The highly respected independent organization “Consumer Reports” provides some common sense advice on how to select a painting contractor.  These include making sure that the contractor spends sufficient time to make a good estimate; has references; is insured and will guarantee their work.   CR also recommends that you select your paint based on your own research as opposed to taking whatever the painter offers. And they recommend purchasing the best product available since the cost of not doing so may mean you either re-paint sooner or you have a higher level of damage that must be repaired when their work is done.  Either way, they warn that the costs for saving a few dollars per gallon on product are very high, sooner than later.

Knowledgeable resources in the paint industry will also tell you that preparation is key to a good application, but they fall short of equipping you with the right information to question your painter’s knowledge and even less information on how to select a good coating product.  In short, there are some real gaps in “guidance” from the painting industry to help you obtain the best value possible in both applicator qualifications and product quality.

STEP ONE:  MAKING A JUDGEMENT CALL – DO I NEED TO REPAINT?

Making a correct judgment that you need to paint the exterior of your home comes from knowing what to look for and assessing the risk of potential damage based on what you find:  If you have waited until the paint is peeling or wood is rotting the decision is easy, you need to do the proper maintenance now.  If you have delayed until you reach this level, your costs for repairing and repainting may have increased a third or better due to the need for carpentry in addition to paint. 

WHEN TO INSPECT:  The paintable areas of your home should be washed twice a year as a minimum, generally following pollen season or seasonal “thaw”.  Other washings may be warranted due to your location to sources of contaminates that could include anything from carbon from nearby highways or sap from nearby woods.  This gives you an opportunity for close inspection on a regular basis. Your pressure washer will find problems on its own. 

Consult manufacturer for the closest distance to the surface for the spray nozzle. After pressure washing you should carefully inspect caulked areas by probing joints.  Also, carefully look and probe around visible fasteners or nails for rust and softness.  Use your fingers, a wooden paint stirrer or the tip of a blunt key to probe initially. Sharp tools can break the surface of the paint and cause it to fail prematurely. Where you find a soft area, probe with a little more pressure to learn the extent of the damaged substrate.   Check the hard to reach underside of boards as well as their surface, especially along board that are close to roofing areas or the ground where absorption or wicking can occur. 

Look for cracks or splits in the surface materials at all locations.   Look especially around doors and windows and where siding abuts these elements.  Open each window from the inside and check sills for rot.  Also look at the top of the window frame from the underside.  Look for water spots coming through joints indicating that flashing or caulking has failed above the window or door trim.  Probe joints for rot.
Separation of caulk from the adjacent surface, even small cracks, and loss of flexibility in the caulking are early indicators of a problem. The former for obvious reasons of allowing moisture to enter, the latter because your home continues to move, and your caulking and paint should remain flexible enough to move with your home. 

Color fading is also an indication of paint failure, but it is most likely the case that the pigment is not the element that failed. Organic pigments such as Hansa Yellow will fade quicker than the inorganic iron oxide pigments for example.  Many times what appears to be fading is the release of chalk that constitutes the main body of the paint. Rubbing your hand across the surface will tell you if the fading is primarily the result of chalking.  Almost all paints sold in retail outlets contain chalk in the form of calcium carbonate or similar, which is an inexpensive thickener that gives you the false impression that the paint has “some really good stuff” in it.  When the microscopically thin surface sheen of paint fails and chalk surfaces, you can be fairly well assured that there is a systemic failure of the paint and that moisture is passing through to the substrate below. 
Take a pen and pad with you as you walk around your home and note each location where the problems are evident.  You will need this later.      

STEP TWO:  QUALIFY THE INDIVIDUAL OR COMPANY WHO WANTS YOUR WORK. 

It is very easy and inexpensive to set up a paint contracting company and there is almost no regulatory control or oversight of their business practices in most states.  In recent years the tasks of qualifying contractors was a little easier You checked references and you looked at price.  The downside is that today,  a company with a great performance record, even an “A” rating on Angie’s list, may, like many reputable banks, simply go out of business in the middle of your project. (How bad: Even Angie’s List had to cut 90 employees in January 2009)

You should be cautious of deals offering steep discounts.  The reality is that because most legitimate paint companies were competing with undocumented painting crews for more than a decade, they were already working on very tight margins. In this market, a price 10% or below a comparable bid will most likely have some corners cut.  The corners could include the painter not preparing the substrate properly; applying a less expensive product; cutting the product with water or applying it thinner than the manufacturer recommends.   (Our observation is that less than one in 20 painters understand or use of a mil gauge – the standard measure for thickness of a coating as specified by the manufacturer)

As a recommendation from an architect, the best approach is typically for you as the owner to set the standards and then ensure that everyone is giving you a proposal based on the same scope of work. 

When you look at the pricing, you decide what corners should be cut (if any) as opposed to leaving it to the painter when you’re not looking.   See Step Four for more information on the workmanship standards. 

