When you begin shopping around to hire a Denver commercial painting company for your Colorado business, the sheer multitude of options can be intimidating. How will you know if you find the right price? How will you know quality if you see it?
In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can navigate this important yet often challenging situation for your business.
Hiring a Denver Commercial Painting Company
First, you’ll want to take bids–that is, make a list of, say, five to eight companies and get a free estimate from each. If you find a Denver commercial painting company that doesn’t give free estimates, simply cross them off and replace them.
Next, consider what’s included in the estimates you got. Start with the most expensive company on the list–what makes them so special?–and simply work your way down from there.
All else being equal, a logical person would pick the least expensive Denver commercial painting company–but as we all know, all else is not equal.
Preparation
Some Denver commercial painting companies will help you pick your colors. Or maybe you already know what colors you want and just need help choosing which colors should go where. Help with color scheming is one way for a company to go above and beyond; if it’s helpful, it’s your first justification for paying more than the minimum amount.
The first step in hands-on preparation is a thorough powerwash. Get those exteriors clean and bare so you don’t end up painting dust that will fall off. It’s very important to make sure every crack is completely masked and sealed before the powerwash, to prevent leaking and flooding.
When you paint, say, your bedroom, you always lay tape around the edges of the room that you don’t want paint to get on. We do the same thing in commercial painting. Make sure to ask about procedures and quality materials for this process. The little things can go a long way!
Painting
Does the Denver commercial painting company you hire follow manufacturer guidelines when it comes to applying their paints and stains? Or do they think they know better than the companies who made these products? Learning and following manufacturer guidelines can be tedious; make sure your selection is willing to put the time and energy in. If they don’t, the consequences could include having to go through the whole process again, with a different company.
Another easy question to ask which can help differentiate companies is how long they think the job will take. Does the most expensive one only cost so much because they’ll use the most hours? Like care and prep work, speed is a major factor to consider.
Now, a really good Denver commercial painting company will send a manager to every job site to inspect. They may even do a walk-through with you the customer, to make sure you’re happy with how progress is coming along. If they do that, how often? Having your building painted is a big project; let’s make sure it goes well. Again, this is a service that may justify selecting a more expensive company.
Warranty
Some cut-rate firms take the stick-and-move approach. They get in there, splash some paint on the walls, and when they’ve finished, start distancing themselves from their work. If they did a perfect splash job, this may not present a terrible problem. But if any touch-ups are needed down the road, will they demand payment again? Will you even be able to find them to ask?
Often, a warranty is an extra cost that nobody wants to think about, just like insurance. But also like insurance, it can save a good deal of pain later if unfortunate circumstances come up.
What are your Denver commercial painting company’s warranty options? How much does each cost? What’s included? That is, if you do have to use it, will it get the job done? Will a new coat of primer cost extra? Are other aspects of the job included like caulking?
A commercial painting company’s warranty demonstrates their confidence in their work. After all, no company hopes a claim will be filed. Presumably, if claims were filed all the time, the warranties would be easier to fulfill–i.e., less inclusive.
On the other hand, if a painting company never has to revisit a job after they’ve completed it, why not offer to do everything that’s needed? If it’s a rare occurrence and it can secure future business, it only makes sense to go all out.
Even if you never need to use a commercial painting company’s warranty, you’re buying the peace of mind to know that whatever happens, it’ll come out alright. If you can, always go for the longest warranty duration.
What to Do
He’s a rare soul who enjoys shopping for a Denver commercial painting company to beautify any Colorado business. But even those lucky people certainly don’t like dealing with shoddy painting, filing warranty claims, and trying to get their money’s worth out of a lazy or unskilled company.
That’s why it’s important to make a list of candidates and ask each one questions, including how much they would cost to do the job you want done. It’s almost like you’re conducting a series of interviews.
It’s basically a process of gathering estimates and finding out what’s included in those estimates. You want to think particularly about prep work, technique and quality assurance. Besides reading Yelp reviews–anyone can do that–you might have to really think about this and use your professional discernment.