A quality coat of paint will do wonders for any home interior. However, an inadequate job can severely impair the aesthetics of a room. Make sure your professional paint company is held to the highest standard by asking the following questions.

1. Who Will Be Painting My Home? It is likely that the paint company employee who interacts with customers is not the same employee who will perform the job. However, homeowners are entitled to know who they are hiring to paint their rooms. Asking about the professionals who will actually paint your home also allows you to learn more about their training. Additionally, asking about employees is an easy way to learn if your company employs subcontractors. The answers to these questions will reveal the depth of investment the company has in your project.
2. How Long Will The Job Take? Be sure to ask about scheduling for your paint project. This information will make it easy to schedule around times when contractors will be at your home. Timetables and work deadlines also help keep professional painting companies accountable to their promises. Furthermore, this information should be included in the work order. Be sure to compare the company’s verbal estimations against timelines established in writing.
3. Is The Work Guaranteed? A comprehensive guarantee reflects paint professionals who are confidant in their service. Use the extent of a guarantee, as well as readiness to submit this guarantee in writing, as a measure of contractor quality. Many low-quality contractors may only offer the guarantee provided by the paint manufacturer. Homeowners should also find out if the guarantee includes a post-project inspection. This guided tour ensures clients that each component of their paint job is completed to 100% satisfaction.

Free estimates are just one of the ways that Williams Professional Painting demonstrates our dedication to customer service. Contact our family-owned and operated company today with a call to 703-768-8143. Potential clients can even connect to us through Facebook.

• Quality: When we send out our own employees to paint a home, we know we’re sending out quality workers. By subcontracting or hiring a day laborer, companies risk employing someone with few skills and limited ability. Employees at a company have a need to demonstrate superior performance to continue guaranteeing their work. Hiring on a per-project basis may result in workers worried about when they can get to their next job instead of focusing in their current one.
• Insurance: All of our professional painters are licensed as needed and insured, two things you should always verify before allowing someone to work in your home. Subcontractors and day laborers will not be properly covered if an accident occurs on the job, leaving the homeowner liable for the uninsured worker. Legitimate companies will offer proof of insurance.
• Pay: Often, subcontractors or day laborers aren’t paid the appropriate amount for the services performed. Without employment, subcontractors must give a cut of their pay to the company and day laborers are given an under-the-counter amount. We provide steady pay and suitable compensation for our employees to keep them in a good position.

At Williams Professional Painting in Northern Virginia, we employ people who are legal to work, properly licensed and insured, and have undergone a criminal background check. As a family-owned and operated professional painting company, we offer exterior and interior painting, plaster repair, and carpentry services. For more information, call (703) 768-8143

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights – lasts 6 weeks.

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on it’s way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they’ll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water—preventing water from freezing!

Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel  The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.

Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problems solved! 

Whether it’s a garage, a shed, a loft, or the ever-popular basement, this sanctuary for the male gender is one that typically has its own set of design rules. From sports themed paraphernalia, shot glass collections, and musical instruments to vending machines, overstuffed furniture, and bar-inspired pieces, every man proudly displays his “Man Cave” in a variety of “manly” ways. As you look at your “Man Cave,” or your significant other’s “Man Cave,” could it be even better? We are Williams Professional Painting, so clearly we are talking paint here. What better way to take what is arguably the best room in the house and give it an upgrade? Whether you add some class with a tasteful masculine tan that works as the perfect neutral backdrop for any sports team colors or you go with the actual teams colors (stripes, anyone!?), no doubt some added color will take your “Man Cave” to the next level. Give us a call and we’ll not only schedule a free estimate for your coveted “Mantuary,” we’ll also give you some complimentary ideas for paint options that would best compliment your space.

Check out the Man Cave video here.

Molds can cause disease, trigger allergic reactions and continue to damage materials long after the storm. Failure to control moisture and mold can present short- and long-term health risks.

To protect against health risks associated with mold:

• Remove standing water from your home or office.
• Remove wet materials.
• If mold growth has already occurred, carefully remove or clean the moldy material.
• Consider using personal protective equipment when cleaning or removing mold including gloves, goggles and an N-95 particle respirator (found at most local hardware stores).  Check with a health care provider before wearing a respirator.  Do not use a respirator if you have heart disease or chronic lung disease such as asthma or emphysema.
• Individuals with known mold allergies or asthma should not clean or remove moldy materials.

Do not mix cleaners and disinfectants, as hazardous gases may produce hazardous chemical reactions.  Read and follow label instructions carefully. Open windows and doors to provide plenty of fresh air.

I am often asked what colors are “in.”  What colors are “dated” and where do the trends seem to be going?  No doubt it is easy to get bogged down in the color forecasts, trend guides, endless lists of what’s in style right now and what’s not.  But, I just can’t bring myself to guide a client based on what is typically an overwhelming range on the color spectrum that can be quite gorgeous on paper and in staged installation shots, but may not be entirely practical or applicable to most everyday family homes.

Therefore, when approaching a client’s home, I do not take with me the many marketing pamphlets mass produced by painting companies nor the latest issue of Elle Décor.  While awareness of the latest and greatest is always important, when I walk through the doorway into someone’s home, the color scheme and selections are focused and influenced entirely on one thing – the family who lives there.  Their lives, interests, decorations, future plans, desires for change, and lifestyle are all considered.  Whether bold pops of color or earth tones, understanding and capitalizing on the character of who lives in the home and what they bring to it is often the inspiration for the types of colors that would best suit.  Listening to their ideas and taking into account their decor and the things they’ve chosen to surround themselves by helps steer the process toward specific colors.  Once we narrow down a color or two that makes most sense per room, then the artificial and natural lighting and the overall flow with the rest of the house are considered, which leads to the presentation of particular shades by putting samples up to view.  After standing back and reading the client’s reaction, getting feedback and viewing samples in various positions in the room, the perfect color always seems to present itself quite apparently.

