Exterior House Painting

We have needed to pain our house for the last 3 years. We have received a quote ranging from a little over 10k - $28k. The lower end people have been extremely flaky. We agreed on the price but over 2 years, they have not given me a date to pain despite numerous calls and texts!!! So, I am now wondering if I need to go with the more expensive outfits. *sigh*

The trim styles and the amount of detail work needed as well as dry rot condition affect the pricing. Our house is 1600 sq ft on a slope (1 story on one side, two story height on the other) with a fair amount of trim work and a covered deck.
 

I'm thrilled to recommend Bart Alvarez to paint your house.  He did mine about a year and a half ago.  I got his name from a friend who's hired him many times for both work and home painting projects, when price was a priority, and who's always been very pleased with his work.  His bid was dramatically lower than that of the other companies I talked to, but he used the highest quality paint without my even asking.  His crew members were polite, meticulous with detail, and cleaned up afterwards very well.  His number is 415-760-5273 - please tell him Laura from Richmond recommended him if you wind up using him!

I have used Michael Robinson from By Design for many years. He has painted my personal home and many, many homes for me that I listed as a realtor. He is as professional as they come, his prices are great, and he is easy to work with. Licensed etc. His number is 510-882-0804

Platypus Painting painted the exterior of our Albany home (2 bedroom, approx 1200 sf, mostly stucco siding with wood trim plus one area of wood siding that needed a ton of prep work) and -- after a delay because the original start date was the day of the first pandemic shutdown order! -- they did a great job.  The contract price was $13,000 which included $412 for some minor dry rot repair and other carpentry work, and did NOT include the detached garage. There were no unexpected increases or extras.  (We did have one change order, long story, and paid more for them to stain and finish a new front door, instead of painting the old one.)

Platypus was one of three bids we got in late 2019.  The other two quotes were $13,800 and $14,950.  (Their being the lowest bid is not the only reason we chose Platypus but it certainly didn't hurt!)

The paint and other supplies are a small percentage of the overall cost of the job, and trying to buy them yourself is not really a money-saving move.  You won't get a contractor's discount, you are more likely than a licensed and experienced painter to end up paying more because you mis-estimated the quantities of everything you need, you don't have the same relationship with suppliers and manufacturers to rely on if there's any problem with the materials.  Really the only way to save a substantial amount of money is to do the job yourself (which costs you a lot of time and effort) or to hire a handyperson (which is a risk for all sorts of reasons -- they may not carry enough insurance for any on-the-job injuries or damage to your house, they may be flaky and/or underqualified, causing longer-term costs).  You may be able to save a little by limiting the number of different colors and/or finish types to be used, or excluding certain areas (like, maybe you can manage the doors and window trim yourself, after the pros do the stucco); of course that really depends on your specific house.

Good luck!  I know it is really frustrating how expensive it is, we definitely had some sticker shock when we got bids.  But it is also really incredibly nice to have fresh new paint in colors we love. :) 

We had our 2 bedroom house in Oakland painted in 2020 for around $6000 by Vision-Painting Plus. It's a very simple and small wood-sided house.  The owner, Carlos Guillen was our contact. They did a good job  visionpaintingplustracy [at] gmail.com  (415)876-8788                                                                                                                                       

In my experience, you get what you pay for. When we had our house painted, the five cost estimates we got ranged from $5500 to $22000. We tossed the cheapest (no way you could do a decent job at that price) and the most expensive one. The other three were between $15000 and $17000. We choose based on which company made the best impression on us. Some companies will ask how long you plan to stay in the house. They can do a slap-dash job on the cheap, but you will need to get it redone in a few years, but fine if you plan to sell anyways. We opted to pay more as we plan to live in this house long-term. We wanted them to do a thorough job and not just make it look pretty for the next few months. Things that make it cheaper: Not using multiple colors. We had a different color for the trim, a different one for the railings and another different one for the front door.

We chose Arana Craftsman Painters. They were great to work with. All communication once they started went via email. They were very detail-oriented and did a great job. Their offer also came with a visit from a color consultant which proved valuable.

I'm not sure if this will help with your situation but after putting it off for nearly 20 years, I bit the bullet and hired a company last year to stain/paint our shingled house. The cost was $50k for a three story, 5000 sqft house. The prep, including dry rot repair on about 1/2 dozen windows, took 80% of the time/effort. The staining/painting was almost a second thought. Approximately $10k was just for the scafolding alone. It seemed like a lot but when I compare it to our neighbors who paint their house every 5 years, we probably got lucky that our dry rot situation wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

I highly recommend Phil's Painting  (510-317-1844).  He does both interior and exterior painting at reasonable prices.   He recently painted the interior of my Oakland home; a neglected 1920's Craftsman which has plenty of crown molding and baseboards that require a ton of prep.   Phil and his son did an excellent job and both demonstrated all the qualities I wanted in a contractor;  punctual; friendly; knowledgeable and meticulous throughout the project .  With so many overpriced and flaky people, I feel lucky to have found Phil.  There is only one downside ,he is frequently book so call sooner rather than later.