Painting 101

Licensed: In Washington State, all contractors are required to be licensed and should provide their contractor number on their card and estimate. You can go to this website  https://secure.lni.wa.gov/verify/  and enter the number to verify that they are currently licensed. 

Do not trust that because they gave you a number, that it is current.

If they do not provide a number, you can ask them for it or look the company name up on the site.

What licensing means in Washington, is that the contractor is paying into the state industrial insurance program. If a worker gets injured on the job, they are covered. 

If a "contractor" is not licensed, the state will consider you the employer and go after you for medical bills and lost wages.  I say "contractor" because if they are unlicensed they cannot make a legally binding contract to perform work.

Bonded:  First of all the bond means that a bonding company recognized the person as bondable. Many unlicensed contractors are unlicensed because they are unbondable for a variety of reasons, including too many claims against previous bonds. You can't get a license without a bond.

The bond protects the homeowner in two ways.  If a contractor fails to perform what was in the contract, for example no longer showing up, the home owner can go after the bond to get the work completed. This is a performance bond.

The other way a bond works is if the home owner pays the contractor and the contractor fails to pay the suppliers, the suppliers will put a lien on the home until someone pays the bill. With a licensed contractor, the supplier can go after the company's bond instead of the home owner having to pay for materials twice.

Insured: If they break a window, over spray your neighbor's car or get paint all over the furniture, insurance would cover their mistake. Unlicensed contractors will often say they have insurance when asked about worker injury. They may or may not have insurance for broken things, but will not have insurance for broken people.

You can verify a contractor has insurance by asking for a copy of their "certificate of insurance".

I recommend getting 3 bids. Make sure you spend some time talking to the contractors and take everything with a grain of salt. There are a lot of guys out there that say things that are 100% incorrect but do so with confidence. 

Point out areas of concern and discuss their painting process. Ask about which specific paints they use and why.  Don't be afraid to talk about non painting related things. You want to get a feel for them as a person. You are trusting them with what is likely the most expensive thing you own. 

(This is still a work in progress. I will keep updating)

One of my previous occupations was working in a materials test lab. You can drive yourself crazy reading Consumer Reports and online reviews of various paint products. 

The problem is, on extended weather testing, by the time the test results are in, the formulation of the paint has changed. Manufacturers are continually improving and modifying their formulas.

Stick with brands with good reputations and use either the best or 2nd best in the product line.

Many times contractors will use paints further down the product line or not even mention which model they will use. Make sure they tell you the make and model of paint they will use in their bid. For example "Sherwin Williams Duration" not "We use premium Sherwin Williams products".

You will save a few hundred dollars using lower grade paints but can cost yourself a decade of life on your paint job.

Note that there are times when the best paint is a lower grade paint. If your house has a peeling problem or is much older, the top of the line paints can actually grip so hard while drying that they pull the original layer of paint off the siding in places. In these situations it's best to use 2nd tier paints like Sherwin Williams SuperPaint or Rodda Covercoat. These are still great paints and usually what most quality painters use for their standard paint job.  With grades lower than that, you can have fading in 5 years.

Ultimately, there is a "best" paint for every job and most price points. Part of my job as a professional is to decide what the best choice is for your house. By no means do I choose the same products for every project.

The two tricks of the painting industry are using cheap paints and skimping on the coats.

These two things also have the largest bearing on how long your paint job will last.

Your estimates will either not mention how many coats are being done, actually say 1 coat, or say 2 coats. Sometimes they will say something like "to coverage" or "guaranteed coverage". 90% or more of the time, they are all one coat paint jobs. 

I have employed hundreds of painters over the years and I have never had a time when I didn't have to retrain them as to what 2 coats actually means. For all of their previous employers, 2 meant 1.

There will always be a justification as to why 1 is 2. They moved the sprayer side to side then up and down. Since paint went on the house in 2 directions, that's 2 coats.

Another one is the fog coat. Either the first or second coat will be a thin misting from a distance. It is justified by saying the first thin coat increases adhesion or the 2nd fog coat evens out the surface finish. It doesn't aid in adhesion and there is no need to even out the finish if the person is a good sprayer.

Lastly, there is "one thicker coat, so it's like 2 coats". This is would work if they were using paints designed to go on thick, but they almost never are. Standard paints do not go on anywhere near as thick as 2 without running or getting "mud cracking" where it looks like a dried lake bed.

Ultimately the correct amount of coats depends on your individual situation. Painting your house Yellow? You are going to need 3 coats. Do you have Hardie siding or paint in really good condition? I recommend 1 coat of Duration or Emerald in the Sherwin Williams line or Ultimate II in Rodda. On a budget or selling? Perhaps a single coat of the 2nd tier paints is right for you

I always recommend 2 coats on the trim of the top grade paints.

What this all translates to is if you do 1 coat of a 2nd tier paint, your paint job can last about 7 to 10 years. 2 coats of a 2nd tier paint can last 7 to 15 years. 1 coat of top tier paints can last 15 years or more.

There is a lot of variation depending on location, color and sheen