Reputable painting contractors warranty their house painting work. Most commonly, painting work is warranted for two years. The warranty covers labor and materials to correct deficiencies during the stated time frame. This is the type of warranty Painting in Partnership offer its clients.

As a customer, can you ask your painter for a warranty longer than two years? The answer is yes, but you may have to pay extra for getting that longer warranty. A warranty carries a cost for the painting contractor; the longer the warranty, the higher the cost, like in any other industry. A professional and reputable house painter should assign a price to warranty time frames exceeding the norm, like $500 for 3 years, $1000 for 5 years, as an example. The automotive industry has successfully used this practice for many years.

Gold Standard for a Warranty

A word of caution: watch out for an unrealistically long warranty; it might be too good to be true! One time, Painting in Partnership was called to give an estimate to repaint a house three years into an 8-year warranty given by the last painting contractor. What is wrong with this picture? The client had asked for a long warranty. The painting contractor gave an 8-yerar warranty and did not ask anything extra for that added service. The problem was that two years, he was sitting on the beach in Florida!

I recently came across an interesting piece of 133 year old paint industry memorabilia, which sets an interesting context for this issue of warrantees. In 1877, a manufacturer of white lead called Eckstein White Lead Co. of Cincinnati had a very unusual warranty. The warranty promised one ounce of gold for every ounce of lead impurity found in their lead paint. This sets the Gold Standard for company warrantees!