Overview
Maintaining your home comes with a plethora of advantages. It drastically increases the aesthetics of the home and maintains its elegance and comfort. When you need to sell your house, a well maintained house, and its components therein, will give you a competitive edge among your competitors. Well maintained homes fetch a higher price and secure a buyer sooner, than poorly maintained home.
Fortunately, the interior of the room is not exposed to as many factors as the exterior. Again, interior painting has a bigger impact and is not as expensive as its exterior counterpart. In addition to that, it takes longer for interior painting to fade in quality. For instance, if there is a natural disaster, the exterior painting may lose its quality and appeal in a day. Therefore, you do not have a reason to neglect painting the interior.
One of the most common questions that home owners ask is how to tell the home needs to be repainted. The answer to this question depends on several factors. This article will guide you in how to tell if your home needs interior painting.
How to tell if the interior of your home needs to be painted?
It is advisable that routine painting of your home is done every five to seven years. However, this general proposition does not necessarily apply to every part of the house, or in every circumstance. Some parts of your home are high traffic areas. These include the entry doors, the corridors, and the hallways. The higher the traffic of a certain part of your house, the sooner the need to do a re-paint.
Similarly, children and the pets can dictate the need to paint the walls. This is because of the wear and tear, and the scratches thereon. The children’s area is a high vulnerable area as your children use your home to explore the world and grow. Your children’s bedroom is as well as a playground. The bedroom is a low traffic area, and might withstand painting every eight years.
The kitchen and the bathroom have a higher level of exposure than other rooms. At the same time, the kitchen could be a place with clutter. Such settings tend to ask for painting more frequently than others.
You do not have to do a comprehensive renovation of your bathroom; you can just do the painting. Simply, your bathroom could just need appropriate shade of the paint as well as the right finish of the paint. The bathroom is exposed to dump and humid conditions. Sink splashes as well as hot showers contribute to a higher level of moisture. Therefore, careful decisions have to be made on the best way of handling this.
Some home owners will do painting in order to bring about change in the look of the home. Changing the setting of the room brings about a fresh taste and a new home style. You do not have to stick to the traditional American painting style. Some Americans prefer exotic styles of home design because of their unique appearance. Discuss with your painting contractor about the need to try something new and refreshing.
Painting the ceiling is part and parcel of painting the interior. When you notice yellow spots on the ceiling, then it is time to think about painting the ceiling. If the painter does the right thing, then the painting of the ceiling can last as long as ten years.
Most of the home owners forget the interior trim when they are painting their house. The doors, baseboards, window trim, and any other type of decoration, can fades in quality with time.
In the modern American society, changing homes is a reality. For example, an employee based in Woodland, CA could be told that there is no more work in Woodland, but the same company can offer him a job in Chicago. Similarly, you may want to go to a place with a lower cost of living, and this will warrant that you sell your home in order to get another one. Whatever the case, be prepared to change homes any time. Whereas you may not foresee this, people have desired to sell their Woodland home within a short notice, and you would need to have it repainted so you would have to scramble to find Interior Painting Woodland CA.
One of the best ways of preparing yourself is to do the painting of your home in the right way. Making use of neutral colors is better than the use of screaming colors. Bold colors are not known to attract buyers of a home. For example, the use of red colors, used dominantly, can alienate a new buyer as he will worry about the cost of changing the color entirely. Colors such as pastels, white, beige, and light brown, appeal to a wider variety of clients. Much as you will make your own decisions, involve the opinion of the painting contractor.
The type of paint that is used in the painting will have far reaching consequences on the durability of your work. Oil paint can carry a high level of volatile compounds and does not dry easily. When you breathe in volatile compounds, they could have a negative consequence on your health. It is known to yellow over the course of time. Latex paint is credited for durability as well as the ability to withstand moisture.
If mold has grown in your home, do not paint over the growth. Instead, think about the best way of sealing it first. In addition to that, seal it for future protection. Proper ventilation of the room will protect you against the mold.
The choice of your paint could be a matter of security. For example, American homes that were built prior to 1978 could still have lead paint. Absorption of lead leads to behavioral and psychological problems to the children. Extreme cases of inhaling lead in the form of duct can lead to impairment.
