How much is failing
A house with sound paint needs a wash and two coats. A house shedding paint on the south and west walls needs days of scraping first. Same square footage, very different job.
Exterior painting
Weather gets a vote. Prep is how you outvote it.
A coat rolled onto unwashed, unscraped siding is a two-year job that looks like an eight-year one for about six months. Everything that decides which one you got happens before the finish coat.
The number, itemised
What is in the price, and what is not.
Exterior quotes vary more than any other kind, and it is almost never the paint. It is how much of this list the other quote includes.
In the number
- Soft washing every painted surface, and rinsing windows and glass after
- Scraping and sanding each failing edge back to sound paint
- Spot priming bare wood, exposed knots and cut end grain
- Re-caulking gaps at trim, corner boards and window surrounds
- Resetting popped nails and filling the holes
- Masking windows, doors, lights, meters and the AC unit
- Covering plants, walkways, driveways and anything on the deck
- Two finish coats, sprayed and back-rolled so the coat keys into the grain
- Drop cloths lifted and the site swept every evening
- Leftover paint labelled and left with you
Quoted separately
- Replacing rotten siding, trim, fascia or sills
- Carpentry of any kind, including rebuilding corner boards and soffits
- Full paint removal where roughly a third or more has failed
- Lead-safe containment on pre-1978 exteriors, where testing calls for it
- Roof, gutter or flashing repair that is what is pushing the paint off
- Staining or sealing an attached deck — that is its own quote
- Masonry repointing, stucco patching or foundation coating
- Painting in weather that will not let the coat cure
Nothing on the right-hand side gets added without your say-so. Rot is the one that surprises people, because it hides under paint until we scrape. When we find it you get a photo, a price and the option to have your own carpenter do it before we come back.
Before you compare quotes
Four things move an exterior price more than the size of the house.
If one quote is half another, one of these is the reason. It is worth asking directly rather than assuming the cheaper crew found an efficiency.
Height and access
Anything reachable from a ladder is straightforward. Three storeys, a steep grade, a tight side yard or a lift means slower work and more setup for the same wall.
What the siding is
Wood drinks primer and needs the most prep. Fibre cement and vinyl mostly need washing and the right paint. Stucco and masonry need a masonry-specific coating.
Going darker, or going lighter
Staying near the existing colour covers in two. A dramatic change — especially white over a dark stain, or a saturated colour over pale — can want a tinted primer.
Asked most
Exterior painting questions.
If yours is not here, call and ask. We would rather answer it now than have it come up on day two.
When can you actually paint?
Roughly April to October here, and it is temperature and dew point rather than the calendar that decides. Most exterior paint wants to be above 50°F while it cures, including overnight.
We would rather push a week than put a coat on that cannot cure. It will look fine the day we leave and fail the following spring.
Do you pressure wash?
We soft wash — low pressure with a cleaning solution. High pressure strips paint fast, but it also drives water behind siding and furs up the wood grain, and you get to find out about both a year later. If someone is quoting a fast pressure wash, ask what PSI.
How long will it last?
On properly prepped wood, most owners get somewhere around seven to ten years before the south and west walls want attention, and longer on the shaded sides. Fibre cement and stucco tend to go longer.
That is the honest range, not a promise — sun exposure, overhang and whether the gutters work matter more than the paint does. Our five-year workmanship warranty is the part we do commit to in writing.
What happens to my plants?
They get covered, and uncovered again the same day so nothing cooks under plastic. If something is precious or awkwardly close to the wall, point at it on the walkthrough and we will work out whether to tie it back or work around it.
What if you find rot?
Work stops on that section and you get a photo and a number before anything else happens. You can have us handle it as a separate line, or bring in your own carpenter and we come back — we genuinely do not mind which.
Do I need to be home?
No, as long as we can reach water and the areas we are painting. We will need gates unlocked and pets kept in. You will get a text before we arrive each morning.
Will you paint the trim a different colour?
Yes, and it is priced by how much trim there is rather than as an add-on percentage. Tell us at the walkthrough so the quote splits body, trim and accents as separate lines.
Free, no obligation
Send us the wall that is peeling.
One photo of the worst elevation tells us more than a paragraph does. Get the south or west side if you can — that is where the sun does its work. Written quote back within one business day.
Rather talk it through? Call (314) 489-6667, weekdays 7am–6pm.