Choosing the right house painters is vital if you want your home to look refreshed and beautiful. With so many house painting contractors around, how do you find one who's skilled and reliable but won't overcharge?

Here is our advice on choosing a painting contractor with professional skills and a customer-centric attitude.

Ask around

Often the best way to get a recommendation is to ask your family and friends. They are likely to give you the most honest appraisal, so if they rave about the house painting contractors they used, you know the painter will do an excellent job for you. If you see professional painters working in a house in your neighbourhood, you could book them if you like what you see or ask them to recommend another trusted professional painter if their schedule is too full.

Research house painters online

Professional house painting contractors will know the value of marketing their business and will have an online presence that you can search. Is the quality of their work appealing? Check out their qualifications, licences and insurances and if they offer a guarantee. Do their website pages look old-fashioned, have they been updated recently with a blog and are their contact details accurate? Do they have recent good reviews? The internet is a handy resource for choosing house painters.

Get quotes from house painting contractors

Why not interview at least three painters in your area? Invite them in to show them what needs doing and ask them for quotes. The cheapest quote will not necessarily be the best fit for you. Hearing them talk to you about how they would approach painting your home will give you an idea of their punctuality, attitude and personality. Tell each painter precisely what you have in mind – if you want a quote for a bedroom, it will be much less than if you decide later to paint the entire house.

Get a written estimate

If a painting contractor is not willing to put their quote in writing, don't hire them.

Check references

If you now have a short list of house painters, ask them for the contact details of previous clients. Ask these clients about how reliable the painters were, if they're happy with the result, if they were tidy and if they felt listened to. People will reveal any problems they had with a stranger.

Length of experience

Look for an experienced painter whose business has been around a long time. Length of years in business equates to skills, reliability and good customer relations – all the things you're looking for. The knowledge that experienced painters have translates into working more efficiently. Saving you money and time is a huge factor in how to choose a painting contractor.

Knowledge

Does your painter know the difference between painting a weatherboard home to painting brickwork? Old houses need different treatment compared to new ones. Diverse home designs and structures also require different methods of painting.

Type of paint

Talk to your painters about your colour scheme. Professional house painters in Melbourne can offer valuable advice on secondary shades for trims, frames and skirting boards, how colours will change hues in certain lights and at different times of the day and what the colour trends in the future are likely to be. Painters prefer to use their favourite paint brands, but they may include a range of non-allergenic and environmentally friendly paints. If this is a priority for you, see what sort of response you ask about this.

Schedule

To get an idea of how long the project will take, the painter will need a description (in square metres) of each room and what needs painting (ceilings, floors, walls, frames, trims etc.). They can then slot it into their schedule and give you an approximate time of how long it will take. Timing may determine which painter you choose.

Process

Remember to ask the house painting contractors how they work. Can you remain at home while they paint? Will you need to park your car on the street? If you work from home, will you need to move to a library or coffee shop while they are there? A professional house painter will not consider the job finished with the last brushstroke but will clean up afterwards and provide you with a future maintenance plan.

Hidden extras

Painting requires moving furniture, whitegoods and equipment. If you can't do that yourself, will the painter charge extra for shifting your items for you? Some house painters don't include skirting boards, picture rails and dados in their quotes and others charge extra for high walls or ceilings.

Communicates well

There's a vast difference between an extrovert and a good communicator. You should not feel you've been 'sold to' and left with unanswered questions. You should be able to express your desires, needs and expectations, knowing that you will get what you want with the right advice. Open communication is crucial for the success of your painting project.

Does the painter care?

You may have found a quote within your budget, liked their processes and appreciated their advice, but there may still be something missing. House painters do many projects a year, and this may be just another job to them. But it isn't to you – you need to know that they care about your home and are excited to begin. The questions they ask, the recommendations they make and explaining their services in full demonstrate a customer-centric attitude that will ensure you achieve the desired result together.

How to choose your house painting contractor

Many house painters and house painting contractors have various working processes and price ranges. Choosing the right painter for your house will give you expert advice, less stress and a beautiful home.

For all house painting enquiries, feel free to call us on 0435 754 330