Services Provided
Full house exterior painting
Experience and Good Comments
Need to repaint my house after 15 years. My house is standard 2 stories in Redmondridge, 2500 square feet inside. The full paint body is about 3500 square feet, plus trim, windows and doors.
Got some quotes like below:
1. Private painter with no insurance and bond, $3000, also I need to provide all paint and primer.
2. A paint company with insurance and bond, $4800 plus tax
3. B paint company with insurance and bond, $5300 plus tax first, then raise to $5900 plus tax later
4. This Star lite company, $4600 plus tax, 1 seal coating primer, 1 heavy coat paint, 1 light coast paint. Both paint coat are spay only, no back roll.
I somehow preferred the B company first, because it did my neighbor's house (almost the same size) cross street about 2 years ago, with fine back roll. The paint job looks fine to me after 2 year. While B company asked for $5300, I barely accepted it because B did the 2 sides (not the full house) for my neighbor for $1800 2 years ago. I agree that from 2 sides to full house, the price could be more than double, let us say $4000. Plus 2 year of labor increase of 10% per year, then $4800 sounds fair to me. 2-week after we agreed with $5300 verbally, B company raised to $5900 plus tax, then I don't even want to take to this guy anymore.
Meanwhile from Star lite company, $4600 sounds fair. I checked 2 re-paint house done in RedmondRidge communituy by them, the results looks good to me. After walking through the project, I asked Kathelyn (a hard working Korean women) to apply 2 heavy coats of paint, 1 with back roll and 1 with spay only. Per my online research and talking to my friends, the back roll can help to squeeze any small air bubble left between paint and primer, and back roll can squeeze the paint to any small gap between siding and wall poles. Heave coat is better than light coat when paint cost is not a concern. To me, paint cost is only a small portion of the total painting, so let us do 2 heavy coats. The price for the new requirement is $5200.
Paint is Sherwin-Williams, super paint (25 years warranty), satin finish. The caulking is PPG TOP GUN 400, and primer is PPG SealGrip Permanizer plus wood stabilizer.
The process is similar to another reviewer's (Jie L.):
1. Wash using pressure washer
2. Wait for 1-2 days to let it dry
3. Sand, caulk and cover windows and doors
4. Apply primer (so far, take about 1 day)
5. Apply the 1st paint coat, with back roll
6. Apply the 2nd paint coat. My house has 1 side just got siding replaced. After 2nd coat, this new siding still kept sucking paint like hell of thirsty. Kathelyn checked with me whether to apply more coat on this side. I agreed because that new siding did look slightly different than others.
7. Apply the 3rd paint coat on one side.
8. Apply trim
9. Paint windows shuttles and doors (including Garage door)
10. Touch up
The finish looks fine, partially because the color scheme we chose is one of the cover page on Sherwin-williams show-case paint book.
The final price is $5500 out of door, including tax and everything, due to the more paint coat (in step 6 and 7)
Like Jie mentioned, if the paint really can last 15 years, the price will be so competitive.
Not-So-Good Comments
Some minor things could be done better.
The paint guys loosed the light bulbs for the two exterior gate/door lights. I think because they covered all exterior light for painting, it is reasonable to loose the bulbs to prevent overheat if turn on those lights. After they finish all paint, they forgot to tighten the lights back. Also, they forgot to tear off the cover on the garage windows.
If you want to do exterior paint with star-lite or with any contractor, I suggest you taking a few days off and stay in home while the painting is processing. By doing so, you can check the result for each stage, and make some decision quickly if needed, like more coat and etc.
