Today I received an email from a company offering professional painter services. The ad looked clean, the message compelling. I know a little about painting and was a contractor and home remodeler in San Diego for many years. These days, I don't do much painting as a home inspector in San Diego, but I am always on the look out for qualified professionals that I can refer to my home inspection clients. Of course, prior to putting contractors on my referral list I usually try out these companies on my own property and then do some checking to ensure I am offering a quality referral to my clients. Afterall, even though I do not have any sort of relationship with these referrals it still reflects poorly on my business if one of my referrals falls short in the eyes of my property inspection clients.
So today's ad came through like this:
Perhaps a little research was in order when the marketing people put this piece together. This is NOT the correct way to paint a wall! Look at this bloke. Does he instill confidence? Painting all whilly nilly and holding the roller like it's his first time. The next picture takes it up a few notches toward professionalism. This is a far better way to paint a wall:
Now that's better! Notice how the baseboard is taped off, the top and bottom are cut in, and most importantly, the model (you don't think she is actually a painter, do you?) is painting in nice straight lines, overlapping each stroke, moving from top to bottom (I find bottom to top works best especially with a fully loaded paint roller, it distributes the paint more evenly).
As a San Diego home inspector I see all sorts of bad paint jobs. Take a look at a couple from today's home inspection:
Each room of this home was painted a different color. All had some sort of sponge technique, borders, etc. Not straight, mind you, and some no longer attached to the wall, but borders nonetheless!
So soothing in green don't you think? I identified the rooms on my home inspection report as the purple room, red room, green room, and yellow room. Keep in mind that a professional home inspection is not concerned with cosmetic issues like mentioned here. So none of this will wind up in the inspection report. But it's fun to blog about it!
Enjoy the holiday weekend everyone, and thanks for making this June our best ever! We are growing even in a tough economy and are looking to take on an extra inspector in the coming months. When you're ready to get to work on buying your next home we would be happy to inspect it for you.
Until next time,
