We all want the best for our families when it comes to the fit and finish of our home. This means we want the best painting finish throughout our living rooms, basements, corridors, dining rooms, and more. But, how do you know who the best painting contractor is for your project? We also know project managers and developers want the best for their projects and developments!
Well, let us tell you, there are some key factors you need to consider when taking on any project: quality, schedule, and, of course, the indication that the contractor has your best interest at heart are crucial to a timely and high-quality project success.
Turnover of Finished Areas
For instance, suite and project turnover are some areas where you want an honest, reliable, and professional painting contractor on board. The problem is, a disparity of information between the painting contractor and the homeowner or owner.
For instance, we have suite or room turnover, and there are clear indications that minor touch-up work is required. But, in addition to this, you are taking on a scope of other renovation services for your business. With that, how can you know that your painting scope will be turned over properly?
At the point where touch-ups, identification of painting issues, and general finish painting work is indicated, a homeowner or property manager may utilize various methods to indicate areas of correction. However, if you have subsequent trades coming through your project, or your business, or your suites, where do you find the time to ensure that post-finish work is indeed corrected?
A quality painting contractor will take care of this for you… not only will they ensure quality at turnover, in that they will identify touch-up locations for their painting scope, but they will also assess the painting scope post-trade involvement.
A common painting touch-up repair for a ceiling surrounding a sprinkler head. Perhaps the drywall was cut improperly around the sprinkler head, or perhaps the sprinkler contractor damaged the drywall.
Understanding Trade Damages
When other trades get involved in complex or larger projects, this can be a serious problem. Repeated touch-up work, paint corrections, and re-painting is not cheap!
A good painting contractor records the areas they paint, the rooms they finish, the dates of finishing, and the painter responsible for the work. In this capacity, any subsequent damages from other trades can be quickly and neatly identified by re-assessing your rooms, suites, or entire project after other trade involvement.
Painting contractors lacking professionalism or experience may not take the potential for circumstantial trade damage to affect the work they must perform prior to turnover. This can apply to walls, ceilings, trims, millwork, and baseboards.
So, hire a professional painting contractor with your best interests at heart, as the homeowner/project manager, and aware of the busy circumstances that plague many construction and home renovation projects.
Likewise to the quality issues that can be presented at project turnover, pick a contractor who is professional and understands the necessity of proper project management. This means scope, schedule, and specifications.
Finding post-installation baseboard repairs for painting services is commonplace. One round of total trim/casing/millwork acclimation touch-ups could be a strategy to reduce consistently revisiting the same millwork paint touch-up issues.
As a project manager or developer, identify whether your painting contractor is paying attention to hidden areas like closets.
Painting contractors are responsible for ensuring adjacent surfaces like millwork are not damaged. Attention to detail is paramount. Overspray is very hard to clean.
Damages to Sprinkler Heads
Painting trades can pose a risk to finishes such as sprinkler heads. There is typically no cleaning a sprinkler head. If it gets paint on it, the trade may require that it be removed and replaced in its entirety. Proper preparation work to protect sprinkler heads from painting damages is essential to reduce trade damage costs and repeated labor costs for specialized trades focused on life safety, like sprinkler contractors.
Depending on the architectural finish of building, sprinkler head costs can carry, but the purpose is the same, the life safety of the people in the building. Painting contractors should also inform managers, owners, or contractors, using systems provided when touch-up painting or repairs around sprinkler heads are completed. Inability to properly communicate when such paint protection is removed from sprinkler heads for instance, could fail to prompt a sprinkler contractor to remove to the job for proper turnover of their scope!
Repeated Cleaning Costs
Having professional cleaners come for cleaning floors and other surfaces repeatedly can be a serious problem too. The problem with cleaning is that the job can feel like it never ends and new cleaning issues spread throughout a project, especially the larger ones. Curbing cleaning costs with painting scopes by proper surface protection is essential.
If a general manager, project manager, or developer decides to bring on full-time quality assurance for a project, there is potential for the abuse of systems designed to limit trade damage. This is due to the nature of some projects being so large, that damage, and the actual management, along with continuous inspection and re-assessment can take up allot of time.
Scope Delineation / Painting vs. Finishing Trades
From a scope perspective, proper delineation of scopes such as caulking, millwork damage, wood-fillers, sanding, and surface preparation are essential. Who does what basically… understanding the differences between scope responsibilities and ensuring your painting contractor has the right inclusions is essential to properly managing the budget, such as, unexpected or costly change orders down the road. Loose scope definitions inevitably lead to added costs for owners and trades.
Additionally, as a homeowner, the specifications may not be so important. Make sure your painting contractor takes the time to provide the proper drawdowns, for instance, for your sample reviews, before final painting and finish.
Following Project Specifications & Project Plans
Alternatively, suppose you are a project manager, or project developer looking to hire a painting contractor. In that case, you will need to ensure your project specifications are followed. Project specifications and drawings often have discrepancies, and with that, potential for change orders in the future. You need to understand that your painting contractor may not be incentivized actually to correct these issues. Instead, certain omissions and circumstances in project specifications and drawings create opportunities for costly changes but added profits and revenue for contractors.
A professional painting contractor will take the time to review the drawings and specifications in detail, holding omissions or errors accountable so that those funding the project get what they pay for and need.
Further to this, project specifications for painting projects, especially large ones, can be complex, with various finishes, trim finishes, and final color selections that need to be clarified before finished work being performed.
Proper Sample Procedures
Coordinating the proper sample procedure for a painting scope as well as consultant reviews, and professional product submissions is essential to ensuring you are not on the hook for any additional costs.
Overages identified early on in project lifecycles are, essentially, the correct and justified approach for contractors, homeowners, and owners to ensure budgets are allocated properly. Not only that, you are going to get the finished product that your interior designer actually envisioned for your building, project, or home.
A professional takes the time to review specifications, their work quality, and the required budget allocation to ensure your needs are protected.
From a schedule perspective, we can service a wide range of projects, where dictated by project schedule or homeowner schedule, can man-up or man-down to ensure project success.
Summary
In summary, costly re-work is often avoidable but sometimes inevitable. A professional will dictate a lower severity level borne by those funding the project/development. Cooperation is paramount, within construction, multi-residential projects, and commercial projects. Using the systems provided by general contractors can help to alleviate some quality control issues.
Tips to cut out the extras and pick the right painting contractor:
- Clarify specification sections to industry standards (MPI - Master Painting Institutes)
- Clear up trade/scope responsibilities between millworkers and painters and other finish trades.
- Take inclusions for touch-up and other trade damage into account.
- Pick a painting contractor that ensures scope clarifications…. A lack of involvement is generally a bad sign.
- Pick a designer and architect that turns your painting vision into reality.
- Go with your gut!
At Brilliant Colours Professional Painters, we are truly dedicated to ensuring your business or home renovation, or multi-residential project is successfully completed, with budget, schedule and of course quality.
Contact us today, to get a professional Winnipeg painting contractor for your next project!
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