The Ultimate Guide: Hiring an Exterior Painter on the South Shore
CertaPro Painters of the South Shore, Plymouth and Boston area.
Ultimate Guide To Hiring an Exterior House Painter on the South Shore (Massachusetts)
There are many reasons to hire an Exterior Painter for your Boston and South Shore-area home. This guide will help you understand the process and help you more easily narrow down your choice of South Shore painting contractors.
Plus, while these secrets are particular to our New England climate, you don’t have to live on the South Shore of Massachusetts to benefit from these tips.
Let’s jump right in.
- Chapter 1: How do I know I need to paint my South Shore home’s exterior?
- Chapter 2: How to choose a South Shore exterior painting company in Massachusetts?
- Chapter 3. How often to paint your South Shore and Boston-area home?
- Chapter 4: Getting inspired to paint your exterior (the fun part!)
- Chapter 5: The final decision – choosing your exterior painter
- Chapter 6: The Exterior Painting Process in New England
- Chapter 7: Licenses, certifications, insurance, and safety protocols an exterior painter needs to work in Massachusetts.
- Chapter 8: What’s next in the exterior painting process?
To read our online reviews, Google: “South Shore CertaPro Painters’ reviews.”
Chapter 1: Does my Boston-area home’s exterior even need painting yet?
In this chapter, we’ll explore the following topics:
How do you know if you need to paint your home’s exterior?
The benefits of painting your home’s exterior.
How our harsh New England Climate affects painting outdoors on the South Shore and in the Boston-area.
Chapter 2: How to choose a South Shore exterior painting company:
You’ll learn how to best find a Residential Exterior Painter from the following places:
- Online reviews – how to easily sort through all the online review sites.
- Getting quotes – what to look for in this process (hint: The behavior of the painter at this stage often foreshadows the rest of the project).
- Details of the quote – What should be included in a good exterior painting quote?
- Read Chapter 2
Chapter 3. How often should I hire a painter for my South Shore Home’s Exterior?
This chapter will cover:
- How often to paint your South Shore Exterior – with recommendations for coastal and inland homes.
- Defining the scope of the exterior painting job so that all exterior painting companies are bidding on the same project (we call this “apples-to-apples bidding”).
- Which painting and carpentry services does a typical South Shore and Boston-area home need, and how often?
- Secret (free) services New England painters may offer if you know to ask.
- Setting your exterior painting budget.
Chapter 4: Getting inspired to paint your South Shore and Boston-area home (the fun part!)
In this chapter, you’ll learn:
- Working with a designer or color consultant to get the colors just right.
- Subtle paint touches that’ll make your home stand out from your neighbor’s.
- Where to find a designer on the South Shore or in the Boston-area if your painter doesn’t offer one.
Read Chapter 4 
Chapter 5: The final decision – choosing an exterior painter.
If you’ve never hired an exterior painter in the South Shore and Boston are before, you might need to understand the following:
- How the quoting process foreshadows what’s to come when you hire a painting company.
- Why to almost never accept a “time and materials” bid.
- Why wallpaper removal CAN and might be quoted as “time and materials.”
Read Chapter 5 Chapter 6: The Exterior Painting Process for your South Shore and Boston-area home
- Communication with your painter is critical.
- The details and stages of the painting process from power washing to the final clean up.
- Changing your mind (it happens!)
- Change orders or add-ons to the initial project
Chapter 7: Licenses, certifications, insurance and safety protocols an exterior painter needs to work on the South Shore and in Massachusetts.
- Because you want the painters and your family to be safe, you’ll need to make sure your Boston area Commercial Painter has the correct licenses and insurance to work in Massachusetts, including:
An RRP or EPA lead certification if your home was built before 1978 or is known to contain lead.
An insurance policy that is in force (hint: some smaller exterior painting companies don’t pay their insurance bill, so while they may have a Certificate of Insurance to hand to you from a previous month, they may have no actual insurance!)
An umbrella insurance policy – a signal of a great painting company – only a few companies in our area have these.
A Massachusetts General Contractor’s license if they do work for you other than just painting (like carpentry or building a deck).
Checking any safety violations with OSHA.
A written and consistently used safety program
Read Chapter 7 Chapter 8: Ready, Set, Get Started with your first Exterior Painting Company
Now that you’ve built your foundation of knowledge of exterior house painting in the Boston region, you can:
Print off a handy PDF of this guide so you can refer to our checklist and tips throughout hiring a house painter in New England.
Contact your first South Shore House Painting Contractor for your first quote.
Read Chapter 8 Project Information
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