3 Negative Signs To Watch Out For Before Hiring A Painting Contractor In Texas

With house painting projects in full swing this summer, this time of year many people are researching and trying to find the right painting contractor for their particular project.

We’ve already detailed what to look for to find the best painting company, so today we’re going to help you identify the opposite: what things to look for that should be red flags when dealing with painting contractors.

One of the ways we advise north Texas homeowners to do before hiring a paint company is to research online reviews to see the experiences that other customers have with the company.

Taking a page from that tip, we’ve cycled through some of the more common negative reviews given by customers about other painting contractors online, and have detailed below some of the warning signs to look out for before hiring that company.

1. Bait & Switch Pricing

“After starting the work, they changed the estimate/bid to get more money.”

Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad sign.

This is one of the earliest indications of a company that you should avoid. Oftentimes, a contractor may mislead you by offering a lower price to get you to sign on with the project, only to change the price later after you’ve committed to the project.

We stress the importance of comparing quotes that are “apples-to-apples”. That is, one project price may seem higher than others, but it may also be more thorough and honest about costs when you break everything down.

2. Messy/Sloppy Prep Work & Cleanup

“..they left with pictures and drapes still down, left bag of trash and empty paint bucket in neighbors yard on his trash to be picked up, “owner” not on same page with person providing estimate. There’s paint all over the floors and all the fixtures in the house as they didn’t tape anything before starting to paint. After 6 days of trying to deal with his completely unprofessional behavior. We had to spend another $800 to get the job finished and retouched because most of the walls and ceilings you could still see the previous color through.”

Something you can find out when looking at online reviews, seeing anything like the review above is a sign of a sloppy/unprofessional painting company.

Prep-work is the cornerstone to any professional painting project and without it, will leave you with a mess after the project is done.

Even after a great painting project, there will be cleanup but a professional painter will always clean up after the work is done. This ensures you focus on the quality of their work, and not the mess left over.

3. Poor Paint Quality & No Insurance

“It has been a disaster, paint is chipping off the walls. we’ve contacted them on several occasions and to no avail they are constantly giving us the runaround. I did not have a good experience. The guy they sent damaged one of my windows and they would not respond until I shot out an email to the owner threatening to post a review. The paint started chipping in about one year and now two years later the whole ceiling is chipping in one room.”

Probably the most common complaint online is that of poor quality.

This is usually due to the sloppy prep work mentioned above, but also may tell you that a company may be using old or poor quality paint.

Also a tell-tale bad sign is if an accident occurs, their urgency to have it corrected. Even the best painting contractors out there experience accidents during a project, but a proper company will have the insurance to cover the damages.

We hope whoever you choose for your painting project does the job right, and if you avoid companies that have a history of doing the above listed practices, you should be well on your way to a successful new paint job.