Red Flags When Hiring a Painter in Wellington

Most painting jobs go fine. The ones that do not tend to show warning signs early, and they are usually visible before any money changes hands. Here is what is worth paying attention to.

There is no written quote

A verbal number is not a quote. Without something in writing that names the surfaces, the preparation, the products and the number of coats, there is nothing to hold anyone to and no way to settle a disagreement later. If a written quote is treated as an unusual request, that tells you something.

The same applies to a written quote that is only a single line and a total. It is written, but it is not a specification.

A large deposit is wanted up front

Progress payments tied to stages of the work are normal and reasonable. A substantial share of the total before anyone has arrived is not. The usual explanation is that the money is needed to buy materials, but established painters have accounts with their suppliers.

Cash-only pricing belongs in the same category. A discount for cash may simply mean no GST invoice, which also means no paper trail if something goes wrong.

They turned up at your door

Door-to-door painting offers, particularly ones that mention leftover paint from a job nearby or a price that is only available today, are worth declining as a matter of course. Time pressure is the point of the pitch. A real business that is any good is generally booked out and does not need to knock.

You cannot verify the business

Look for a business name you can find, a landline or a consistent mobile, a physical address and a record of work in the area. Check that the company exists on the Companies Register. Ask for the public liability insurance certificate and read the dates on it.

If a quote arrives from one business name, the invoice comes from another and the crew belongs to a third, ask who you are actually contracting with before the work starts.

The price is far below everything else

If three quotes cluster and a fourth is half of them, the cheap one is usually not the same job. It has come off somewhere, and on a repaint it has almost always come off the preparation, because that is the part nobody can see afterwards. You will find out in two or three years rather than ten.

A very high quote can be just as much of a signal. Ask what it includes that the others do not. Sometimes the answer is scaffolding and full preparation, and it is the honest quote in the set.

Nobody looked at the house properly

A quote produced from photographs or a drive past cannot account for the state of your window joinery, the sealant around the cladding or the elevation you cannot reach with a ladder. Those are exactly the things that turn into variations later. Someone should have walked around the property and, on a two-storey house, looked at how they would reach the top of it.

The weather plan is unrealistic

Anyone promising a firm fortnight of exterior work in Wellington without mentioning weather has either not thought about it or is telling you what you want to hear. Wind stops spraying, rain stops everything, and surfaces need to be dry before a coat goes on. A sensible painter will tell you the job may spread across a longer window.

No guarantee, or a guarantee with nothing behind it

Ask what the guarantee covers, how long it runs and who honours it if the business closes. A guarantee backed only by the contractor disappears with the contractor. Accreditation schemes exist partly to sit behind that promise, which is why we hold Master Painters membership.

Pressure to decide now

A discount that expires this afternoon is a sales technique, not a price. Any reputable painter expects you to get other quotes and will still be there next week.

What to do instead

Get three quotes. Ask each for the products and the number of coats. Ask to see insurance. Ask for two addresses nearby you can drive past. Then compare what is actually being offered rather than the totals.

If you would like a written specification you can put beside other quotes, contact us and we will come and look at the property. You can see the range of work we take on across our painting services.