What happens between accepting a proposal and the first coat

When we quote a job, we tell people the same thing: we can usually start work two weeks after a proposal is accepted, unless there is something unusual about the job. It is one of the more common questions we get asked about, and occasionally somebody assumes it means we are simply busy.

Sometimes we are. But the fortnight has work in it, and a job that starts without that work having happened is a job that runs long.

Ordering the right materials, not the available ones

Colours get mixed, and specialty products get ordered. We work with Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams and Centura Paints, and which one goes on your house is decided by the substrate and the exposure rather than by what is on the shelf that morning.

That distinction is the whole point of the lead time. A crew that starts tomorrow is a crew painting with whatever was in the van, and on an exterior in this climate the difference between the right coating and the available one shows up in year three rather than in week one, which is exactly why it is easy to get away with.

Looking properly at what we are painting

An estimate walk is not the same as a survey. In the fortnight we work out the things that decide the sequence: whether an exterior needs crack repair and sealant renewal before anything else happens, whether millwork is coming off site, how much protection an occupied house is going to need and where furniture is going to go.

On new construction the question is different. There, the schedule belongs to the builder, and the fortnight is spent establishing when rooms will actually be available, when the glazing is in, and when the air conditioning is running and pulling humidity down to something a coating can cure in. Starting before those answers exist is how a painter becomes the trade holding everyone else up.

Scheduling people, not just dates

Upper management is on our job sites daily, which means we cannot run more jobs at once than we can actually be present on. That is a deliberate constraint and it is the reason our customers name individual people in reviews. Angelo and Olger. Mark, Ryan, Laura, Armando and Anna. You only remember names when the same people keep turning up.

Keeping that true means scheduling honestly rather than booking work we would then have to abandon to a crew nobody has met.

What you can do in the same two weeks

• Finish choosing colour, and sample it properly on the actual wall in the actual room. This is the single most common cause of a delay, and it is entirely in your hands.
• Decide where furniture is going to live while we are there. A crew guessing about your dining table is a crew moving it twice.
• Take down anything irreplaceable. Wall art, mirrors, anything with sentimental value. We will protect what is there, but nothing protects better than not being in the room.
• Point out problems you already know about. A patch that keeps coming back, a door that has always stuck, a stain that reappears. Those are diagnostic information, and they are far cheaper to deal with before we start than to discover halfway through.
• Flag access constraints. Gate codes, parking, an HOA with rules about work hours, a dog who will not tolerate strangers in the yard.

When two weeks is not the answer

Sometimes it is longer. A large exterior with real stucco repair and sealant renewal carries a preparation phase before any coating goes on, and pretending otherwise would just move the disappointment to a worse moment.

Sometimes it is shorter, if the job is straightforward and the calendar allows. The honest position is that we will tell you which of those you are looking at when we quote, rather than agreeing to a date and renegotiating it afterwards.

If you want a proposal on a house in Boca Raton, Delray Beach or anywhere across Palm Beach and Broward, call us on (954) 857-3213. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4pm, and an appointment is required so that the person who comes out is somebody who runs the jobs.