how can I get a reliable quote for exterior house painting?
August 11, 2020 11:04 AM Subscribe
My house has wood siding, two floors, 1500 square feet livable area (not exterior area). How much should I expect to pay someone for exterior paint? I'm getting estimates 3-4 thousand dollars more than what online sources list as the upper limit for exterior painting.
$5-6000? We don’t know, though. You’re probably getting reliable estimates if multiple vendors are in the same ballpark. Ask them why the quotes are higher than you were expecting.
posted by michaelh at 11:40 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by michaelh at 11:40 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
I think this is really, really variable. An online estimate from a site circa 2017 is presumably vastly different from your local market. If you have 3 quotes from local companies in the same ballpark, you may have to temper your expectations and defer your project for another year.
posted by Juniper Toast at 11:42 AM on August 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Juniper Toast at 11:42 AM on August 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
We would need more data. How much prep (scrape, sand, power-wash, prime) is needed? Is it lead paint? How accessible is the second story (complex scaffolding required)?
posted by Muted Flugelhorn at 11:43 AM on August 11, 2020
posted by Muted Flugelhorn at 11:43 AM on August 11, 2020
My house is getting painted right now. I got recs from a nearby paint store and got four quotes ranging from ~$3K-6K with no obvious correlation to quality. So more quotes may help.
Other things that matter are lot size (are they going to have to build scaffolding?), amount of prep needed (lead? peeling paint?), quality of paint / any discounts your painter can get, extra details you want (two-tone trim? painted lady?), how far they have to travel to get to you, and how busy they are / how flexible your schedule is. And yeah, they're likely to tell you if you ask.
posted by momus_window at 11:45 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
Other things that matter are lot size (are they going to have to build scaffolding?), amount of prep needed (lead? peeling paint?), quality of paint / any discounts your painter can get, extra details you want (two-tone trim? painted lady?), how far they have to travel to get to you, and how busy they are / how flexible your schedule is. And yeah, they're likely to tell you if you ask.
posted by momus_window at 11:45 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
What timeframe are you asking about? ASAP? Right now is the peak period for exterior painting and in spite of covid-19 building trades are very busy in a lot of areas of the US. See if asking for a different timeframe results in a lower quote.
posted by GuyZero at 11:46 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by GuyZero at 11:46 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
I have no idea where you live, but at least where I am, there is a construction boom that is making any sort of small contractor be very picky about what work they do. One of the ways they're picky is by increasing their price. Further, in many areas, painting in the winter is tricky, at best. So, given the season is rapidly ending and the available painters may have fewer slots available, they can easily increase prices for those remaining slots.
posted by saeculorum at 11:47 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by saeculorum at 11:47 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
The expectation of lead can increase quotes drastically...even if they're not 100% sure its there, they'll quote you as if it was, because they don't want to come back to you with a "oops, just kidding, we have to remediate all this lead and its going to cost $5k extra." Are you asking for itemized quotes
Trade labor has gone up, a lot in the last few years because of the construction boom that others have mentioned is happening in many parts of the country. As a quick gauge, hop onto craigslist and just search job postings for 'painters.' You'll probably see people scrambling for experienced painters. Depending on how much of those you see, is how much more expensive the project will be.
You can save a gourd of money by having a general contractor or painting firm just prep the house for paint, and then you actually paint it. I did this same thing last year (smaller house than you're describing) and it saved 80% of the total project costs by doing so.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:02 PM on August 11, 2020
Trade labor has gone up, a lot in the last few years because of the construction boom that others have mentioned is happening in many parts of the country. As a quick gauge, hop onto craigslist and just search job postings for 'painters.' You'll probably see people scrambling for experienced painters. Depending on how much of those you see, is how much more expensive the project will be.
You can save a gourd of money by having a general contractor or painting firm just prep the house for paint, and then you actually paint it. I did this same thing last year (smaller house than you're describing) and it saved 80% of the total project costs by doing so.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:02 PM on August 11, 2020
Response by poster: house was built in the 90s, I don't think there is any lead paint.
posted by spacefire at 12:12 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by spacefire at 12:12 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
FWIW, none of the quotes I got were itemized, even when the painters said they would be. They did include a scope of work and one included a discounted price if I supplied paint. It took around six weeks from getting on the list to getting the house painted, which was typical of the estimates I got.
I looked at painting my own house, but renting ladders and a paint sprayer + buying other supplies not in bulk (+ spending days on a high ladder) made it not a great deal. If you are getting charged more because folks are busy, making it a smaller job is probably not going to make it more appealing, either.
posted by momus_window at 1:33 PM on August 11, 2020
I looked at painting my own house, but renting ladders and a paint sprayer + buying other supplies not in bulk (+ spending days on a high ladder) made it not a great deal. If you are getting charged more because folks are busy, making it a smaller job is probably not going to make it more appealing, either.
posted by momus_window at 1:33 PM on August 11, 2020
Unless some quotes come from speciality painters, or there are special aspects to the job that complicate a quote, the median/middle bid of a sorted list of prices will give you a rough estimate of what you should expect to pay to vendors local to you. This is why "three quotes" is a general rule-of-thumb for pricing out renovation work.
More quotes will reduce statistical error from scammers or low-ballers who won't do the job correctly, but that can take additional time to coordinate.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:46 PM on August 11, 2020
More quotes will reduce statistical error from scammers or low-ballers who won't do the job correctly, but that can take additional time to coordinate.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:46 PM on August 11, 2020
When I had my house painted in 2018, all three quotes I got were far higher than what internet research had led me to expect. However, they were broadly in line with each other. I deduced that the Internet was mistaken (about my local, high-COL market).
Further supporting this interpretation, when I saw how many person-hours of work went into the job and did the math, it was obvious that the painters were making reasonable skilled wages, not making a killing. But we had a high-prep job -- lots of old paint to scrape off, presumed to include lead paint.
posted by aws17576 at 7:02 PM on August 11, 2020
Further supporting this interpretation, when I saw how many person-hours of work went into the job and did the math, it was obvious that the painters were making reasonable skilled wages, not making a killing. But we had a high-prep job -- lots of old paint to scrape off, presumed to include lead paint.
posted by aws17576 at 7:02 PM on August 11, 2020
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posted by mr_roboto at 11:32 AM on August 11, 2020