Brandon Lewis: Hello, I’m Brandon Lewis, publisher of Painter’s Weekly, and the founder of the Academy for Professional Painting Contractors. And you are tuned in to Pro Talk.
Brandon Lewis: Joining me today is Mike Balding of Absolute Painting, and we’re gonna talk about interior painters in Lenexa, Kansas. Mike, thank you for joining the program.
Mike Balding: Yeah, thanks for having me on Pro Talk today.
Brandon Lewis: Let’s get right into it. If people are gonna be inside your home, around the people and the things you love, if they’re gonna be around kids and grandkids and pets and in particular your wife, if she is a stay at home mom or a homemaker, it’s really important to know who’s inside the home. So, let’s talk a little bit about how you can make certain that these painters are trustworthy.
Mike Balding: Yeah, that’s a really, really important point. And this is probably the biggest concern that people have when they hire a painting contractor, is, can I trust the painters coming into my home. So, at Absolute Painting, before we hire a painter, we do a full criminal, federal, state, and local background check on them to make sure that they don’t have anything in their history that would make someone feel unsafe about having them in their home.
Brandon Lewis: Well, that’s important because we have a reputation in the painting industry of folks that, for lack of a better word, just roll off the prison [inaudible 00:01:20]. People that have issues with drugs. And there are things that are on people’s minds, and most painting contractors never address it. They show up in a cute little shirt, and a van, and they don’t go to this trouble, but homeowners don’t know it. So, the fact that Absolute Painting goes that extra mile to make sure that in alternative professional trade, professionalism [inaudible 00:01:39] is important.
Brandon Lewis: Let’s also talk about color choice. Color choice is very difficult for people because you want it to coordinate with your furniture, other furnishings in your home. You want it to also be a color that’s not gonna be outdated, that is good with lighting, that looks on the wall like it looked on the paint chip, which depending on the lighting may not be the case. Talk a little bit about color selection and how Absolute Painting makes sure that homeowners get it right the first time.
Mike Balding: Oh, man, this is the most difficult thing that homeowners have to deal with. There’s a saying in our industry that there’s two painful parts of the paint job. Number one is the writing of the check at the end of the job, and number two is choosing the colors.
Mike Balding: You have to live with it. You’re paying a lot of money to get this color put on your wall or on your cabinets, and you wanna make sure that it’s something that you’re gonna like for a really long time. So, like you said, coordinating all of the these together is something that people really worry about. And I’ve had lots of conversations with customers about how to find these colors. And at Absolute Painting we offer several tools.
Mike Balding: Number one, we will come in and help you sample the paint, and help you pick the right color. Number two, we use an app on the website at Sherwin Williams called Color Visualizer, that helps you take a picture of the room, and you can actually digitally paint colors onto that picture to get an idea of how colors will work together.
Mike Balding: And finally, if you’re very, very concerned and you still aren’t confident you’ve chosen the right color, Absolute Painting has interior decorators and designers that work directly with our customers to make sure that the right color choice is something that they can have. Typically, when we get to that point, the interior designer comes in, and they have tremendous peace of mind in the colors that they’ve chosen.
Brandon Lewis: Well, that’s fantastic. Because, if you can have it on the wall, if you can help people with selection, and then visualize it with an app and then take it all the way to professional assistance, between those three steps you should be able to pick the color that you want.
Brandon Lewis: Let’s talk about cleanliness, to making sure that you enjoy your interior painting project.
Mike Balding: Yeah, that’s really, really important. People care about their home. They spend a lot of money on their home. They spend a lot of time in their home. And they don’t want it dirtied by painting contractors. The thing that we make sure we do is that we’re cleaning the job constantly while we’re working in it, at the beginning of the day, the middle of the day, the end of the day. We’re picking up tools, we’re vacuuming things that need vacuum or dusting, we’re covering up things. We’re taking trash out of the house on a regular basis, and we’re following a checklist that makes sure that the home stays clean at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the paint job.
Brandon Lewis: Well, thank you so much for covering these three points for people that are concerned about painting the interior of their home in Lenexa. And, if you need somebody, you can always reach out to Mike at Absolute Painting. He’d be happy to help you.
Brandon Lewis: Mike, it’s been a pleasure having you on the program.
Mike Balding: Yeah, thanks for having me on today.
Brandon Lewis: Thanks so much.
Brandon Lewis: I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Paint Talk. I am Brandon Lewis with Painter’s Weekly and the Academy for Professional Painting Contractors, signing off.
