When it comes to our possessions and personal belongings, it’s probably safe to agree that our homes are up there as being one of the most valuable commodities we’ll ever own. Our homes provide us with shelter, comfort, safety, and security and for that reason we obviously want them to look their absolute best. Whether you’ve just bought your very first home and are looking to spruce it up and furnish and decorate it the way you want to. Or if perhaps you’ve lived there for a long time and the decor is now looking tired and worn, one thing’s for certain, and that is that a lick of paint can literally transform even the most tired of homes, reinvigorating and rejuvenating the interior, and exterior for that matter. Painting and decorating just one room yourself, when you’re trying to juggle work and other everyday household tasks and chores can be a real headache, so imagine how hard it would be to decorate an entire home? Well, rather than attempting the work yourself, a fantastic alternative is to hire professional painters and decorators to do the job for you. Providing you find the right company for the task at hand, by the time they’ve finished, your home will look better than you could have ever imagined. The problem is finding a great company to take on the work, which is why we’ve compiled this helpful list of five handy tips to help you find the best painting and decorating company for your home.

Read reviews – Thanks to the internet, people are now able to review pretty much any product and any service they receive from anywhere in the world, all with a few clicks of a few buttons. For that reason, doing a little research about any potential companies that you plan on hiring couldn’t be easier. There are many websites dedicated to reviews for trades services, including painting and decorating, so once you have a few potential companies in mind, why not head over there and see what other people have to say. If you come across a company with a lot of negative and poor reviews and feedback, you may want to keep looking. On the flipside however, if you find a company with a lot of positive reviews and feedback, you could very well have found your guys.

Ask people for recommendations – Thanks to social networking sites, asking for recommendations for companies and businesses within your area couldn’t be easier. Simply ask whether any of your friends or family can recommend good painters and decorators in your area and see if you get any responses. If you don’t tend to rely on social networking sites however, then you could do things the old fashioned way and actually speak to real life people in person (shock horror)! Ask friends, family, work colleagues etc for any recommendations and you’d be amazed by how many responses you get. Once you get a few names you like the sound of, do a little more research before committing to hiring them.

Find out which qualifications they have – Now, painting and decorating requires a great deal of skill, experience, and expertise, so you certainly needn’t be disheartened in you find a company with great reviews and feedback, only to find out that they don’t possess a vast amount of qualifications. With that being said, some qualifications, NVQ painting and decorating for example, should provide proof that the company in question is competent, skilled, experienced, and able to handle the job in question. Although you don’t need to find painting and decorating companies with vast amounts of credentials and qualifications, a few basic nationally recognised qualifications will certainly work in their favour and help prove their ability, experience and competency.

Find out if they have the necessary insurance – Just as you should with many other trades, when looking for a great painting and decorating company, you should ideally search for a company that possesses full public liability insurance. This will help to ensure that in the highly unlikely event that any accidents should occur, that your home and yourself will be fully compensated. Accidents do happen and think about it. Tins of paint everywhere, the last thing you want is for a tin of brilliant white gloss paint to be knocked over onto your brand new £1500 leather sofa, and you to be left to foot the bill for a replacement. Insurance provides peace of mind but be sure to ask to see a copy of this certificate before you proceed to hire a company.

Try to find the best companies in your area – Although there will be a number of painting and decorating companies in your area that will be able to provide satisfactory services, why settle for satisfactory when you can settle for excellence? If possible, try to find the best companies in your area. Take major cities for instance. The competition there will be fierce, so finding a company that really stands out amongst the rest could be the best discovery you’ll make all year. Manchester for instance is one of the busiest and largest cities in all of the UK, yet one company has managed to earn itself a reputation as being one of the absolute best in the area. That company in question is Sublime Decor. If you’re in the Manchester area, Sublime Decor come highly recommended for being able to provide fantastic services at extremely affordable prices. Heading a little further up North in Newcastle upon Tyne, you have Central Decorators, whereas down south in London, MJ Kloss Painters and Decorators are making a real name for themselves. Wherever you live, try to find the best of the best and you’ll be amazed by the difference it makes to your home.