The Homeowner Checklist For Choosing A Contractor And Painter With Confidence

A painting bid can look simple until you realize two “same size” estimates can mean totally different prep work, materials, and outcomes. We sit down together to unpack what homeowners should ask before signing anything, so you can hire a contractor with confidence instead of crossing your fingers.

David Nanninga, president of Mile High Coatings, walks through the questions that actually protect you: how to confirm contractor insurance with proof in writing, why you should request a certificate of insurance, and what to ask when subcontractors might be involved. We also talk about why company longevity doesn’t always equal crew experience, and how training systems and job supervision can be the difference between a smooth project and a mess you inherit.

From residential painting to concrete coatings and epoxy flooring, the theme is the same: clarity beats guesswork. We share practical ways to compare estimates apples to apples, understand what “prep” really includes, and choose materials that match your timeline, whether you’re selling soon or planning to stay for the long haul. We also touch on referrals, testimonials, and what a real quality walkthrough should look like at the end of the job, especially for garage floor coating work where you can’t always inspect everything immediately.

If you’ve ever felt pressured to “sign today,” or you’re staring at a stack of bids that don’t line up, this conversation will help you slow down and make a smarter call. Subscribe for more straight talk on residential painting, epoxy floors, and durable coatings, and if this helped, share it with a friend and leave a quick review.

To learn more about Mile High Coatings visit:
https://www.MileHighCoatings.com
Mile High Coatings
970-314-1023 

Transcript

Welcome To Mile High Coatings

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Mile High Coatings Podcast, where we elevate your spaces to a new peak in quality. Hosted by David Naniga, president of Mile High Coatings, this podcast explores how expert residential painting, concrete coatings, and epoxy flooring can transform garages, basements, patios, and commercial spaces across Colorado's front range. So grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and dive into the world of high-quality coatings.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Homeowners can avoid most renovation headaches by asking the right questions before signing a contract. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer, back with David Nanaga, the president of Mile High Coatings. David, it's great to be back with you. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Be back.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

So we have a big question for you. I can't wait to hear your advice on this. What do you suggest to homeowners when they're hiring contractors and painters? What can they ask? What can they look out for?

Insurance Experience Materials Prep

Comparing Estimates Without Pressure

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Yeah, so it's a good question. You know, that's you know, most people tend to get multiple estimates. And it and it's it's pretty interesting. I mean, even in my own experience getting getting uh estimates from other service providers um you know how how wide the the range can be. And so um I think it's you know it's important to be to be consistent with kind of how you know I I guess coming from a homeowner perspective, how you know, are are you asking the same questions for for each and and then you know okay, so flipping to like when I do an estimate, I you know, of course I have kind of a a set, you know, there there's a handful of things that that you you know need to discuss and talk about. You know, I have questions um, you know, that I need to get answered um so that I can provide an accurate estimate. Um but on the on the flip side, sometimes I'll just let the homeowner ask me the questions because then I get an idea of what's important to them and that'll kind of help guide the the conversation. Um so back to the to the actual question. I mean, you know, kind of the you know, the the the fundamental stuff, you know, um insurance, you know, obviously, you don't want some dude without insurance that's uh risky for everyone. Um that that that's a pretty basic and common thing. Um your years of experience, um you know, not just for the company, but but the actual painters. I mean, because what I see a lot is that you get, you know, maybe some painting company that's you know been around for 30 years or or 20 years or 10 years, you know, whatever the number is, but you know, they might hire some new, you know, inexperienced painter or a team of painters or whatever, and and and so it it doesn't really uh you know correlate to the company and and if and if that company doesn't have good systems in place um you know for for training and in a and that could you know turn into a disaster. Um so you know, obviously experience, um, you know, finding out who you know who's actually doing the work. Um because again, you know, it in in our industry you can get you can get you know chuck in a truck, uh type of, you know, uh, you know, and and and that's and that's fine. You know, might be a guy and uh and and a helper, um, or maybe a father and a son, you know, type of duo, and and and you know, and that's and that's great. Um, but you get but it's still the the point is you want to kind of know like who who's gonna be you know working on the job. Um obviously, you know, what kind of materials are they using? Uh there's there's so many uh different available uh for for for levels of paint and and and all that, you know, of course, and then the kind of the the you know the technical stuff, you know, what kind of prep work are they doing, um, you know, reputation, you know, um referrals, you know, do they have you know projects that you potentially can look at? So I mean all these all these things that I think probably a lot of people just already kind of fundament fundamentally understand that. But then after you get, you know, two or three, some people get five estimates. Um and so so so once you collect those estimates, you know, trying to trying to weed out or or trying to you obviously want to try to compare apples to apples as best you can. And sometimes that can be difficult. Um and so get back to being the homeowner perspective, you know, when I have a contractor or whatever, you know, service provider come out, you know, I'm kind of I'm kind of checking out like how how salesy are they? Because sometimes, you know, you can get that real like heavy sales push and you know, they you you feel pressured. And so personally, I I don't like that. And I I suppose I don't know many people that that do um like that, that that feel that that like feeling pressured, you know, during a consultation, during an estimate, you know, to sign now, you know, I'll give you a if you sign right now or sign today, I'll give you, you know, a hundred bucks off or ten percent off or whatever it is. And so so coming from that perspective, back to being, you know, I'm doing an estimate. I'm I'm very I I guess I would say I'm laid back. I'm not pressuring a customer. I I want to make sure that we're providing what they want. Uh because because that's the other thing too. When I say, you know, I'm asking questions, you you could uh, you know, you could be talking to someone who who uh who's maybe selling their house. And so they don't need, you know, the top of the line our 10-year warranty um, you know, sort of package or options. You know, they might want to just freshen it up, whether it's interior or exterior. Um, or conversely, it could be someone that's that's um that's buying a house or just bought a house and maybe they don't like the colors, or maybe the house wasn't painted and it doesn't need a paint job, but and they're planning to live there for for 10 years or or longer. And so, so those things are gonna change the you know what what product and service combination do you do you offer. So uh that that's I guess the super long-winded answer to your question of um you know things to kind of kind of look out for and uh and and then just some perspective on how I you know go about um you know a consultation or estimate.

