How To Save Money On Any Paint Job

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Let's face it, it is hard to find a contractor to touch a small job. The only time you will find someone who will work for you to do a small project is if the company is slow. The problem is if he or she finds a bigger job, your project becomes low priority. A quality service company loves small jobs. It is an opportunity to prove why they are the best in their line of work. If they perform well and do their job with a smile, you will most likely hire them again. Right?

We have been thinking about how to save our clients money when it comes to painting their homes. The answer is twofold. 1) A homeowner needs to have the home properly prepped and painted by a quality contractor before we can provide the money saving tip. Once the home has been completely painted, it should normally last 6-8 years before it will need a complete paint job. 2) This is where Chism Brothers Painting comes in to help you plan and save. What typically happens when a home is painted completely is you the homeowner get busy with life and your contractor does not follow up reminding you when it is time for a complete repaint. When you finally have the time to call a painter, the home can sometimes require a lot of preparation instead of a coat of paint. What we like to do with our clients is put them on a maintenance plan where we remind you when it is time for an inspection and the basic touch-ups or repaints. If a quality company repaints select areas of your home every 1-3 years instead of a complete repaint every 10 years, your home will always look new and will be protected from termites, peeling paint and dry-rot. Plus a home is a lot easier to paint and less expensive when there is no major prep to do such as sanding and removing loose/flaky paint. 

Let me give you an example of how we helped save a client a lot of money. Our office received a call from a client who wanted an estimate to repaint the entire exterior of her home. She has a newer track home, about 6 years old. The wood work on the south and west sides were showing signs of fading and the stucco had some staining and dirt marks around the whole home. I went out to look at the home and suggested she only paint 1-2 sides of the exposed wood areas if she wanted to save money. I also recommended a very expensive but high quality exterior paint, which would help prolong the life of the paint. For less than $1,200, we were able to pressure-clean her entire home and paint the faded woodwork only on the sun-exposed areas. The entire home (top-to bottom) would have cost around $8,500 and would need to be redone every 6-8 years. By using a top quality paint and ONLY painting the sun exposed areas (south and west), she can carefully budget close to $600 or less per year to keep her home looking great! As you can see, $600 a year would equal $4,800 in 8 years. By having us inspect and touch up areas before they need major filling and sanding, she will never have a concern on her home. 

So, let a quality service company, who loves doing small jobs, help keep your exterior or interior always looking the best in the neighborhood! 

CPR Training For Employees

Monday, January 14, 2008

Last Monday, Chism Brother's employees all gathered at our Kearny Mesa office to attend a half day CPR training meeting. All of our field employees received their certification for CPR as well. Our company is committed to doing the right thing on and off the job. We always make sure our employees are trained in the skills of painting but also receive the proper safety training so they can possibly avoid unnecessary injuries at work.

How does this benefit our clients? The more safety training Chism Brothers does, the lower our worker's compensation will be. This will then lower our overhead expenses and cause a smaller price tag to our high quality work! Most paint companies do not take safety as a concern. They can sell at lower prices but if anything happens on the job and they are uninsured or careless, you the homeowner will get blamed.

The bottom line is: make sure you research your contractors in California carefully, because there are many legal requirements that most contractors do not follow or implement in their business. 

“Walking The La Jolla Beat”

Monday, September 10, 2007

As a corporate sponsor of the La Jolla Historic Society, we wanted to apprise you of something that might be of interest to you history buffs. The society is introducing a special fall lecture entitled, "Walking the La Jolla Beat: a History of Law & Order in La Jolla." The cost is only $5 (free for members).

Here is the date and information:

Date & Time: 

Wednesday, October 24, 2007  / 6:30 pm

Location

St. James By-the-Sea Church

743 Prospect St, La Jolla 

www.lajollahistory.org 

KPBS Web Silent Auction

Friday, May 04, 2007

KPBS will be having a silent web auction starting May 7th. To get a sneak preview of the items listed, Click Here.

We will be sponsoring 3 Painter For a Day opportunities for the auction. Stay tune to bid.  

San Diego Water Fraud

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

There was an article on the 10 News website yesterday warning homeowners in select areas of San Diego to beware of fake “employees” of water agencies wanting to come into your home. The so-called “employees” would ask to inspect their water supply or something related to water in the home and then look for valuables to steal. The warning was mainly for residents in the Santee area, but I am sure it could happen anywhere.

Please be careful when inviting people into your home. If you ever have a question about who is working on your home, call the main office and talk to the owner about a questionable employee.

