What You Actually Need to Do Before We Arrive
Let's start here because this is the most useful part. These are the things that help the job go smoothly — and in some cases, save you money because they reduce time spent on tasks that don't need a painter.
- Secure pets. This is non-negotiable. Dogs and cats in a house full of open paint cans, drop cloths, and people moving around all day creates stress for the pet and hazards for everyone. Arrange for them to be somewhere else — a friend's place, a kennel, a neighbour. Even the most well-behaved dog in Leaside or Leslieville doesn't belong in a room being painted.
- Remove small valuables and personal items. We cover and move furniture, but small decorative items on shelves, medications, jewellery, and electronics are your responsibility. Clear nightstands, dressers, and desk surfaces. Take anything irreplaceable or sensitive out of the rooms being painted.
- Clear access for parking. If you have a driveway in a North York detached or a laneway in the Junction, clear it the night before. We often arrive with a van and sometimes a trailer. Street parking isn't always available, especially in dense neighbourhoods, and 20 minutes circling the block before an 8 am start is not a good beginning to anyone's day.
- Communicate any concerns or changes. If you've decided overnight that you want to add a room to the scope, or if there's something in the room you're worried about, call or text me the night before. Don't wait until 8 am on day one to mention it — at that point the crew is setting up and changes affect the whole day's plan.
What We Handle — So You Don't Have to
Professional painters handle most of the physical setup. Here's what's on us:
- Furniture moving. We move sofas, beds, tables, and large furniture to the centre of the room and cover everything with drop cloths. We do this carefully. If there's something you don't want moved — a grand piano in Rosedale, a heavy antique bookcase — tell me during the quote and we'll paint around it or discuss options.
- Wall prep. Patching nail holes, minor cracks, and surface imperfections is included in our quotes. We sand, prime, and make the surface ready for paint.
- Masking. We tape trim, windows, light switches, outlet plates, and any surface that's not being painted. We use professional masking tape — not the blue tape from Canadian Tire that homeowners often use, which leaves residue if left on too long.
- Drop cloths and floor protection. Every floor gets covered — hardwood, tile, carpet. We use canvas drop cloths, not plastic sheeting, which is slippery and doesn't stay in place.
- Cleanup. We clean up at the end of each day and do a full cleanup at job completion. Your home should look cleaner when we leave than when we arrived.
Common Mistakes Homeowners Make Thinking They're Helping
I say this with genuine appreciation — most homeowners who do the following are genuinely trying to be helpful. But these things almost always create more work, not less:
- Pulling all the furniture to the centre of the room. I know it seems helpful, but we need to move it anyway to get to every wall. When it's already piled in the middle in an unorganized way, it's harder to work around and harder to move again when we need to shift it. Just leave the furniture as-is.
- Pre-taping baseboards or trim. If you've used the wrong tape or applied it poorly, I have to remove it and re-tape anyway. Different tapes perform differently and the application technique matters. Please leave the taping to us.
- Washing the walls the day before. We appreciate the thought but if you've used a cleaner that leaves a residue, or haven't rinsed properly, it can affect adhesion. We'll clean walls as part of prep using the right method for the paint type we're using.
- Spackle-ing every hole they can find. Again, appreciated in spirit. But homeowner-applied spackle is often applied too thick, not sanded flush, or uses the wrong product for the substrate. We redo these anyway — it would have been quicker if we'd just started fresh.
Day-of Expectations: What to Know
We typically start at 8:00–8:30 am. We'll call or text the evening before to confirm the start time. The first 30–60 minutes of any interior job is setup: moving furniture, laying drop cloths, mixing paint, assessing any prep issues we didn't see at the quote stage. Actual painting usually begins mid-morning on day one.
You don't need to be home the entire time, but someone needs to be reachable. If you're working from home in another room, that's fine — just expect some noise and some paint smell (we use low-VOC products but it's still noticeable). If you're leaving the house, make sure we have access and a way to reach you if a question comes up.
We break for lunch (usually 30 minutes) and don't work past 5:30–6:00 pm on residential jobs out of respect for the household. If there are unique scheduling constraints — a baby's nap schedule in the afternoon, specific rooms that need to be accessible at certain times — tell me at booking and we'll work around it.
A Note on Communication
The single biggest source of unhappy outcomes in painting isn't the prep or the paint — it's miscommunication. If something isn't what you expected, tell us on day one, not the last day. If you look at the colour on the wall and it's not what you thought it would be (colours always look different in real lighting than they do on a chip), say something immediately. We can adjust while the job is in progress. We can't easily re-do the entire job after it's done.
We're in your home for multiple days. A good working relationship makes the whole thing better for everyone. I'm reachable by phone at 437-242-3829 throughout any job we're running.