What do a painting company’s job photos and touch-up records reveal?
They show how the work holds up and how the company behaves afterward. Job photos reveal prep and finish quality; touch-up records show how often customers call back, what goes wrong and how quickly the company fixes it. Together they give an honest view that sales talk cannot.
Start with the photos. Ask for before, during and after images from a spread of jobs, not only the best ones. Prep work is the telling part: patched walls, taped edges, covered floors. Photos taken with a date and address attached are more credible than loose files. Then read the touch-up records. Look for the pattern, not any single entry. Are the same causes repeating, such as a particular paint, a surface type or one crew? Does the company respond quickly, and does it charge or absorb the visit? Ask the seller to explain the three or four most awkward cases.
Compare the two sets of records. If the photos look tidy but callbacks cluster around certain jobs, the photos may not tell the whole story. If there are almost no records, ask whether callbacks truly never happen or simply are not written down. Last, ask what changed after problems appeared: a different product, extra training, a new checklist. Companies that learn from callbacks tend to leave a visible trail of adjustments.
Photos also help you judge the size and type of work the company really does, which is useful if it markets itself for one kind of job and mostly performs another.
Key takeaways
- Ask for photos from a spread of jobs, not a hand-picked set.
- Look for repeating causes in touch-up records.
- Check how fast and at whose cost the company fixes problems.
Related reading
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Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are the steps to buying a business?
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