When Hiring a Painting Contractor, What Questions Should You Ask?
Painters range in the quality of services they provide, and unfortunately, many inexperienced, unlicensed, and unqualified people and companies try to appear as professional painters. Many homeowners are too focused on how much it will cost that they never even consider anything else, which can lead them to hire the wrong company.
5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Painting Contractor
1. Do They Have Insurance?
Painting contractors should have two types of insurance. The first is Comprehensive Business Liability, which protects your property from damaged caused by the contractor. The minimum dollar limit in liability coverage that any painting contractor should have is one million. The second is Workmen’s Compensation, which protects you and the workers from liability while working on your property. However, many painting contractors will try to work without Workmen’s Compensation as it is costly. If a contractor does not have these insurances, you should never consider working with them as a consumer.2. Should You Be Concerned with Their Crew in Your Home?
Unfortunately, there have been many cases around the country where a contractor’s employees have burglarized, harmed, or even murdered the homeowner. In most of these cases, it was later discovered that the lousy employee had an unknown criminal background.3. Are the Workers on Your Project Employees or Subcontractors?
To lower their costs, many painting contractors hire subcontractors instead of employees. Typically, subcontractors are paid a flat fee, and the contractor does not have to pay for social security taxes and employee benefits. Unfortunately, when you hire a contractor who uses subcontractors, you put yourself at risk for a variety of reasons:- To make more money on the job, the contractor might be tempted to hire subcontractors that offer the lowest possible fee, translating into low-quality work.
- Subcontractors may be tempted to “cut corners” to get a job done quickly since they are not paid hourly.
- The probability that they do not have workmen’s compensation insurance increases when the contractor uses subcontractors instead of employees.
- It is likely that background checks have not been performed if the contractor does not know the people of the crew.
