Hiring an interior painter to work in your home can be a daunting task! There are so many choices! How do you weed them out? This list is compiled after spending 23 years in the residential painting industry. I spent 15 of those years running a successful painting company in New York.

In the age of Google, no one should be getting ripped off by Contractors, but it still happens. What you never hear about however is a Contractor being ripped off by a homeowner – happens a lot more than people realize!

Tips for hiring an interior painter to work in your home

• 1. Google the painters name and phone number to see what comes up.
• 2. Search Facebook for the painter to see what comes up.
• 3. Read reviews of the painter.
• 4. Look at their website, is it a cookie cutter spam site or an actual website of a legitimate company?
• 5. Do they have examples of their work in the form of photos and videos?
• 6. As the economy slows down, and people are forced to get creative for income, interior painters near you will multiply like rabbits. Suddenly all these new painters have decades of experience with interior painting and yet no one has ever heard of them!

• 7. Did the contractor show up? On time? It is not rude to call or text your contractor if they are 30 minutes late. Some times we get stuck in traffic, or our last bid took a little bit longer than anticipated. Happens to the best of us.
• 8. Most contractors are interviewing you as well during the bidding process. Its how we weed out those who are incompatible. However occasionally a client/contractor mismatch occurs and that can sometimes lead to legal issues. Our goal is to avoid court whenever possible!
• 9. Remember, the estimate isn’t just to go over the scope of the job, but also to see if you can work with this contractor your inviting to work inside your home.
• 10. While most painting contractors offer free estimates, nothing is free. It costs us money to give you a free estimate.
• 11. Be honest.
• 12. Be realistic.
• 13. Make a list of questions – keep it handy, and make sure you go over that list with your painter.
• 14. Painters are not mind readers

• 15. Make sure your painter is insured- General Liability protects your stuff (like spilled paint). Workers Compensation Insurance protects your assets if an employee of the painter gets injured or killed while working in your home.
• 16. You can get a General Liability policy for as little as $800 per year. However $1,000,000+ policies cost $3,000 per year.
• 17. Workers compensation insurance is prohibitively expensive for new contractors, and many companies operate with out it. In New York, it is $6,000 per year per employee. There are no breaks on cost until you reach five employees. That gets expensive! That is $500 per month per employee, just in case they get hurt!
• 18. Your definition of “Fully insured” and a Contractor’s definition of Fully Insured is often different.
• 19. Make your painter prove they have Liability and Workers Compensation insurance.
• 20. If your in New York, you can check to see if they have Workers Compensation coverage via the New York State Workers Compensation Website
• 21. Companies that carry both, typically charge more than those who do not. Reason being is that labor costs and overhead run about 50% more when you carry the required insurances.
• 22. Most small businesses in the trades are paying over $10,000 per year for insurance related to their industry. And the insurance doesn’t actually cover anything.

Our Contracts are legally binding documents

• 23. Legit Contractors use branded contracts for their work. Not generic contracts. Contracts should be company specific unless the municipality set regulations for Contracts. Cities often do this. City of Buffalo is one such municipality.
• 24. Contracts should list the name, address, phone number, email address of the painter in question. Should specify the scope of work, and the products used. Including any payment schedules.
• 25. The Contract should include clauses, terms and conditions. The longer a company is in business, the longer their Terms and Conditions.

Professional Painting Contractor vs DIY’ers

• 26. Company vehicle or the family minivan?
• 27. Legitimate painting companies will flood the search results with many listings when you search for their name on any search engine.
• 28. Most interior painters can repair minor drywall damage. Most painters do not enjoy repair work and prefer to just paint.
• 29. Interior Painters are not plasterers even though many painters claim to be able to plaster, they are using drywall compound and calling it plaster as they wrongly assume homeowners do not know the difference.
• 30. Most painters work between 8AM – 6PM Monday through Friday.
• 31. Painters are not handymen. While we can do a lot, our expertise is in a sub-section of the painting industry. The painting industry is a massive field, the largest of any trade which has many sub-trades that fall under the painting trade umbrella.
• 32. Everyone can paint, until the painters arrive.

Local Business vs Franchise

• 33. Expect to pay around $100+ per hour for a reputable painter in your area plus material and taxes. Most residential painters make around $25 – $30 per hour. This costs the business around $37-$42 per hour after taxes and insurance.
• 34. Most painting contractors make less than you think
• 35. Most family owned painting companies do not have an estimator on their payroll. So they do estimates on their time off. Bids get written when we have time to sit down and write them.
• 36. You will most likely be working directly with the owner of the company when hiring a family owned business.
• 37. Everything on a contractor’s truck, costs money. There is no Truck Fairy that re-stocks the truck every night.
• 38. Contractors typically don’t get as big of a discount on materials that many people think we do.
• 39. Most small business owners work 60-80 hours per week. Are often lucky to get paid for 40.
• 40. Painting is very boring. Often painters will branch off into other specialties or trades to keep things interesting.
• 41. Hire Americans to work in your home. Having a language barrier with someone working inside your home can be a real problem.
• 42. Employing Americans costs substantially more than hiring non Americans.
• 43. Interior painters appreciate driveway access. After 100 trips to the truck, the shorter the walk the better.

Good Luck!