Therefore, if one suspects lead paint in his or her home, it is time to seek the help of a painting contractor who can help in managing it. You can send a sample of a paint chip to your contractor, and he will help determine a case of lead. What is important is to reduce exposure to lead early enough, and therefore, avoid possible health problems.
How to hire an interior painting contractor
The internet is saturated with information on Do It Yourself painting. Do not be misled by such sources of data and information. You may be saving a lot of money in painting the home through DIY, but you do not have the necessary skills and experience to realize optimal quality outcomes more so in the long run. It is better to leave your painting work at the hands of the professionals who are well versed with what high quality painting entails.
There are many providers of painting services in the market. However, if you choose the wrong one, you are going to frustrate you, and you are going to lose money and time. Whereas you may have legal redress, such a process is time consuming and expensive. Again, the outcomes of a court process may not necessarily favor you. Therefore, you need to make a careful decision in choosing your painting contractor.
The first thing that you should look for is the qualification and experience of the contractor. Obviously, you do need maximum quality for your work, and this has to be done by a competent team of painting professionals. Professionals in painting go through a thorough career preparation. Painters in Florida have to contact the Construction Industry Licensing Board for proper preparation of fitting the painting market in the state. The board sets the appropriate exams and qualifications.
Another critical consideration entails the past projects of the painting contractor, and by extension, his or her reputation. If the contractor is a member of a trade association or Better Business Bureau, then that is a plus point in choosing the right company. Again, check the online reviews and evaluate how the company has interacted with the clients. Some states do have ways of naming rogue business traders, and you need to check if that is available.
When you want to have the job done well, make sure you specific questions, and ensure that the answer given is satisfactory. For example, ask the contractor the kind of paint he uses, and the number of coats that are going to be applied. Peeling or flaking of the paint shows that the quality of the paint used was a low quality one in the first place. If you find that the contractor is not going to do a good job, you need to withdraw from dealing with him prior to signing the contract. Once you have signed any contract, it is not easy to dis-engage yourself from the agreement as it can be legally binding.
Insurance is an important part of any business. This is because you will be assured of compensation should things go wrong. At the same time, require that employees under the contractor are insured. This will protect you from any liability should any of the employee face injury. It should be noted that a lawsuit is a possibility even when you might not be in the wrong. Therefore, the best thing is to envision every scenario.
You should never hire a professional who is not licensed. In addition to that, it is not enough to ask for the license, but about the type of license. Licensing depends on several factors including if it is for commercial or residential purposes, or if it is for big jobs or small jobs. At the same time, be sure to check if there are any unresolved complaints on the part of the contractor. In connection to this, ensure that you are dealing with a current license.
A competent painting contractor should be in a position to give you a formal estimate or quote. Whereas a cost over-run is a possibility, a competent professional should avoid such situations as much as possible. However, be sure about the related cost of the painting. For example, some contractors are going to ask for payment in removing furniture.
The issue of a warranty is a matter of paramount importance. It will help you have a peace of mind on the painting process. It is advisable that you evaluate three bids and come up with the best one.
There are several sources of a painting contractor, and these include the following:
-Asking for a referral from friends and relatives (this is the most reliable and trustworthy one as the chances of getting the wrong lead is very low)
-Your general contractor can help you choose the painting contractor
–Google search (the assumption is that the higher the rankling of a website, the better it is. However, one should take this assumption with a grain of salt)
-Local listings of the services provider
-A scour or ride in your neighborhood will help you identify a brick and mortar painting business
There are some red flags that should help you realize that a certain painting professional is wanting. If the contractor cannot provide references, then it is time to re-think about that engagement. At the same time, if the contractor quotes very low fees compared to the market, then know that he could compromise on quality. Whereas the budget is a big consideration in any home improvement endeavor, you should never compromise on quality. Remember, you are going to get what you are paying for, and that is the tradition in the market. After all, once you are through with the painting, you do not need to paint soon.
Conclusion
By thinking about painting your home, you are going to rejuvenate it. Painting your home will help you in immense ways. As far as you choose the right contractor, you will have an optimal painting process and favorable outcomes. Overall, painting of the interior is good for the esthetics, keeps the home refreshed, and carries a high return on investment.