The beginning of this process however, should be a rigorous pre-qualification of the painting contractor.  Past performance and history were reliable in the past as good indicators.  Information on current situation and capacity are needed in today’s market.  A pre-qualification form to be completed by “all” companies wanting your work will help you in this regard. 

You should also let the contractor know that you have specific standards that you want in your contract:

1. Insist on completion of a pre-qualification form for each company you solicit proposals. (see attached example) 
2. Advise that you want a written daily report on the work on your home. (See Step Five for a sample form)
3. Advise that you will pay no more than 20% down to get the work started.
4. Make the balance contingent on completion of the work, no intermediate payments will be made. (see Step Five for the Completion Form) 
5. Advise that you will select the products and that you want verification of the quantities used on your home.

Advise that when the final payment is made, that a “notarized” release of liens will be required. 

Click HERE to download a pdf of this form
 

Dear Painting Contractor,

We are interested in your providing an estimate for painting our home at: 
_____________________________________________________________________________________

This is a pre-qualification form to let us know a little about you and your company.  It is intended to ensure that we have a very high quality company making proposals for our work.  The assurance we can give you is that your competitors are being qualified in the same manner and you will not be competing against unqualified companies.  All proposals will be evaluated on an equal or “apples to apples” basis. 

Please contact me at the following number if you have any questions._____________________________ 
Thank you,
_______________________________________________ Owner

Name of Company: ____________________________________________________________________

Owner’s Name: ________________________________Years of residence in this community _________ 
Have you ever filed for bankruptcy under any name or with any company? _______If yes, explain on back. 
Do you have proof that you are a company that can legally work in the United States?  _______________
Please state the method of proof:    For individuals a SS # or I-9 (make available at time of contract)       For a corporation, a copy of your registration with the State.

Mailing Address: ______________________________________________________________________
Telephone(s): _________________________________________________________________________
Type of Business:  ______________________________________  Years in Business:_______________
On Site Supervisor’s Name: ______________________________________________________________
Years with the company:  ______________________Total Years in the paint profession: ______________
Insurance Carrier:  ________________________________________Policy #: ______________________
Type and Limits of Coverage: _____________________________________________________________

List of three other clients in the area that have similar homes that you have completed:
Reference Name:  _________________________________________ Telephone:  __________________
Reference Name:  _________________________________________ Telephone:  __________________
Reference Name:  _________________________________________ Telephone:  __________________

Number of workmen planned for this home during Prep: ___________  Coating:  ___________________
Number of days planned for this home:  Prep:  ___________________ Coating: ___________________

STEP THREE: SETTING THE QUALITY STANDARD FOR PRODUCTS YOU WANT ON YOUR HOME:

A quick, but extremely interesting history of paint: 
The earliest cave paintings were made using iron oxides, which are still used today.
 
Paint is made up of a pigment, a binder to hold it together and appropriate thinners to make it easy to apply. 5000 years ago Blue Frit was the first synthetic pigment produced . The Egyptians made it from ground down blue glass. (sand, copper and natron heated to a molten blend). 
The ancient Egyptians also developed paints using pigments in the soil, primarily yellows, oranges and reds.

By 1000 BC development of paints and varnishes were based on gum from the acacia tree, knows as gum Arabic. 
Romans gave us purple.  A pound of royal purple pigment or dye required crushing four million mollusks.
Cochineal Red, discovered by the Aztecs was made by crushing the female Cochineal beetle. It took over one million beetles to make one pound of color.  Spaniards introduced the crimson color to Europe in the 1500’s.
Before the sixteenth century European pigments were largely dependent on color in plants.
In the seventeenth century, the Dutch invented the Stack Process increasing the availability of white lead.

In the 1800’s Linseed oil began being mass produced and dominated the paint business, which consisted of small shops that mixed all the ingredients one order at a time.   (Like the pharmacies of the day.)
The addition of pigment grade zinc oxide to the Linseed oil base created modern white paint. 
The first washable paint and factory produced paint began to be marketed in the 1870’s, but was not accepted.

Before the nineteenth century the word paint was only applied to oil bound types, those bound with glue were called distemper.
In 1886 Sherwin Williams developed a mass produced formula that they promoted as exceeding the quality of all shop blended paints of the day.   It failed to sell because of a bad formulation they promoted several years earlier.   It was a better product, and they knew it. 
A year later they introduced the “money back guarantee” and the modern paint industry was launched…not based on the quality of a product, but with a marketing angle. 

In the 1920’s Otto Rohm and Otto Haas created an acrylic emulsion that could cover linseed oil paints, the major litmus test for any newly developed product.  The age of acrylics was launched.  The product they created was marketed as Rhoplex AC-33.
In the early 1960’s, Polymer Chemist Dr. Fred Benz used a higher performance grade of the Rohm and Haas acrylic as the base for a revolutionary coating that addressed the main reasons for paint failure.  For over 40 years, his creation continues to be a leader in quality.  It is called Liquid Ceramic®