter or spilled paint, especially on the roof, driveway, sidewalk and shrubs. Ask the homeowners if they've noticed any problems with how the paint is weathering, if their landscaping suffered any ill effects while the painter was working, if the painter kept to the budget and if they would hire him again.

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