If you’re planning on hiring painters in Cherry Hill, NJ, then you may face the challenge of developing a shortlist of worthy candidates. Rightfully so, it can be difficult to choose the right professional painter for your project.
If you make the wrong selection, you can risk wasting your time and hard-earned money. Fortunately, by answering the right questions, you can easily navigate the interview process for home painters in your area.
Do you want to avoid the chance of selecting the wrong painter for the job? If so, here are five important questions to ask all interior painters.
1. Do You Have Any Insurance?
All contractors should have viable insurance. This protects them and you against all unforeseen accidents that can occur on the job.
Residential painters who don’t have insurance frankly place themselves, you, and your property at risk.
As a result, home painters should possess either of two types of insurance: comprehensive business liability insurance or worker’s compensation coverage.
Comprehensive Business Liability: This type of standard insurance protects your home or business from damage caused by the contractor. All professional painters should carry at least $1 million in liability coverage since property damage is quite extensive.
Worker’s Compensation: This type of insurance protects subcontractors from injury on the job. It also protects you from liability since their employer will cover all damages related to injuries.
More often than not, commercial painters will try to avoid paying worker’s compensation. This is because this type of insurance is usually very expensive, especially when numerous subcontractors are employed.
In any case, you should avoid working with interior painters that do not carry either form of insurance.
Also, you should call the insurance carrier of a candidate and confirm the coverage before agreeing to move forward.
When dealing with shady contractors, you can expect the following responses after asking for their insurance:
- They’ll tell you they’re insured, hoping you won’t press them any further
- A shady contractor will attempt to pass off their health or auto insurance as valid coverage
- They will change the date on a policy that expired
- A painter could rationalize that they don’t need worker’s compensation, even though you could be held liable if their employees get injured on your property
2. Will Your Team Treat My Property With Respect?
Many people naturally fear allowing complete strangers to enter their homes. Professional painters are no exception. Unfortunately, there are countless instances where hiring a contractor resulted in burglary, theft, and even homicide.
Also, hiring a professional painter with a criminal background can be disastrous if you unknowingly allow them in your home. Thus, when you conduct a search for a qualified painter, ask if they perform criminal background checks.
If you aren’t satisfied with these answers, or they sound suspicious, it’s best to avoid doing business with them.
3. Do You Have Employees or Subcontractors?
Many professional painters will hire subcontractors to lower their costs. In exchange for not paying benefits and taxes, subcontractors are paid a flat fee for the work they perform.
There are noticeable disadvantages to hiring commercial painters who use subcontractors, such as:
- Home painters may try to find subcontractors that offer the lowest rates; this often means that you’ll receive poor quality work
- Subcontractors are paid a flat fee and may cut corners to complete a job quicker than an hourly employee
- Painting companies that hire contractors have no incentive for paying worker’s compensation; you can be held accountable if a subcontractor gets injured
- Painting companies often don’t have high standards for subcontractors
Hiring a painting company that employs subcontractors can lower the quality of work you can expect and also place your home and belongings at risk.
Therefore, it’s also best to hire a painting company that employs actual employees.
Unfortunately, many professional painters will hire subcontractors and hope homeowners won’t make the distinction. You can avoid falling into this trap by asking the following questions:
- Who handles the payroll for your company?
- Could you share an example of an employee’s paystub?
By asking these questions, you weed out dishonest residential painters passing off subcontractors as real employees.
4. What Type of Tools Do You Use?
The type and quality of the materials used in your project will determine its success. Specifically, there is a huge difference in the quality of paint products that are available for use.
For example, there is a clear difference between using a $10 can of paint and a $50 can of paint. Higher-priced paints usually are composed of better ingredients that are made to last, such as titanium, binders, and resin.
What’s more, is that the calk a painter uses can significantly impact the lifespan of the paint. As a result, it’s important to understand which products your contractor is using and why.
5. Do You Have Any References?
A major part of selecting the right contractor is verifying if they are what they claim to be. By compiling work references, you can check with past clients to better understand how a painter works.
This will also help you avoid any red flags associated with dealing with the wrong contractors. When collecting work references, here are some tips to consider:
- Collect at least five different references from various times within the last five years.
- Verify each reference you receive by contacting home and business owners directly.
- Ask as many questions as possible to make sure you’re dealing with an ethical professional.
Don’t get too comfortable when a contractor provides you with a reference. Perform your due diligence in verifying every reference you receive for yourself.
Hire the #1 Painters in Cherry Hill, NJ
Asking all these questions can ultimately help you make the right decision in hiring the best painters in Cherry Hill, NJ. It can also help you avoid the consequences of making the wrong choice.
If you need help with completing a residential or commercial painting project, we’ve got you covered. You can rely on our team of professional painters to accomplish any painting job. Give us a call today to speak to a member of our team and learn more about how we can help.
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