Start with the contract
Many guides to hiring a painter start with color. This one starts with paper, because New York law says what a home improvement contract has to contain. New York General Business Law section 771 requires every home improvement contract to be in writing and signed by all parties, with approximate start and completion dates and a description of the work and materials, including make and model number.
For a painting job, a clear description of the work and materials usually means:
- Every room, wall, ceiling, door, trim run or exterior elevation included.
- The preparation planned for each: washing, scraping, sanding, filling, caulking, spot-priming or full priming.
- The paint and primer named by product line, with colors and sheens.
- The number of coats on each surface.
- What's excluded, such as repairs to rotted wood or moving heavy furniture.
The approximate start and completion dates matter especially for exterior work, which depends on the weather.
NOAA's Albany figures
NOAA's engineering sheet for the station it names Albany is the source of every weather number here, and the fact cards carry its exact wording. Two of its figures matter for paint: about 69 freeze-thaw cycles in an average year, and humid-hour counts of about 160 hours with the wet-bulb above 73°F and about 820 above 67°F. The same sheet's design wind of 90 mph and rainfall rate of 2.5 inches per hour are inputs for structures and drainage that say little about an ordinary painting day.
Turning the figures into a schedule
- Keep exterior finish coats to the mild months. Most exterior labels set a minimum temperature for the air and the surface, and some for the overnight low. Ask the painter what their product needs.
- Leave room for muggy days. On a humid day, latex dries slowly and can streak if dew falls on it. A crew may stop earlier in the day or skip a day.
- Seal before the cold. Caulk and primer on bare wood keep freeze-thaw water out. If the job runs late into the year, ask the painter to prioritize sealing and priming over cosmetic coats.
- Save interiors for the cold. Inside rooms can be painted in any month in a heated house, which frees the warm weeks for outside work.
Our pages on exterior painting and interior painting explain each job in detail.
The licensing statement
For the state-level picture, the Department of State's consumer alert is reproduced in its own card on this page. Its sentence on who licenses home improvement work is the whole of what we say on that subject; read it as written. What the contract law above requires applies whatever the answer.
Before you sign
Read the contract against the list above. If the description of materials is vague, ask for the product names. If the dates are missing, ask for them. Our pricing guide explains why the same house can be quoted very differently, and paint sheens and finishes helps you choose the right sheen for each room.