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Prioritize Client Communication and Expectation Management

6:24
11:38
73.3K views

At 6:24 in

Should You Caulk Cabinets Before Painting? When to Caulk and When Not to!

What happens here

The presenter shares a pivotal experience where a client was extremely unhappy because he convinced her *not* to caulk the panels, leading to visible gaps she disliked. This taught him the importance of thoroughly discussing all aspects with the client, including potential drawbacks and the expected final outcome, whether it's regarding caulking or grain filling. He demonstrates how not filling the grain on oak cabinets can result in visible grain, shadows, and pinholes, which many clients find undesirable, especially when a smooth, painted finish is expected. He advises showing examples of both finished and unfinished results to help clients understand what they are 'getting into' and what their money is paying for.

Goal: Ensure client satisfaction by clearly communicating expected outcomes for specific finishing techniques.

Tools and materials

  • Cabinet Door Sample — Demonstrating the smooth finish achieved with grain filler
  • AquaCoat AquaCoat — Filling wood grain for a smoother finish

What they say

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could be a uh better option for the panels to be able to move in the climate that we have here yeah i think i think you know you brought up a good point in um speaking to the client and so it's it's really client expectations and um going over them what the expectations of the end result of the job is and and i know i ran into this one this is why i actually started caulking panels on cabinets is i didn't used to caulk them because i said you're not supposed to um you cannot because of the floating panels and so i did this really high-end expensive job the customer was adamant i talked the panels and i convinced them not to and then when we were all done the customer was extremely unhappy with the job and was extremely unhappy that i convinced her you know to not caulk him and if i wasn't going to go back and re-caulk him and repaint all the cabinets she was going to go hire another pain or two and so unfortunately you know i made a client unhappy and that's not what i'm in this business for and so we turned around cocked them re-sprayed them and even i thought they looked better when they were caulked and so i started caulking them after that point but then i always went over with the customer explained you know why i would why i wouldn't and um the drawbacks and what could possibly happen two years from now three years from now and just explained in detail and went over it you know with the customer and um then they always knew what to expect and um knew what they were getting into it's the same with applying grain filler on these oak cabinets you can see the grain what's the client's expectation the end result i mean these would be after they're painted um this is gonna be painted white you would see really dark uh shadows and holes and pinholes in that and 90 of the time the customer is not going to be happy with it so we use aquacode to fill the grain and i go over that with the customer's expectations because i charge more to do that but i make it very known you know what the expectations are that if you don't apply the aquacode this is what they will look like and you know um you may be unhappy with it and then it's good to show them an example of a door that's not aqua coated and a door that is aqua coated so um to or not to that's the question so as a painter you know there's there's a time and a place really for you know everything i guess i'd have to say and you know as a painter it's um i i would say it's probably just be flexible you know you…

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