What a Painting Guarantee Should Mean

Almost every painter offers a guarantee of some kind. Very few homeowners ask what it means until they need it, and by then the answer depends on a conversation nobody wrote down. A guarantee is only as useful as it is clear, so it is worth understanding before the job starts rather than after something lifts.

What should a painting guarantee promise?

At its core, one thing: if something about the work is not right, the painter comes back and puts it right. Everything else is detail about who, how and when. A good guarantee is short enough to remember and specific enough to act on. A long one full of conditions deserves a careful second read before you rely on it.

Workmanship and product are different promises

There are usually two promises in play on a paint job, and they are not the same.

The painter’s guarantee covers the workmanship: how the surface was prepared, how the paint was applied, and the finish that was left behind. It is the contractor’s own promise, and it is honored by the contractor.

The paint maker’s warranty covers the product. It comes from the manufacturer, it carries the manufacturer’s conditions, and it usually covers the material rather than the labor of fixing anything. It also tends to assume the paint was applied according to the label, over a properly prepared surface.

That second point is why the painter’s promise matters most. When exterior paint fails early in San Diego, the cause is most often preparation rather than product: paint over chalk, over a damp wall, over a crack that was never filled, over mildew that was never killed. Those are workmanship problems, and only the person who did the work can stand behind them.

Which problems are about the work?

The kinds of problems a workmanship guarantee is for:

1. Peeling, flaking or blistering traced to preparation, such as an unwashed or chalky surface or paint applied over moisture.
2. Missed spots and thin coverage, often under eaves, behind shrubs and on the side of the house nobody looks at.
3. Drips, runs and sags that dried in place.
4. Ragged cut lines where trim meets wall or ceiling meets wall.
5. Paint where it should not be: on glass, fixtures, roof tiles or walkways.
6. Flashing, the patchy sheen where repairs were not primed.

Some of these show the day the job ends; others take a season. On a sun-baked west wall in El Cajon, a preparation failure tends to show in the first long summer. On older wood near the water in San Diego, the first wet winter is the test. Either way, the earlier it is reported, the smaller the repair.

Questions worth asking before you rely on it

• Who honors it? The business on the contract, or a crew you may never see again? A guarantee from a person who manages the job himself is a different thing from one routed through a call center.
• Is it in writing? It should appear with the scope and the contract, not only in conversation.
• How do I report a problem? A phone number, an email, a photo; you want to know before you need to.
• What does a repair involve? On some surfaces, a small touch-up blends in; on flat sheens and faded walls it can show, and a whole section may need re-coating to look right. Ask how that is handled.
• What should I do to help it last? Sprinklers aimed away from walls, gentle washing, and the leftover paint kept sealed and labeled all make future repairs better.

What you can do on your side

Keep the estimate, the contract and the leftover paint together in one place. Look the house over a few months after the job, and again after the first winter rain, especially at sills, the bottoms of doors and fascia ends. If something has lifted, photograph it and call. A good painter would rather hear about a small edge in the spring than a large patch in the autumn.

The promise here

The Lemoon’s Painting guarantee is plain: if something is not right, Ebenezer comes back and repairs it. He manages every project personally, so the person responsible for your walls is the person who comes back. Coming back to make it right? We never have a problem with that. You can read the guarantee on its own page, and see how the preparation is done on the process page.

The best guarantee is the one you never have to use, which is why the preparation comes first: power wash, check stucco and wood for repairs, mask, then paint, using Dunn-Edwards and Sherwin-Williams. More on exterior painting is here.

If you would like to hear the promise in person and ask how it applies to your house, ask for a free estimate. Ebenezer will walk the walls with you and answer plainly.