Before you start having painters over to look at the areas that need painting, you’ll first need a list of painters to ask the questions to. You can start looking online or in your local Yellow Pages just as you would any other contractor you’d have working on your home; these are actually great places to start looking for professional house painters. But in the case of house painting, there are a few other places that you can look too.

Go to your local paint store and ask around to the staff about professional painters they can recommend in the area. Note that your best bet is going to be the private independent store in town, and not the big home improvement chain store, as local contractors generally prefer dealing with local suppliers. And don’t only ask for names; also ask about the quality of paints a painter generally uses and how long they have been working with a particular painter. These questions will give you a good indication as to not only the names of painters, but also the quality of the names you get.

The Better Business Bureau is also always a good place to look for home contractors and the case of home painters is no different. Companies need to pay a fee in order to be accredited and monitored by the Better Business Bureau and it shows a real commitment to their company, and to the quality of service they provide. Just because a company isn’t registered with the Better Business Bureau doesn’t necessarily mean that the company is dishonest or that they won’t do a good job. But the fact that a company is registered certainly works in their favor.

After you’ve looked around a bit online, in the Yellow Pages, at your local paint store, and maybe even at the BBB, you can then write down the names of several painters that seemed the most suited to your specific job and start calling around. Once you start actually speaking to painters about the job you need done, you can then start to ask more detailed questions and start looking for signs of good business practices.