Exterior home painting advice - partial job?
The entire exterior of our three-story house needs to be repainted after the initial paint job from our home remodel in 2004. My husband worked out an arrangement with our neighbor for him to paint the exterior of the first story of the house (no scaffolding needed) but my husband plans to hire paint professionals to complete the painting of the upper stories. My question is: Will a professional painter be likely to decline the job if it was started by someone else? Are professional painters particular about the type of paint they use for their jobs or would they be willing to finish the job with the same paint that the neighbor picked out from a big-box hardware store? Will the professional find a need to re-do or "correct" the job done previously? My experience with professionals in general is that they don't want to take on a job that was started by someone else (especially if that person is a non-professional). Please enlighten me if this is a different case for paint professionals or other house contractors.
Parent Replies
Sure - just use a smaller business. If you're willing to have your neighbor do part of it, just hire someone similar to do the rest. Put an ad for the job on Craigsist gigs and you will get a MILLION responses. Ask for references and call them. We had our house painted that way by a great guy who cost about half what companies like MB Jessee quoted. In fact I had larger companies quote me $12-15,000 - the painter I hired cost $5000 plus I bought supplies. He did a great job. Make sure you hire someone who has done work like this and understands prep, plus can safely use (and source) the equipment needed. Call references ...
I'm a licensed painting contractor. My license is inactive as I've moved on to other endeavors, but I can answer your questions.
Whether or not a painter will take on your job will be very much dependent on the contractor. I wouldn't have a problem with it, but some might.
Some painting contractors are brand loyalists. I used to prefer using Benjamin Moore, particularly for interior work, as the paint didn't splatter when rolling it on the way cheaper brands did, which meant much less prep and mess. BM was also a superior exterior product too. But, it wasn't a deal breaker if the client wanted me to use another brand. At one point I put my foot down and stopped using oil based paint for interior work for the sake of my health, and moved on to environmentally friendly paint only. But, I was a rarity at that point.
You also may find them hesitant to warranty work if you request they use an inferior paint from a big box store. One way to resolve this would be if there's any corner or break between the old and new paint, say like a piece of trim or even just a corner, a skilled the painter can have the big box store matched to a better quality paint and apply it so it won't be noticeable.
If the already painted part of the house isn't expected to be covered by any warranty, and you offer to exclude that part from any potential warranty issue in a contract, I can't see why they'd need to fix the previously done work.
I think the only way to find out is make some calls and get some estimates.