In the end, the colors that are selected are not chosen because they are the most popular in a magazine nor are they always what the client had initially thought they would end up with.  The colors, on the other hand, are chosen specifically for the space and the people who inhabit it.  And for that reason the colors will stand the test of time, as they have appropriateness and meaning to the clients, and that will never go out of style.

You may have wondered about the practice of using subcontractors as it is very common in the home services industry. Many people do not even realize this when it happens.

Many companies who use subcontractors are actually representing themselves as the ones who will perform the work when in reality they are “selling” your job to someone else.

The problem with this is that they (the people actually doing the work) are not being paid (because the company who sells the job to them keeps a cut) enough to actually perform the work according to the specs of the job you paid for.  Another real problem is that you the homeowner do not know the subcontractor or his workers – you are in the dark! 

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Do they have legally documented workers?
2. Do they have the proper licenses?
3. Do they have the proper liability insurance?
4. Do they have the proper workers compensation insurance?
5. Do they pay their workers a rate commiserate with their experience?
6. Do they employ good craftsmen?
7. Do they have a reputation for quality?
8. Are the workers properly trained through a safety program.
9. Do they have happy customers?
10. Will they fix problems and stand behind the job they do?

You often do not know the answers to these questions because you are not even told that the people actually performing the work in your home are actually subcontractors. 

 If you hire a company and they use subcontractors- you do not really know the answers to these questions- because the people “performing” the job are NOT the people you hired.

This is a VERY bad position to be in as a homeowner.  At the VERY least you should ALWAYS have a certificate of insurance for ANYONE who works in your home. Without workers compensation insurance most homeowners do not realize that they (The homeowner) can be held responsible and liable for injuries received by an uninsured worker at their home.

A legitimate company can get a certificate of insurance to you in 24 hours or less- and don’t accept anything else.  

 YOU MUST ASK THIS QUESTION: Am I willing to take the risks associated with using sub-contractors or day laborers at my home?

Always hire a company that is using  their own employees that are legal to work, are properly liscensed when necessary, are properly insured and have had a criminal background check.

The salesman or estimator in most cases will not be painting your home. You have a right to know who is!

We belonged to the Washington Metropolitan Area BBB for a number of years. Faithfully paying our dues each year. We have always had a complaint free record with the bureau and an A+ rating.

One year with us doing nothing on our part other than continuing to pay the yearly fees (Which kept increasing) all of a sudden the BBB Gods smiled upon us and awarded us an accreditation with the bureau. Where did this come from? What did it mean? What did we all of a sudden do that made us so worthy? We could never seem to really find out what earned us this new and improved listing.

Well low and behold this year as we were looking at some of our costs and using the cost / benefit analysis system we decided to not renew our membership with them, and in no time at all BANG! We were no longer accredited.

We still have an A+ rating because there have never been complaints filed against us. But you really have to read down on our page to learn this. When a perspective client goes to read our report now one of the first things they see is that “This Business Is Not Accredited by the BBB”.

My question is “What’s changed”, only the fact that we decided not to be a member and pay the ransom.

The BBB certainly has its place in dealing with improper business practices. But I do not believe that the average consumer truly understands the hand in hand relationship between the bureau and its members that receive special ranking because they pay up. 

Now it is true that you will not get the accredited rating if you have a poor record even if you pay the membership fees. But when you have 2 companies with A+ rating’s why is it that the company that pays becomes accredited and the company that does not pay does not get accreditation?

The consumer thinks there is something special about the accredited business when there really is not.

The BBB should not operate in a way that it scrutinizes other businesses for doing.

Does something seem a little off key here? Or is it just me?

 Just a thought.

Williams Professional Painting has been recognized as a 2011 Best Pick Report™  Painter for the DC area.  This free resource is published by EBSCO Research and features select companies who have gone through a rigorous screening process and received an A-rating from over 100 customer reviews.  In addition to listing reputable companies, Best Pick Reports also provides educational articles and consumer tips on a variety of home service and repair topics.

“Best Pick companies are those that have excelled in our consumer research and elected to participate in the Best Pick Program.  In addition to having more than 100 reviews and an overall A-grade, Best Pick companies also carry proper insurance and professional licenses, honor contracts made with homeowners and suppliers, and sign the Best Pick Company Pledge,” EBSCO Research commented.

WPP was thrilled to be invited to be part of the Best Pick Program and looks forward to servicing these clients.  The WPP team would also like to thank our wonderful past and existing clients for their support.  We look forward to adding Best Picks users to our portfolio!  Below are a few of the comments our past clients had to tell the EBSCO research folks on our behalf.

“They painted every square inch of the house when we moved in. They did an excellent job. I was amazed at how straight the ceiling lines are.”

“We’ve lived in this condo for 15 years, and we had some of the rooms painted—actually, part of it was an expansion because we got another unit.  They did that whole unit and a couple of other things for us.  We were very pleased with the quality of their painting and also with the personnel that did it.  We’d use them in a flash.”

“The staff is great, and we’re very pleased with the job they did.  They were very thorough, and they cleaned up beautifully.  They painted all four rooms downstairs, and they also painted the windows and the doors outside.  I would definitely use them again in the future.”