To read the full article, Click Here

How to Spend Less Money on Painting

Sunday, June 11, 2006
Most people call us when their home is in desperate need of a paint job, which means more money out of pocket. We all know that owning a home means we have to budget a certain amount of money on maintaining our property. Sometimes it is not wise to spend a large portion of money all at once. Instead of paying to have the entire interior or exterior painted every ten years when it really needs it, consider this option: Try our Painter For a Day™ program. You will be amazed at how much work our skilled painters can get done in just one day. Why can this be a good alternative? It can keep your home in top-knotch shape on a continual basis instead of gradually getting worse until it looks like it is in need of a complete paint job. Some of you may budget to have an auto detailer come and clean your cars or a landscaper to take care of your lawn on a regular basis. This helps keep your car from needing a new paint job and your yard from looking like the Amazon forest. Our Painter For a Day™ program has been a success since the day we started it in the late 1990's. Let me give you an example, just like the detailer cleans your car on a regular basis, we can come in and clean the exterior of your home with a pressured rinse. This helps keep the dirt and elements off your paint job, which prolongs the life of the paint. Another example, instead of stripping your wood thresholds every time they turn gray and look like they're 100 years old, we can come out every couple of years and in no time at all, clean and apply another coat of varnish before they look bad. This can save a lot of money, because we keep a careful eye on your home. We have a number of long-term customers who do not do a complete paint job often, but call once a year to do a small amount of work to keep their homes looking sharp. The cost of our Painter For a Day™ can vary depending on if you desire one painter or two. Currently, the cost for one Project Foreman (most experienced painter) to come to your home is only $570. This includes up to a full day's worth of work, the basic paint supplies, and little or no charge for paint materials.* We recommend that you have a list of things to do so our painter can have a full day of work as this is the minimum charge. *Extra charges for material may apply. These include: certain industrial enamels, specialty products, faux finish materials, and anything over two gallons of paint per day.

Should I Paint Before I Sell?

Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Recently, I received a call from a client's daughter to come out and look at her father's home. Her father had died, and she was going to sell the Mission Hills Crafstman home. This was a home that my grandfather, Milton Chism, had painted probably during the 1960's. The paint job still looked good, but it was an old home in need of some basic repairs and color changes. She asked my opinion about painting, and I suggested that she leave the home as it was. While it would have been a large project for us, I had several reasons why I thought she should hold off.The cost for doing a thorough paint job on an old Craftsman-style home, just to sell it, would be steep. The home has not changed much over the years, so I suggested that the buyer would either like the home the way it is or would make drastic changes to the home. My second reason was that a buyer may see and smell fresh paint and wonder what the seller is hiding or ask the question, "Why did the seller paint?" A seller will not necessarily get a better price for an older home unless he or she performs a complete restoration. Another question that has come up from time to time if a seller decides to paint is, "Should I paint my home a standard off-white color or have multiple colors?" My suggestion would be to leave the home the color that it is. Unless, of course, you have bright and bold colors that would detract from the beauty of the home, I would leave the paint colors alone. There are other exceptions, but this has been my experience. It does not seem that putting a lot of color on the walls or changing to neutral colors will change the pricing of a house or disuade people from buying it. However, many realtors seem to recommend painting or just touch-up. If you do decide to paint before selling or do a quick "touch-up" around the home, make sure the painting is done very well. This is crucial. I can't tell you how many times I have seen homes that were just sold and the buyer is complaining about the horrible paint job. Do not hire a contractor who specializes in quick touch-ups. Some realtors want to do a quick sale (typically with good intentions) and suggest cheap painting companies who can do the work quickly and cheap. When we are hired for doing touch-ups for a seller, we highly recommend using the proper preparation and painting the area completely whether it is a bedroom, baseboard, door, mantel, etc. It shows the buyer that you care about your property and did not cut corners just to sell your home. If you do decide to paint your home before you sell or need a few good touch-ups, consider our Painter For a Day™ program. One final tip if you do paint to sell: plan ahead! Good paint companies may not always be available last minute to schedule your project.

This Blog’s for You!

Friday, June 02, 2006
We created our website to do two things: a) to provide a way to inform people about us and our services and b) to provide information to assist and educate the consumer on hiring the right painting contractor. We love to hear from you. Please comment on this blog or send us an email on how we can make our website and information even better.

Life Time Paint Warranties

Wednesday, May 31, 2006
In the last few years, there seems to be a number of companies advertising 25, 50 and life time warranties on painting homes. The problem typically is that they are charging outrageous prices that are not necessary. Before contracting with a company to paint your home that offers such warranties and prices, please get a second opinion from our company.

Hire a Nationwide Professional Painting Contractor

Chism Brothers Painting is one of fewer than forty Certified Residential Painting Contractors in the country that has been given the seal of certification by the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America. To learn why this should be important to you, click here.

Welcome to Our New Blog

We started this blog to help you learn more about our company, the painting industry, and home remodeling. We hope you will find our blog helpful and will come back often when you need help with your household project. If you don't find what you are looking for, we're here to help. Please send us your questions, and we will do what we can to help you find the answers. Thanks for visiting.