House Painting Contractors for Property Management
Category: Commercial Painting
A colleague of ours was in the property management business for many years. During that time, she experienced many situations where a contractor was hired for repairs, cleaning, or painting. Some of her experiences were very good, most were average with some expected unfavorable results, and others were complete disasters.
She told us of a situation where she had contracted with a painting company to repaint one of the homes they managed. Repairs and painting were always done for the property owners after a tenant moved out of the unit. Their policy was to paint again as long as the tenant had lived in the home for a year.
Unfortunately, their regular painting contractor had recently retired and they were still looking for a quality painting company that they could rely on. Several had listed advertisements and seemed legitimate so they took some quotes and chose one.
Being a property manager is never an easy job, especially when trying to coordinate with contractors that are new. The painting company they chose was not very good at communicating, and ended up getting some colors and instructions confused, but this was not even the beginning of the nightmare they created.
The painting contractor was actually a very small time mom and pop type of organization. The painting crew gave a great price for the painting work, but failed to mention that they used sprayers instead of rollers or brushes when painting the main areas of wall. Unfortunately, It was a lesson learned too late for the property manager who should have asked about their methods.
About halfway through the project, the property manager went to inspect the work. She saw that they had used a sprayer and had used it very badly. Paint was literally sprayed all over everything including the trim-work, ceiling, doors, CARPETING, cabinetry, countertops, mirrors, outlet covers, light fixtures, wall switches, and everything else that was exposed. Some were little tiny drops but there were also some pretty nice splatters and drips.
They had also failed to paint the trim correctly and protect the flooring. There were literally shoe prints made out of paint on the flooring and carpentry.
When she made her way to the bathroom, in extreme shock from the living and kitchen areas, she said she almost passed out.
The self-claimed professional painters had used the bathtub and bathroom sinks to clean off all their equipment. Dried as well as partially dried paint was literally clogging the drains and covering the bathtub and sink surfaces. Rollers, brushes, trays with paint still on them were thrown inside as well as used paper towels and more.
The drains were opened and not covered or closed and there was no way that she could see that the drains would flow, even if everything was pulled out of them. They would need a plumber to come and clean out the traps.
Not only is it a no-no to put paint down the drains since the drains will clog, it’s also an extremely toxic substance to be introducing into our fresh water supply sources. Paint and other such substances should never ever be put down the drains of your home, even if they are water soluble paints.
Unfortunately for this property manager, their painting contractor was unprofessional, inexperienced, and unreliable. When managing properties, it’s important that you have someone you can rely on to do the quality work you expect. If you are interested in learning about our superior painting services, done only by our expert painters who respect your property, call us at the number below and we’ll be glad to discuss your needs with you.
