A contractor once told Chris Gardner to just use ProMar 200. Gardner, who owns PaintRite Pros in Elk Grove, California, had already settled on something else. He buys what he calls the nicest paint Sherwin-Williams sells, its Emerald Urethane, and puts it on the baseboards, doors and trim.
His reasoning starts with where a room gets its finish. Gardner says baseboards, doors and trim are what make the inside of a house look good. Urethane on those surfaces “gives it the closest look to an oil look as possible,” he says, and he credits the paint for how his interiors turn out.
It is a small choice, and Gardner treats it as the point. He calls himself a hands-on owner who is “in the ditches,” keeping track of what is trending, what is not and which products suit which surfaces. “I know the best product for that substrate, and I’m not taking the cheapest route possible,” he says. “I’m doing what’s actually right for that job.”
Almost all of PaintRite’s work is residential: exteriors, interiors and cabinets. That is the work Gardner loves, and the work he wants the company known for. “Doing residential repaints, we get to use nice products, we get to take our time, do a nice job, and see the homeowner’s face at the end,” he says.
The exterior method the company lays out on its site starts with a power wash, then scraping, sanding, priming and caulking. Crews spray the paint and then back-roll it, working it deeper into the surface so it lasts longer.
Gardner keeps the paperwork moving just as deliberately. After an estimate visit, he says, the homeowner has a detailed estimate in their email within an hour. Once a job begins, the crew stays on it. “I don’t stop and start jobs,” he says. “Once I start that job, my crew’s on it and we’re there till we finish. Full crew.”
The company buys its interior paint at the Sherwin-Williams in Elk Grove, and PaintRite has also painted a Sherwin-Williams building in town. Gardner says that job “says a lot.” The paint maker hired his crew to paint its own walls.
Gardner started PaintRite Pros in 2014 and built it at first out of his bedroom. He did not know how to run a business, he says, so he got business coaching right away. The coaching taught him to write policies and standard operating procedures, and that structure still sets his week, with separate meetings for operations, sales and scheduling. He is the sole owner, with no partners, and these days he answers the phones himself.
He read Culture Code and calls it a fabulous book. “Culture matters,” he says. When culture is low, in his experience, production comes down.
He makes sure his painters are respected. “My guys need time off for their kids, no questions asked,” he says. When a child is sick, the instruction is short: “go be with your kid.”
The line he repeats to them most is about the work itself. “When you walk around, hold your head up high, because there’s very few people that work as hard as we do as painters.”