9. Do you give
discounts if I can get my neighbors to paint their exteriors at the same
time?
No. I would discourage you from trying to
get discounts by getting your neighbors together. The residential repaint
industry is already plagued with the discount mentality. There is a 200-400%
range of prices already. You tend to get what you paid for when you buy
discount, because you are getting discounted labor or inexperienced painting
contractors whose marketing program is "be cheap to keep busy".
The life expectancy for most residential repainting contractors is 2 to
3 years, because they do not realize you can never be the best price in
a 200-400% range of prices without putting yourself out of business soon.
We believe in win-win. The key is to price the job so both the homeowner
and the contractor win.
10. How often should I paint the exterior/interior of the home.
This varies dramatically upon the types of siding
and trim. Most 20-30 year old homes built in subdivisions with some
sort of synthetic siding, e.g. Aluminum, Vinyl, Masonite etc. need their
finger-jointed wood trim around windows, doors and trim painted every
2 to 4 years. If your sided home has lots of trees to protect the house,
the finger jointed wood trim will have a longer life than a home in the
wide open.
Homes with expensive Cedar, Redwood or Cyprus siding can hold a good coat
of a solid hide stain for 7 to 10 years depending upon how many trees
you have protecting it. The Cedars, Redwood and Cyprus sided homes are
substantially more expensive than Vinyl siding but these substrates are
more stable and can hold a good coat of paint.
At Bicknell Painting Inc. we have initiated an exterior maintenance program
where we encourage our exterior customers to invite us back every 3 to
4 years to survey the exterior painting job and see if with some minor
touch-ups (on the high wear areas, i.e. horizontal surfaces, garage door
frames at the bottom, window sills, etc.) we can extend the life of the
paint job.
Interiors need to be painted every 5 to 7 years unless you have heavy
cigarette smokers, in which case the walls/ceilings & woodwork need
painting more often, i.e. every 3 years. The reason you need to paint
every 5 to 7 years on the inside is because the circulation of the hot
air, stains the walls and ceilings. The normal convection of warm air
from radiators or hot forced air heating systems just naturally ages,
i.e. stains the existing walls, ceiling & woodwork. The stain occurs
sooner, if you do not change your air filters in a hot forced-air heating
system.
The thing to remember about painting inside is you paint the entire room
once you get it set up so as to keep the age of all the paint in one room
the same vintage, plus it is not economical to set up an occupied room
and protect all the furniture just to paint the walls. It is
foolish economy to do just a portion of the room!
11. Do you have a list of people you recommend for
other services such as HVAC etc.
Many clients call and
ask whom I recommend for various products and services.
Here is my list of preferred businesses. Each of these folks is as committed
to quality and service as I am--so you can use them with confidence!
Appliance Repair, Nate Owens of ANOVA Appliance
Phone: 703-246-8900
Carpet Cleaning, John Pletcher of RestoreTech
Phone: 703-204-0401
Internet: www.restortech.com
Color Consultation, Mary Amos of Fairfax Interior & Bath Design
Phone: 703-323-1660
Internet: www.fairfaxintbath.com
Deck cleaning/preservation, Brian Colbus of Deck-Brite Sealing
Phone: 703-750-2723
Heating & Air-Conditioning, Tim Justice of Central Services
Phone: 703-591-5400
Internet: www.gocentralservices.com
Home Inspector, David Drewry of Drewry Home Inspections
Phone: 703-758-1444
Pest Control, Connor's Pest Control
Phone: 703-321-0400
E-mail/Internet: cpc@connorsservices.com
Replacement Garage Doors and Controls
Ryan Bunch of Academy Door & Control
Phone: 703-698-5850