What a painting quote should itemise before you sign it

A painting quote should name the actual products and the number of coats for each surface, describe the preparation in specific terms rather than general ones, list what is excluded, state how access will be provided, and set out payment terms and the guarantee. If it is one line and one number, there is nothing in it you can compare, enforce or hold anyone to.

The number at the bottom is the least useful part of the document. Everything above it is what you are actually buying.

What should be on the page?

Line item	What good looks like	Warning sign
Scope	Surfaces listed by area: four weatherboard walls, soffits, fascia, gutters, 14 window frames, 2 exterior doors	"Exterior of house"
Preparation	Wash, scrape flaking areas, sand to a firm edge, fill, spot prime bare timber	"Prep as required"
Products	Brand, product name and sheen, named per surface	"Quality paint" or "premium products"
Coats	Stated per surface, including the primer or sealer	"Two coats", unqualified
Access	Scaffold or ladders named, who supplies it, how long it stays up	Not mentioned at all
Exclusions	Rot repair, lead management, unforeseen substrate, colour changes after start	Silence
Timeframe	Working days, a start window, what happens on rain days	A fixed finish date in winter
Variations	Written approval before any extra work proceeds	"We will let you know"
Payment	Deposit, progress claims tied to stages, balance on completion	Large sum demanded before work starts
Guarantee	What is covered, for how long, in writing	"Guaranteed" with no terms

Why is "prep as required" the most expensive phrase in the document?

Because required by whom, to what standard. Preparation is the largest cost in an exterior repaint and the easiest thing to reduce quietly. Two painters can look at the same wall and honestly disagree about whether a patch of paint is sound, and that disagreement is worth thousands.

Specific preparation wording protects both sides. "Scrape all flaking areas, sand edges flush, fill, spot prime bare timber" is a standard you can point at. "Prep as required" means whatever fits the price they wanted to quote.

Ask one question if nothing else: which elevation is worst, and what is being done differently there. On a Wellington house the south and west walls take the wind-driven rain and salt, so a quote that applies one preparation standard to the whole building has not been thought through.

Should the quote name the paint?

Yes, by brand and product name, per surface. Paint ranges within a single brand vary substantially in durability and price, and a quote saying "quality acrylic" tells you nothing about which one you are getting.

Naming the product also lets you check the manufacturer's own specification: how many coats they require, what primer they call for on your substrate, and what their own literature says about recoat times. If a quote specifies fewer coats than the manufacturer does, that is a straightforward thing to raise before signing rather than after.

What should be excluded, in writing?

The honest exclusions are the ones that come up most often, and a quote that lists them is being upfront rather than evasive.

• Rot and timber repair. Nobody can price what is behind the paint before the paint comes off. What matters is that the quote says how it will be handled and at what rate.
• Lead paint management. On a house built in the 1980s or earlier the older layers can contain lead, so it wants testing, and a positive result rules out dry power sanding and adds containment and disposal. Say so before the job, not after.
• Unforeseen substrate condition. Failed flashings, leaking gutters, moisture behind cladding. All of these have to be fixed before coating, and none of them are painting.
• Colour changes after the start. Reasonable to charge for, reasonable to state.

How do you compare quotes that differ by thousands?

By scope, not by price. Put the quotes side by side and mark the differences in coats, preparation, products and access. In our experience most large gaps come down to one of those four, not to margin.

For reference, our published 2026 range for exterior work is $6,000 to $20,000 or more, with a typical three-bedroom house of around 150 square metres of floor area landing at $9,000 to $13,500 or more, working out at $60 to $90 per square metre. Materials are a small share of that: 20 to 30 litres of paint for a typical house, costing $200 to $600 in total. Labour at around $50 an hour and access are the rest, and scaffolding alone adds $1,500 to $4,000 or more on a steep or two-storey section.

So a quote several thousand below the others has not found cheaper paint. It has either left out the scaffolding, dropped a coat, or reduced the preparation. Any of those can be a legitimate choice if you know you are making it. The problem is making it without knowing.

What about deposits, progress payments and the guarantee?

Progress payments tied to completed stages are normal on a job of any size, and a deposit to cover materials is reasonable. A demand for a large share of the total before anyone has arrived on site is not, and it is the single most common feature of the jobs that go wrong.

On the guarantee, what belongs on the quote is the duration, the scope in plain words, and the fact that it is written down at all rather than described over the phone. Ask for both before you sign, because a guarantee you cannot read is one you cannot rely on. We are Registered Master Painters and provide a five-year workmanship guarantee in writing, which is the kind of detail that should be on the page rather than mentioned in conversation.

Check that the business you are signing with is the business that will be on site, and that they carry appropriate insurance. Both apply equally to commercial work, where the documentation requirements are usually stricter and the same questions apply.

What should you do before you sign?

Read the exclusions first, then the preparation, then the products. Ask what happens if rot is found. Ask which wall is worst. Ask whether the price includes access. Then look at the number.

If a quote cannot answer those questions on paper, it is not a quote, it is an estimate with a decimal point. If you want to see what a fully itemised one looks like for your house, we will put together a written quote for exterior work that separates preparation, materials and access. Ask for a quote.