Making sure your commercial building looks perfect – both inside and out – is an essential part of the business. We all know that a first impression counts, but so do second, third, and fourth impressions. Keeping your building in top condition throughout its life is vital to getting the most out of it and ensuring that people engage with it positively.
The quality of your paintwork has a huge impact on a building’s look, so making sure you use an industrial painting contractor who can produce top-notch results is extremely important, but it shouldn’t be the only consideration. Here are the three top questions you should ask your potential industrial painting contractor to make sure they’re the right fit for your business.
Question 1: What’s Your Experience?
In every aspect of business, experience is an essential factor, no more so than when it comes to the fine nuances of industrial painting. The saying goes that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to become a master, so finding someone who’s put the time in will help you get the results you need in the way you need them.
Experience means:
- Fewer (and hopefully, zero) mistakes, plus the know-how to fix things that do go wrong.
- More efficient working practices.
- Understanding of the business impact of their work.
- Specialist knowledge of industry challenges.
The benefits of working with a contractor who knows what they are doing are manifold; you can rely on them to be less disruptive to your business, to consider your needs and adjust accordingly, not to cut corners, and to end up with a truly professional result.
Industrial painters with experience are still doing the job after years and managing to continue to build clients because they’re good at it. And that’s exactly what you want!
So ask, ‘What’s your experience?’ and request testimonials and case studies. Discuss your specific industry to see if they have undertaken similar projects, and point out any specific concerns you may have to see how they plan to deal with them.
It’s the first important step to getting the right industrial painting contractor.
Question 2: What Quality of Work Can We Expect?
…and an off-hand response that suggests the very best may well be a warning sign!
When you ask someone about the quality of their work, a professional and trustworthy contractor will be open about the materials they use – giving you the opportunity to do a little further research to see if they’re the right options for your needs. What they use – and how they apply it – will make a huge difference to the final quality of the paintwork.
Pros will:
- Use professional grade materials
- Properly prepare the area and surfaces for application
- Be vigilant about quality control
- Choose the best application method for the surface, whether that’s spraying, rolling, or brushwork.
- Consider access and plan accordingly.
Quality work means not only that it looks nicer, but that it’s more durable and your investment will last longer – it may cost a little more to use the right products, but the end result is worth the extra pennies.
Question 3: What Are Your Timescales?
Making sure a project has the right timeline is extremely important in an industrial setting, and there are a few things to look out for here.
Over-eagerness to start work immediately
It may feel great that your painting contractor is offering to ‘begin tomorrow’, but take such eagerness as a warning. Let’s be honest; quality firms are booked up with work, and though they may have brilliant administrative teams working hard in the background to facilitate your project, it’s still going to take time to put everything in motion. Someone who wants to start immediately probably doesn’t have any other clients booked, and you have to ask yourself why that is…
Understanding disruption
The best contractors have the experience to mitigate disruption, but that means they have a good idea of how their work impacts the general run of the business. Discuss the timescale so your contractor understands your business needs.
Team size
If the painting firm has a good sized team, that indicates that the job can be undertaken with efficiency.
The consequence of delays can have wide impact on your business operations – make sure you’re confident in your contractor’s ability to meet the deadlines that have been agreed.
Additional Tips for Choosing an Industrial Painting Contractor
With those three questions asked, you should be good to go ahead, but here are a few extra thoughts to make sure you’re happy with your industrial painting contractor:
- Check their insurance cover
- Discuss aftercare and the snagging process
- Who is the point of contact? Is there a project manager?
- What trade memberships or schemes are they a part of?
- Do they like their tea with one sugar or two?!
Questioning GI Sykes
It’s important you ask the right questions when selecting an industrial painting contractor, but don’t be nervous – there are no wrong questions! Better to ask a little too much than stay silent and nervously agree to a poor job.
At GI Sykes, we welcome your questions. We have the experience you need, will produce top-quality work, and are happy to commit to any reasonable timescale (though we can’t start tomorrow!). If you are considering an industrial painting project, follow this link to get a quote.
