A painting estimate, line by line

A homeowner with three painting estimates on the counter is not comparing painters. She is comparing three documents, and two of them say "paint exterior of house — $6,800." The third says how many coats, which product, how much scraping, and what happens if there is rot under the trim. That is the one she can actually compare against the other two.

Three estimates follow, written out in full. Every dollar figure is invented — take the structure and fill in your own numbers. For per-square-foot pricing structure, see painter rates per square foot and DoneQuote for painters.

A two-story exterior, with rot under the trim

Estimate #2026-231 · Issued August 23, 2026 · Valid through September 22, 2026

For: full exterior repaint, two-story, lap siding

Subtotal: $7,372.50 · Sales tax applied per state rule · Deposit at approval: $1,500. Balance on completion.

Excluded: window glazing, gutters and downspouts, deck and railing, siding replacement beyond the three trim sections, lead-safe work practices if the house is pre-1978 and testing has not ruled out lead paint. Rot found beyond the allowance is quoted at $145 per additional section before we cut anything out.

Schedule: four working days, weather permitting. Two consecutive dry days needed after the wash.

An interior repaint: four rooms and a stairwell

Interior work usually prices per room, not per square foot, because masking and brushing the edges by hand take the hours. Note the square footage anyway — it is what settles which "living room" you priced.

Subtotal: $5,576.00 · plus applicable sales tax

Excluded: closet interiors, wallpaper removal, ceiling texture repair, color changes after the first coat goes on.

A kitchen cabinet refinish

A small job by square footage and a big one by hours — nearly all of it prep nobody can see in the finished kitchen.

Subtotal: $3,421.00 · plus applicable sales tax · Kitchen out of service 4–5 days; doors cure off-site.

Excluded: new hardware, hinge or door replacement, interior of cabinet boxes, countertop protection beyond standard masking.

Prep is a line, not a courtesy

Hiding prep inside the coating price is how a good estimate loses to a cheap one. Wash, scrape, sand, patch, caulk and prime are the hours that decide whether the finish lasts, and they are the hours the low bidder skipped.

Give each prep step its own row, with a quantity where you have one. "Scrape, sand and spot-prime approx. 400 sq ft" is a claim about her house. "Prep as needed" is a claim about nothing.

Name the product, not just the color

Color is the customer's call and sheen mostly is too, but the product line is yours and it belongs in writing: brand, line, sheen, and the number of coats. Two estimates that both say "two coats" can be far apart on material cost and years apart on service life.

Write it the way it reads on the can, and name a product for every coated surface, the way the three tables above do.

What happens when you find more than you priced

Every exterior repaint has this moment: the scraper goes in and the trim is soft. Price a visible allowance — the three sections in the first estimate above — so ordinary rot is already covered. Then state the unit price for anything past it, and that you stop for approval first.

A change order signed before the cut, at a number already printed on the estimate, is a five-minute conversation. The same repair discovered on the final invoice is a dispute.

Two time limits belong on the page

How long the price holds. Paint pricing moves, and manufacturers announce increases on their own schedule, not yours. A 30-day window is common and easy to defend. Open-ended means you eat every increase between the handshake and the start date. Put the date on the estimate, not just a duration.

How long the finish holds. Warrant your workmanship — peeling, blistering, coating failure caused by application — for a stated period, and leave the coating itself to the manufacturer. Exclude what you cannot control: moisture intrusion, substrate movement, failure of a surface the customer asked you to paint over against your advice. An exclusion is not absolute, though, since many states read an implied duty of workmanlike performance into the job.

The rules that decide the last line

Sales tax on painting is a state question with no national answer. Some states tax the full charge on repair and maintenance work, some treat painting as part of a capital improvement, and whether you buy paint on a resale certificate or pay tax on it as the end user is a related but separate question. Confirm both with your state department of revenue or a CPA who files contractor returns, and put the treatment on the estimate, not the invoice.

Two more lines come from law rather than habit. EPA's RRP rule requires the firm — sole proprietors included — to be lead-safe certified for paid work disturbing painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities, past small thresholds (about 6 sq ft inside, 20 outside, any window replacement). Some states run their own version. Several states also cap the deposit: California's limit is $1,000 or 10% of the contract price, whichever is less. Check yours before you print a deposit line, and check your state board on licensing thresholds while you are there.

Getting these lines out of one job and into the next

Painters fall back on one-line estimates because typing eleven rows after every walk-through is slow. In DoneQuote your prep, coating, trim, door and repair lines sit in a catalog at your own unit prices, so next time you change quantities instead of retyping the estimate — and the rot allowance and the validity date come along instead of having to be remembered.

All three come down to the same four things: prep visible, product named, surprises priced before they appear, a date on the price.