How to Get Your Home Ready for Painters: A Checklist

A little preparation before your painting project starts means the crew can get straight to work, and your belongings stay out of the way. Here’s what we ask our customers to do, broken down by the type of job.

A week or so before

• Make your final color choices. Changing colors after work starts can push the schedule back.
• Tell us about anything unusual. Water stains, recent leaks, very heavy furniture, fragile antiques or anyone in the home who is sensitive to paint smells. Low-odor paints are available for most interior work.
• Plan the room order with us. If you’re staying at home, we’ll schedule the rooms so you always have a working bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
• Decide on new hardware. If you’re changing cabinet pulls or door hardware, let us know before we start. New hole positions need to be filled or drilled before the finish goes on.

Interior painting

• Take down pictures, mirrors, shelves and wall hangings in the rooms being painted.
• Clear small items, breakables and anything on top of dressers and tables.
• Empty bookshelves and built-ins that are being painted.
• Take down curtains and blinds on the walls we’re painting, or ask us about them at the estimate.
• Move what you can toward the middle of the room. We’ll group the larger furniture away from the walls and cover it.
• Keep pets and children out of the rooms being worked on.

Exterior painting

You don’t need to be home for most exterior work, but we will need:

• Access to an outdoor water spigot and an electrical outlet.
• Gates unlocked and any dogs kept inside or away from the work area.
• Grills, patio furniture, planters, hoses and decorations moved a few feet away from the house.
• Cars moved out of the driveway on the days we paint the garage doors.
• Sprinklers aimed at the house turned off on work days. Paint needs dry surfaces to stick.
• Shrubs and branches that touch the siding trimmed back if you can.

Expect ladders around the house and windows masked on the side being painted. Rain and cold days can shift the schedule. If the weather turns, we’ll let you know rather than paint in conditions that would hurt the finish.

Cabinet painting and refinishing

• Empty every cabinet and drawer being finished.
• Clear the countertops.
• Plan simple meals. Your kitchen will have limited use while surfaces are prepped, coated and drying.
• Decide where you’ll keep the dishes and food you need for the week.

Deck and fence staining

• Clear the deck of furniture, grills, planters and rugs.
• Keep sprinklers off the deck and fence on stain days and the day before. The wood has to be dry.
• Point out any soft, loose or split boards. Those need to be fixed, not stained over.

While we work

You’ll get photo progress updates as the job moves along. Fresh paint is dry to the touch the same day, but it takes a few weeks to cure fully, so treat new walls and cabinets gently at first. Our guide to caring for freshly painted walls covers the details.

At the end

We clean up, put furniture back and walk through the finished work with you. That’s the time to point out anything you’d like touched up.

Wondering what your project would cost? See what changes the cost of painting a house, or request a free estimate.