5 Tips for Choosing a National Painting & Washing Contractor

5 Tips for Choosing a National Painting & Washing Contractor

Choosing a national contractor doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are a five simple tips that’ll help guide you.

1. Gut Feel

Studies have proven that gut feel is valuable. Not on its own, but as a guide. Often gut feel doesn’t tell you which contractor to use. But it does tell you which one NOT to use! So think about that as you work through the following steps towards deciding on the best contractor for your project. If a contractor just ‘doesn’t seem quite right’, then avoid them.

2. Safety Safety Safety

All contractors will advise you that they’ll be working safely. All contractors will say they operate in accordance with Worksafe NZ Best Practice Guidelines for Working at Height. (Note that even using a small step ladder is Working at Height.)

However, in many cases contractors aren’t even aware of which regulations they must follow! As the property manager or owner, you are responsible for ensuring those guidelines are being followed. To assist with this, click the blue button below to download the Painting & Washing Contractors Safety Checklist. This gives you the questions to ask your contractor to ensure their H&S is covered.

Download: NZ Best Practice for Working at Height

Download: The Health & Safety at Work Act 2015

3. Capability

Many contractors will try to ‘pull the wool over your eyes’ and imply that they are specialists in an industry or trade. You need to ask questions to find out what similar projects the contractor has done in the past, and ask for testimonials from past clients.

Be aware that painting companies regularly publish images and testimonials of well known ‘customers’ on their website (to gain credibility). In many cases these images are of past customers who have since moved to alternative contractors due to service or quality issues.

4. Reporting

Find out what reporting the contractor will give you. National reporting is an effective way to ensure you are getting consistency across the country. Standard practice nowadays is for the client to receive a series of reports emailed including -

• Daily Safety Report

  Includes photographs of the worksite set up and ready to go, details of the team members on site that day, and any safety concerns.

• Weekly Update Report

  Shows images of progress for the past week and includes a written report on the plan for the following week.

• Completion Report

  Includes final information such as the project sign-off score and images of the finished project.

You need to ask the contractor to demonstrate the reports you will receive to ensure they have the systems to manage this.

5. Who’s actually going to be on site?  

This is often unknown because customers don’t know to ask the question. And while the contractor you choose to do your work may be accredited and reputable, the actual tradespeople who come to your site may not be.

To simplify the process of checking your potential contractors, before you agree to have them on your site, download the Painting & Washing Contractor Checklist below:

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