Noticing unsightly details after the painters are done? It might not be their fault!
The most careful attention you will pay to your home is after the painters are done painting. You walk around and inspect every nook and cranny, and rightfully so! You want to make sure that the painters did an excellent job and didn’t leave any spots left that show the prior color. You just paid good money for an outstanding, professional paint job and so you scan your eyes over all the edges, corners, window sills, baseboards, support beams, or other parts of your home. What happens more often than not is that you start to notice oddities about your home that you didn’t before such as:
- A tiny crack in the wall
- Scratches on the hardwood floor
- Drywall missing or damaged
- Paint splatter
- Hardened drips on the walls
- Small holes in the wall
- etc…
Was it the painters who are responsible for what you are seeing? Or maybe it has been there all along and you just have never noticed it before! Unfortunately, many painters bear the brunt of dissatisfied customers after working hard on making the interior of a home look beautiful due to a homeowner not seeing what has been there all along! Odds are, a homeowner didn’t spend any time before the painters came to inspect the condition of their home interior, and just figured that whatever damage they are seeing afterwards must be the fault of the painter, and why wouldn’t they think that? They didn’t see it before!
What an experienced painter or professional will do upon encountering a small damage detail is quickly take a picture, or multiple pictures, and show the homeowner before continuing on. This is the best way to avoid confrontation after the job is completed because everything that might be an issue is brought to the homeowners attention before hand.
While I can’t say one way or another who is responsible for any damage that the homeowner notices after the walls have been painted, the best way to avoid any disagreement on who should take responsibility is for both parties to agree beforehand on what they are seeing. Taking pictures is a must on the side of the contractors, and inspecting the condition of walls and surfaces beforehand is a great idea of the side of the homeowners.
Hardened drips on the wall can very well be from the previous paint job, but if homeowners never got up close to the wall to inspect it before, they wouldn’t have noticed it. Paint splatter can very well be from a previous paint job as well, especially if the colors are very similar. Scratches on the hardwood floor could have been there for many months, but just have gone unnoticed because the homeowners weren’t down on the floor inspecting the baseboards. If the homeowner makes it a point to inspect their property before the painters begin their work, and the painters take pictures or point out any trouble areas before they paint then all should be well.