The last thing you want is for your home painting job to be a hassle. You want everything to go smoothly, from the moment your contractors arrive to the moment they leave. That makes sense – the smoother everything goes, the fewer headaches you have to deal with.
Unless you own many properties, however, you probably haven’t dealt with painting companies on a regular basis, so you may not know what to expect. Here are some things you can do to help your painting contractors out, and ensure everything goes smoothly.
Keep Your Pets Out of the Way
You may have the most well-behaved dog in the entire world, or a cat who just sits around and sleeps all day. We can guarantee you, however, then when strange people are coming in and out to paint your home, your pet is going to have a hard time. Either they’ll be afraid, which could lead to them running around, knocking things over or hurting themselves, or they’ll be curious. That could lead to loose fur settling on wet walls and becoming part of your paint job, or paint splatters being tracked from work surfaces into clean rooms. In the worst case scenario, they could knock paint over, spilling all over your floor. Pets and painters don’t mix! Keep them in another room or out of the house.
Warn Painters of Extreme Colors
Maybe your walls are a deep emerald green, and you want to freshen things up and change to a lighter color. That’s fine and simple enough to do – but it’s the kind of information you want your painters to know about ahead of time. If you have an extreme color – anything too dark or super bright – it will often require extra coats of primer to make sure the old color doesn’t bleed through. That can add time to your job and expenses to your bill. Tell your painter the room’s current color and finish ahead of time, so they can come equipped with the proper materials and have a better idea how long things will take.
Keep the Room Clear
You’re hiring painters, not movers. If your room is full of furniture, valuable time can be wasted while painters simply move everything out of the way so they can even begin with their job. Before the painters arrive, empty bookshelves, take any paintings and decorations off the walls and roll up loose area rugs that aren’t pinned down by furniture. Larger pieces can be left for the painters to move to the center of the room and protect with drop cloths, but small pieces that need to be removed can be handled ahead of time, saving your painters’ time and keeping your bill smaller.
Do Your Research
Paint chips are great, but if your color research stops at just a tiny chip from a paint aisle, you’re likely to be disappointed. A small chip won’t really give you the sense of how a roomful of color will actually look – and color on paper sometimes looks different than color on a wall, thanks to the different materials. You’re better off getting a large piece of cardstock, painting it in the color of your sample paint, and taping it to the wall. That lets you see how it looks at various times of day as light change, and helps to prevent the realization, after a room is completely painted, that you don’t like that shade of yellow after all.
The experts at Premier Painters can help walk you through all these tips and more. Contact us today and speak to one of our knowledgeable representatives with your painting questions or to request a free quote!
