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Writer's pictureDarla Gaylor

Finishing Touches

Updated: Jan 2, 2019

Accidents are going to happen when humans (and gravity and human manufactured products) are a part of any process. Paint drips, bleed-unders, scratches, missed corners, paint "holidays" - they are just an inevitable part of the painting and other contract work. Thankfully, so is clean-up day, where all of those things get addressed. You see, the cha-cha is a fun dance step in Zumba class, but it is exceedingly difficult to make any forward progress with it as a project style in contract work. Somethings, like spills, gouges, and breaks, absolutely have to be taken care of before moving on. However, many issues, like those noted in the opening paragraph, might not be caught until looking over everything towards the project's end, or the contractor is aware of them, but prefers to move ahead with the job before doing such "clean up" items.

The difficulty comes in when the expectation that paint touch ups, which may include final edge cutting/ straightening those lines with paint on walls, ceilings, trims, or archways, minor clean ups where paint may have bled under tape, grouting, caulking, etc, come before the bulk of the project is done; and, as a contractor, it feels very much like dancing the cha-cha: lots of movement, but no forward progress. In fine, addressing finishing touches on when a project isn’t close to completion is frustrating and slows down the work. Finishing touches are that for a reason: they come at the end, near the finish line. Every project has its own step-by-step checklist, a checklist that requires order. If you’re not sure where your contractor is on that checklist, ask to see a breakdown of the required steps. If you've hired the right person or company, they are going to look over things & address any issues before wrapping up. Still, if you think they missed something, do speak up. Nevertheless, this is another situation in which it’s important to remember the maxim, “Patience with the Process.”

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