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Advice to Customers

The following article, published in The American Painting Contractor, November 1991, was written by painting contractor Larry Converse.

TIMES ARE TOUGH in our business.  Even in the best times, this business is hard.  "The disastrous competition for work as now pursued by masters, whereby profits are reduced to starvation rates and our trade urged on to ruin..." was written by Titus Berger, president of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America in 1885.

Back then they were singing the same song, but times have changed.  We now have spray guns, rollers, latex paint, color machines, TV advertising and laws.  Today most painters are just applicators, and it has become a common belief that "anyone can paint".  This belief, spread by paint manufacturers, is good for selling paint.

The problem is that if anyone can paint, then anyone without a job can be a painter, including con artists looking for a fast buck, teachers with the summer off, students between semesters, public employees with extended vacations, and housewives in need of extra money.  The problem is that people don't work as employees, they become contractors, and you will find that there are more painting contractors today than ever.

Combine all these contractors with our recession, and you have profits reduced to starvation rates again.  Good for the consumer?  Not necessarily.  The lowest prices are given out by the underground painters or "moonlighters".  They pocket all your money and pay no taxes, insurance or any overhead-with little chance of getting caught.  The second lowest price group is the inexperienced painters who wants to do a good job but just don’t know how.  The highest group is the professionals who abide by the laws and knows that quality takes time.

Paint Burning - Vital Preparation

What does it mean to "burn off" the old paint? 

Years ago all painters carried a Bunsen burner when they climbed their ladders and hung their work stages.  It was an everyday tool and all paint companies used this method of paint removal. As time went by and labor and liability costs escalates, contractors opted to eliminate the more time consuming and therefore more costly paint burning method and began scraping and sanding homes.

Whether done by hand or electrical means, sanding and scraping is the cheaper and less efficient method of preparation.  Scrapers and sanders do not remove all the old defective paint, they simply "feather" the edges of the old paint.  The results are craters and a very uneven finished product.  The defective product paint that looked fine when they finished starts to break through the new paint within 1 to 2 years and you have to repaint within 4 to 5 years.

Contractors who use the burning method are generally 20% more expensive than scrapers and sanders, but we put time into the preparation where it belongs.  "You receive a longer lasting paint job, a much nicer, cleaner finished product, a five-year unconditional guarantee and a 10-year paint job".

No, we will not burn your building down.  De Martini/Arnott Painting has never started a fire, anywhere. Open flame burning is not allowed in the City of San Francisco as of January 2000. We now use heat guns and chemical stripping to get down to the bare wood. We have been using the burning method for 20 years, and all of our men are trained journeymen painters.  We have an excellent safety record that speaks for itself.

Burning starts at 8 AM and stops at 3 PM.  The men are with your building until they leave at 4:30 PM.  After they perform the burning procedure, the building is hosed down and completely checked.  No one leaves the building during the day when the burning is being done.

De Martini/Arnott Painting is old fashioned when it comes to preparation.  With our company, tradition and safety come together to deliver the highest caliber paint job possible.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!

Yes, Of course it's going to rain in the winter months, but why panic!  We don’t paint when it's raining or even when there's a chance of rain.  Given a choice, painters would rather work outside in the City in November, December and January than in mid-summer because of the severe fog which can ruin a painting projects and carry it on much longer than intended.  It is very difficult to plan for fog but it is very easy to plan for rain.

The fear of winter painting all started years ago when the only product available was oil base gloss enamel which would flat out completely when touched by water.  Painters told customers not to paint outside until spring and summer.  Today we have acrylic finishes which dry in a couple of hours and can be applied in temperatures as low as 38 degrees.

Please remember that De Martini/Arnott painting burns off the old paint and with an open flame at 1600 degrees it will dry out any surface in seconds.  We also prepare the surfaces differently in the winter.  We burn off only as much as can be sanded and primed that same day, just in case some inclement weather sets in.  The prepared surfaces are always protected.

Remember, we give an unconditional five-year guarantee, and we'll do nothing to jeopardize the quality of our work.  Keep another important thing in mind.  Prices are always lower in the winter months.  It's all supply and demand.  In the summer when it's very busy you get a standard price.  In the winter when it's slow, the prices come down.

Here's a chart from the National Weather Service on Bay Area weather in winter months.  These figures reflect the Bay Area's average rainfall for the last 30 years.

Most complaints from consumers are about the quality of work, unfinished work, and the attitude of the painters.  It is amazing because the same consumers hired the lowest priced contractors and bragged the bargain they got.

"The solution is simple.  You usually get what you pay for.  Don't hire based on price alone".  Hire a contractor based on his last ten jobs completed.  Get a list of names, addresses and phone numbers and call them.  Ask them if they were satisfied.  Some people are more easily satisfied than others, so go see the jobs if you can.  Pick your contractor based on jobs that are like yours, both in size and type of work.  Make sure the contractor can do your job within your time frame.

Please note that even in the worst month, January, it rains only 11 days and is sunny 56% of the times.  So seasonal rains are no reason for panic.

We paint outside every winter!