How To Verify Insurance

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Oh thank you for that. I mean, you're probably the best person that I could speak to to learn what to look out for because you do this and you're also, you know, you've I'm sure experienced it too in your home, like you said, and this is what you've been doing for years. So it's good to hear like all these tips from you. I was curious too about how do you verify if a contractor is properly insured? And then, like you mentioned, how do we know if like if they're subcontracting out, how do we know that those people that they hired also are like legit?

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah. That's a good question. So so it's very simple. I mean, you can ask, you know, some some people just have a certain insurance on uh with them or on file. Um we we uh we actually include it in our um so in the proposal, there's so it's a you know, it's a digital sort of um software program that we use when we when we send the estimate and and um our our um our our W9, like if we're doing a business, you know, a lot of times a business wants wants a W9 information. So that's that's included along with our insurance, you know, our workers comp and our liability insurance is clear is included um to where it's it's it's accessible to you know and included with every estimate that that we do. And so um to verify that, you know, I I think most people just say, are you insured? And the guy, you know, or whoever, the salesperson says, Oh yeah, yeah, we're fully insured, and and then you move on. Um obviously you want to have that in writing, you know, you know, in our you know, in in our estimate too, you know, so you know, we're fully insured. And um, and yeah, so it's it's it's you know it's a matter of getting it in writing, but then also, you know, if you want to really double check, you you want to ask their their certificate of insurance and make sure that it's valid for for the you know for the year because the policies are are one-year uh policy.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

I know for us where we are in Ohio, a lot of the contractor work that people find it's by word of mouth or you know, referrals are given. Um what if is this common in the industry to get uh testimonials or referrals from if you request it, you know, from your contractor, say I like a couple references from other clients? Because I just was curious about that. Because sometimes it's hard to tell on the website or the pamphlets if like, you know, the you know, this is the case this really happened, they provided this work.

unknown 9:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Yeah, it's it's common for people to ask for referrals. Or um, I mean, we definitely get a lot of you know, word of mouth referral um business. And so, so that's sort of already kind of I I guess you could say automatically built in. So, so so you know, in those cases, people aren't necessarily asking because they they know or they trust a friend or a relative or neighbor or whatever who they've seen seen on work. Um But yeah, it's super common. I would say that's a pretty uh probably important thing, you know, to to kind of verify and and double check that you know that you know other other people have had good experiences and and and they were happy with the the work doing. You know, you know, besides just you know offering a couple of uh you know it you know high warranty options like we do. I mean I mean we obviously want to make sure our customers are happy with with the end product. And I mean, so little, you know, and and again, I I mean this is whether we're doing coating or or painting, you know, the the the crew will, you know, painting it's much easier uh because you can walk around, you know, the project or you can walk through, you know, the house, you can see the you know the living room or or whatever, and and and so so the crews will will kind of do you know a a quality walk or whatever, make sure that you know they're looking at it together because um you just want to have kind of two sets of eyes, and then you know, I may show up and it it's funny, uh, you know, I I may show up and and see things that you know that that the homeowners miss. Um to me it's obvious and and and to m to to homeowners it may not be obvious. They don't they're not it's like they don't know what they're looking for kind of thing. Um sometimes. So um and then you know, like for uh for instance, garage floor, you you can kind of you can kind of look at it, you know, standing outside you can't really look at the garage floor um immediately by by walking on it because typically the coating is still wet. But uh but yeah, it you know, you can get a perspective, you know, from outside or maybe from inside the house and and and tell that, oh yeah, it's looking looking good and everything. And it's funny we get uh we get comments and and things all the time before the crew is even finished, like, oh, it's looking great, it's awesome. Um it's like okay, well, you know, let us we're not done yet, but I'm glad you know good. But it is funny people get so excited about that. Um and it it's fun and and a lot of times it's it's it's a new um sort of unfamiliar process. And and uh so uh yeah, it's it it's a lot of times people get a little more excited about about things like that. Um but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Well, thank you, David, for all that advice and you know your insight because we always appreciate it, especially people preparing to hire somebody to do work on their house or their business. It's always valuable to have you on. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Absolutely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Thanks for tuning in to the Mile High Coatings Podcast. Ready to give your space a fresh, durable finish? Visit MileHighCodings.com for a free price quote or call 970-314-1023. At Mile High Coatings, we're not just painting walls, we're setting a new peak in quality. Until next time, keep your standards high and your coatings higher.