Tips to Prepare For Your Professional Paint Contractor

When you hire a professional paint contractor, you can expect to get a lot more than just a coat of paint on the wall. Professional paint contractor duties include removing old paint from the interior or exterior surface to be painted, making repairs necessary, priming, mixing colors, other prep work to protect the home, fixtures and furniture, job site clean up and more. These elements are only the ones that occur once your professional paint contractors arrive on site. Paint contractors are also responsible for bidding out jobs, advising clients on color choices and finishes, managing a team, a business, finances, invoicing and more. Why is all of this important, you ask? 

Turn around time, aside from quality and communication, has proven to be one of the most important factors to a homeowner after hiring that professional paint contractor. Whether painting the interior or exterior (or both) of your home, it can be a bit of an inconvenience having to work around, or entirely leave your home for the job to be done. The purpose of this article is to cover some basic things a homeowner can do to ensure the process of having their home painted runs as smoothly as possible and can be completed efficiently. While many of these items will be included in your painting services, and not necessarily be expected of you, tackling some of these items in advance will drastically speed up the prep time for your project. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, there is power in prep work!

Prepping For Your Residential Paint Project

Below are some JMA Painter recommendations and ideas on how to prepare prior to your painting company arriving on the job site. 

Take Down Wall Decor

Taking down your own wall decor is a simple thing that you can do to expedite prep work for your paint contractor. Take down the paintings and decorations and place them somewhere safe. Note: Removing the nails during this process is a second step in this tip. 

Move & Cover Furniture

Communicate with your professional paint contractor in advance about supplies that will be provided for the job and what you can do to help. More than likely, your painting company will provide materials to cover your furniture and will take on that task for you. Moving your furniture to the center of the room, or out of the room completely depending on your paint project is ideal. 

Clean walls

While most people skip this step thinking a fresh coat of paint is about to cover everything, wiping down walls to remove any dust or debris is necessary to ensure the life and quality of the paint job. While your local painting company will likely repeat this step as a part of their prep work routine, it is helpful to do a quick wipe down of surfaces getting painted. This speeds up the prep work process for your painters, and will also highlight any areas needing repair, or missed hardware from taking down your wall decor.

Remove Electronics

It is a good idea to cover or remove electronics and appliances when possible from the work area. Larger electronics such as TV’s could get damaged by being moved so it is preferred that the homeowner move them if desired. If not, your painter will likely cover with a drop cloth prior to painting.

Prepare to Vacate

The painting workspace will be off limits until the job is done and fully dried. This means you may be restricted from that area for some time or even have to fully vacate the home until the job is complete. Prepare in advance and have everything you will need to avoid coming in and out once the job is started. If you do stay home, have a gameplan in place to keep pets and children out of the workspace to avoid spills and to minimize inhaling paint fumes.

Benefits of Prepping Your Home In Advance For Your Painter.

Professional paint contractors love proactive prep work from their clients. It is extremely helpful and allows them to focus on the job at hand and tackle it much more efficiently. If prep work is not for you, do not fret as it is likely a part of what is included in your paid for painting services. But, if you are looking to help speed things along, ask your paint contractor what you can do in advance to help make the project easier and as smooth as possible. Homeowners taking that initiative will reduce the time it takes to finish the project and will ensure your valuable household items remain safe and paint splatter free. 

If you are looking for a professional paint contractor for your interior or exterior repaint, JMA Painters would love to provide you with a free residential paint quote today. Contact us with any questions you may have or to get your project started today.