What people ask before they sign

Most three- and four-room jobs take about a week of working days. Your written estimate gives the start day and the days on site for your rooms, and says what happens if a repair or the weather changes them.

Nine lines: surfaces and areas, repairs, coats, products and sheens, number of colors, protection and cleanup, schedule, payment schedule and warranty. Each one is filled in for your house, not left as a general phrase.

Repairs we can't see until the work starts, colors added after you sign, and moving heavy furniture or appliances unless the estimate lists them. Anything added later is written down and agreed before we do it.

Federal rules apply to paid work that disturbs paint in homes and child-occupied buildings built before 1978. Tell us the year when you ask for an estimate. The firm's EPA lead-safe certification number is under Credentials, and we use lead-safe work practices on those homes: plastic containment, wet scraping and a HEPA vacuum, never dry sanding.

No. You stay home. We move furniture to the middle of the room, cover it, and put it back at the end. Heavy pieces and anything fragile are best moved by you ahead of time; the estimate says which.

Two coats of finish on walls and ceilings, with primer first where the wall needs it. Flat or matte for ceilings, eggshell for most walls, satin or semi-gloss for trim and doors. The estimate names the sheen for each surface.

We buy it and name the paint line on the estimate. If you have a color from a particular store, bring the chip and we'll match it. Ask for the product data sheet and we'll send it.

Covering floors and furniture, filling holes, patching cracks, caulking trim and priming where needed. Bigger repairs, like a section of plaster or a water-stained ceiling, are their own line so you can see what they cost to fix.

A deposit holds your dates, and each later payment is tied to a stage of the work, as set out on the estimate. Nothing is due for a stage we haven't reached.

Peeling and blistering from our prep or paint, written on the estimate. Terms, limits and exclusions are in your written warranty.

Yes. We put sample patches on your own walls, and you look at them morning and evening before you decide. There's more on the color help page.

No. We paint the inside of houses: walls, ceilings, trim, doors and stairways. For siding or cabinets, you'll want a painter who does that every day, and we'll say so.

Ask for the product data sheet for the paint on your estimate. It lists the ventilation advice and the drying and cure times, and we'll open windows and keep the work areas closed off while we're there.

If your building limits work hours, elevator use or noise, tell us when you ask for the estimate and we'll plan the schedule around it.