A fresh new coat of paint is a wonderful thing, but painting is a significant investment that takes careful consideration and planning. For many homeowners and business owners, the budget is important, and who doesn’t like to find a great deal whenever possible?

Professional painters, like all service professionals, range in overall quality of service. There are plenty of inexperienced, unlicensed, and totally unqualified contractors and companies out there. Don’t lose money trying to save money.

Inadequate Surface Preparation

Thorough & satisfactory preparation requires time and skill. In order for a new paint job to look great and last as long as you might expect, much work needs to be completed before any paint touches a brush. A quality painter will spend the necessary time making repairs to damaged or rotted wood, cleaning away any dirt or mold, and scraping/sanding surfaces to be painted.

If this essential early stage is skipped or insufficiently executed, it will have a negative impact on the finished quality and longevity of the final result.

Low-Quality Paints & Brushes

A cheap paint is just that, cheap. While saving a few bucks a gallon could potentially add up for larger jobs, when you consider how long you expect a new coat of paint to last, this is one area you should never skimp on. A low-quality paint will have a shorter lifespan, require multiple coats to cover a surface, and is in no way a bargain.

In addition, inexpensive brushes and rollers can cause more trouble than the money saved is worth. Loose bristles fall off the brush getting stuck in the paint or leave noticeable brush streaks on the surface. Similar problems arise from poor quality rollers as well, they shed fibers onto the walls and don’t hold enough paint. Either way, any painter will have to spend more time achieving proper paint coverage and thus costing you more money in time billed.

Inexperienced Staff

Many bargain painting contractors use subcontracted workers or hired hands with a high turnover rate because it will save them money in the long run. This typically results in a lower quality product and cut corners due to a lack of investment.

Not only are these workers inexperienced at the tasks they are performing, but it is likely that your hired contractor may not know the people on their crew very well. Background checks may not have been performed and no customer would want non-uniform anonymous workers wandering in and out of their home or business.

Safety & Liability

A lack of workers compensation insurance is not something every homeowner thinks about when seeking a professional painter, but it really should be. Sure, not carrying this kind of coverage will certainly bring costs down, but it will also leave you, the homeowner, liable for workplace accidents. If someone were to fall off a ladder and become injured on your property, who is responsible?

Also, a lack of comprehensive business liability protection on behalf of the contractor will put your own insurance and pocketbook at risk of footing the bill for any potential damage done to your property. Which could potentially cost you far more than the entire project, let alone the money saved on a discount painting service.

Lack of Guarantee

By offering a warranty, a reputable contractor is essentially taking responsibility for the quality and longevity of their work. These warranties are honored in order to maintain customer satisfaction and to bring in new business. They usually cover premature peeling, chipping, and fading that they will correct if those issues arise. Warranties should always be in writing and available for your review at any time.

Bargain painting services may offer no warranty at all or offer thin promises that will not cover the added costs of labor and materials used to correct problems if they return your calls at all. Fly-by-night operations may leave you to foot the bill for hiring a new service or doing the work yourself.

Avoid all of these problems before your new painting project even begins by starting with a consultation with VIP Services. We have friendly, experienced, reliable professionals ready to help you make your space the best it can be.