Two painters look at the same room and send you two very different numbers. Neither is necessarily cheating you. They are quoting different amounts of work — and the part that differs is almost never the painting.
It is the preparation. And preparation is invisible in a finished room, which is exactly why it is the first thing cut when someone wants to win a job on price.
What should be written down
A useful estimate tells you what is included, not just what it costs. Look for:
- The scope, room by room. Which rooms, and within each, whether it covers walls only, or walls plus ceiling, plus trim, plus doors and closets. “Paint the bedroom” can mean four very different jobs.
- How many coats. Two is standard over a similar colour. A dramatic colour change, a patchy wall, or covering a dark shade with a light one often needs primer plus two, and sometimes three.
- The preparation. Filling, sanding, caulking, priming, and what happens to any damage. This is the line that matters most.
- The products. The brand and the finish for each surface. “Premium paint” is not a product name.
- What is protected and how. Furniture moved and covered, floors protected, fixtures removed or masked.
- Cleanup. Whether the site is cleaned daily or only at the end.
- The timeline. Start date, how many working days, and what happens if it runs long.
- Payment terms. How much up front, how much on completion.
What “preparation” actually means
When an estimate says “prep included”, it should be possible to ask what that covers and get a specific answer. On a typical interior repaint it means some or all of:
- Moving and covering. Furniture to the middle of the room or out of it, covered. Floors protected wall to wall — not a sheet in the middle.
- Cleaning. Walls washed where they are greasy or dusty. Paint does not stick to grease, and kitchens are always greasier than they look.
- Filling. Nail holes, dents, gouges, and the small damage nobody notices until the walls are one colour and every flaw shows.
- Crack repair. Cracks that have opened along a seam or above a doorway need to be cut out and taped, not skimmed over. A filled crack comes back within a year.
- Sanding. Filler sanded flat, and glossy surfaces de-glossed so the new coat has something to hold onto.
- Caulking. Gaps where trim has pulled away from the wall.
- Priming. Bare filler, patches, stains and bare wood. Skipping this is why patches sometimes show through as dull spots — a phenomenon called flashing.
If a quote is materially cheaper than the others, this list is usually where the difference lives.
Questions worth asking
- What preparation is included, specifically?
- How many coats, and is primer separate?
- What paint, and what finish on the trim?
- Who moves the furniture?
- Will there be one crew for the whole job, or different people on different days?
- What happens if you find damage once you start?
- How do you handle it if I am not happy with a wall?
None of these are awkward questions. Any painter who is comfortable with their own process will answer them without hesitating.
Warning signs
- A price with no scope. A number on its own is not an estimate.
- A large deposit up front. A deposit for materials on a big job is normal. Most of the money before any work has happened is not.
- Pressure to decide today. Real availability does get booked up. Urgency manufactured on the phone is a sales technique.
- Cash only, no paperwork at all. You have no record and no recourse.
- A price far below everything else. Occasionally someone is genuinely hungry for work. More often the preparation has quietly been removed, and you will see it within a year.
Estimates are estimates
An estimate is a considered price based on the information available. It is not a booking, and it should not be treated as unchangeable if the job turns out to be different from what anyone could see.
Where an estimate is prepared from photographs rather than a visit — which is how we work — it assumes the surfaces are roughly in the condition they appear to be in. If something material turns out to be different once we open up a wall, the right thing is to tell you and agree a revised price before doing that work, not to put it on the invoice at the end.
That is the standard to hold anyone to, including us.