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A friend of mine talked to quite a few painting contractors to paint the inside of his home. All were very expensive!
He drives by a paint store near where he lives and always sees tons of very eagar looking day laborers standing outside the store looking for work. Many are wearing a painters outfit as a form of advertisement.
I suspect that he could hire one of these day laborers for $20 an hour. The contractors wanted $50 an hour. Should he risk it?
(Some will say you get what you pay for but maybe not. Maybe the contractor hires all his staff from the day laborers standing outside the store.)
Last edited by In Serious Debt; 01-24-2011 at 08:05 AM..
I hired several day laborers to paint both the inside and outside of the house and they did an awesome job!
There are no guarentees when you hire an expensive company. It's quality of the work, not the price tag attached. Of course there are no guarentees with a day laborer either but my experience was a good one. I was just thankful not to have to do all of that painting myself!
A friend of mine talked to quite a few painting contractors to paint the inside of his home. All were very expensive!
He drives by a paint store near where he lives and always sees tons of very eagar looking day laborers standing outside the store looking for work. Many are wearing a painters outfit as a form of advertisement.
I suspect that he could hire one of these day laborers for $20 an hour. The contractors wanted $50 an hour. Should he risk it?
(Some will say you get what you pay for but maybe not. Maybe the contractor hires all his staff from the day laborers standing outside the store.)
For me, hiring a painter means hiring someone I have reason to believe is a competent professional with more experience, and therefore a higher degree of skill, than I have. Additionally, a legitimate painter, in business as such, will be licensed and insured, protecting me against potential accidents or incompetence. If I can't be sure I'm getting that, I'll just do it myself and save all the money.
With a licensed and bonded contractor, he has a guarantee of service and quality. With day laborers, you do not. Sometimes the expense can be worth it, sometimes not.
A friend of ours recommended a day laborer he had hired previously when we wanted to replace the paneling in our new house with drywall. It was a LOT cheaper than a contractor - more than 50% cheaper, so we went for it. The job is about 80% awesome. But he didn't sand one of the walls in the family room correctly and there is some inconsistency in the skim coat. As well, it is obvious that they lost interest in completing the job correctly in the hallway - the spray on texture is odd and doesn't match any other wall.
This was a temporary measure - I had thought the walls were drywall with trim, but when I started demo it became obvious it was panelling and it needed to be fixed quickly as we needed to start moving in our furniture - and working around the furniture would've been rough.
On our agenda for "someday" is a total redo of the kitchen and some other moving of walls. At that point, we'll have the day laborer's mistakes fixed. I can live with it for 2-3 years.
As well, they left all the trash/demo. They said they'd be right back to pick it up, but of course, they didn't show. We ended up paying the landscape guys we hired to do the mowing and trimming (also day laborers) to haul it away. They left 1/4 of it behind, then returned to say they needed more money because the dump charged them more than expected. We ended up paying it, but fired them and hired another landscape company to do the mowing from then on. This all happened within about 2 weeks time.
I'll be hiring a licensed contractor for the redo, and insisting on a contract, insurance, license, etc - you live, you learn.
For me, hiring a painter means hiring someone I have reason to believe is a competent professional with more experience, and therefore a higher degree of skill, than I have. Additionally, a legitimate painter, in business as such, will be licensed and insured, protecting me against potential accidents or incompetence. If I can't be sure I'm getting that, I'll just do it myself and save all the money.
Exactly why I do all the painting in our house....
He drives by a paint store near where he lives and always sees tons of very eagar looking day laborers standing outside the store looking for work. Many are wearing a painters outfit as a form of advertisement.
The option isn't even available in my region. We don't have uneducated immigrants here. Nobody stands somewhere waiting for random work.
Personally, I would not be comfortable picking someone up in front of a store and letting them into my home. I also don't know if I would trust the painting clothes as an indication of quality of work. At least by hiring a contractor you can get referrals and check to see if they are a legitimate business that has insurance and other important legalities covered.
I once hired a guy who was very down and out and he did an ok painting job. The major problem in my case was the guy had no transportation and no checking account so always needed cash. He painted the exterior of my house and it took him about 3 weeks to complete the job because he had so many challenges without a personal vehicle. You might have a conversation and ask about references and ask them such questions as:
How do you protect surfaces not being painted?
How to you ensure mouldings and walls don't overlap?
Can you provide me references? (and I would check them....)
How will you get to the job?
How can I get in touch with you if I need to call you?
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