What to Ask a Commercial Painting Contractor Before You Award the Work
Awarding a painting subcontract on price alone is how projects end up with change orders, deficiencies, and a trade that cannot keep up with the schedule. The bid number is the easy part to compare. The things that actually determine whether the job goes well are harder to see in a PDF.
These are the questions worth asking before you award — and the answers you should expect from a contractor who can do the work.
Are you insured and WSIB compliant, and can you show me?
In Ontario this is the baseline, not a differentiator. A commercial painting subcontractor should carry commercial liability insurance and maintain active WSIB coverage, and should be able to produce documentation on request without hesitation or delay.
If a contractor is slow to provide certificates, treat that as information. You will be relying on those documents for your own compliance obligations.
What exactly is in your scope — and what is out?
A bid that clearly states its inclusions, exclusions, and assumptions is worth more than a bid that is slightly cheaper and silent on all three. Ambiguity at tender becomes a dispute during construction, and the cost of that dispute is rarely recovered.
Ask specifically what surface preparation is included, what substrate condition was assumed, and what happens if the condition on site is worse than assumed. A contractor who has thought about this will have a clear answer.
Can you price from our tender documents and follow the spec?
For specified work, the contractor should be pricing from the drawings and finish schedule and following the specified paint system and approved product list. Substitutions may be perfectly reasonable, but they should be proposed and approved — not quietly applied.
If a bidder has not asked for the finish schedule, it is fair to wonder what they priced.
How will you handle the schedule if it moves?
Construction schedules move. The useful question is what happens when yours does. Can the contractor scale crew size? Will they work evenings, nights, or weekends? Have they worked phased turnovers before?
A subcontractor who can absorb a schedule change without dropping quality is worth more on a live project than one who is cheapest on day one.
What does your safety record and site conduct look like?
Crews on an active commercial site need to understand PPE, lift safety, fall protection, access control, and the site-specific rules set by the GC or owner. This is not paperwork — an incident involving your painting sub is your problem too.
Ask whether their crews regularly work on active construction sites, and what site safety protocols they follow.
How do you handle deficiencies, change orders, and closeout?
Every project has a punch list. What matters is how quickly deficiencies get addressed and how clearly change orders get documented and priced before the work proceeds.
If your project requires closeout documentation, confirm up front that the contractor can supply product information and related paperwork for the package. Discovering at handover that nobody kept records is an avoidable and very annoying problem.