You asked three painters for a price on the same house and got $6,400, $9,100 and $11,800. Nothing about those numbers tells you which one is right, because they are not quotes for the same work. Painting a house is mostly preparation, and preparation is the part that is easiest to leave off a page.
Line one: the wash, and the drying time
Every bid should say the house gets washed. The better ones say what happens after: how long the siding dries before the first coat. In this climate that is the difference between paint that holds and paint that blisters by the second winter.
If a crew can start the morning after they wash, either the forecast was perfect or they are not waiting.
Line two: primer, and where it goes
“Two coats” tells you nothing on its own. Ask whether bare wood gets spot-primed, whether cedar gets a tannin-blocking primer, and what happens on a wall that was never painted. A full prime coat on raw siding is a real cost, and a bid that omits it is cheaper for exactly one reason.
Line three: what happens when they find rot
Every older house in Snohomish and King County has a soft board somewhere. The question is not whether it turns up, it is what happens next. A good answer sounds like: work stops, you get a photo and a written number, nothing continues until you say yes.
A vague answer — “we’ll take care of it” — is a blank cheque you signed without noticing.
Line four: the number of coats, in writing
Two coats means two full coats, not one heavy pass with the sprayer. This is the single most common place where a low bid recovers its margin, and it is invisible on day one. It shows up in year three, when the colour has gone thin on the south wall.
Making the three pages comparable
Send every bidder the same three questions by text:
- How long does the siding dry between the wash and the first coat?
- Where does primer go, and which product?
- If you find rot, what is the process and what is the rate?
The answers will re-sort your three numbers, often completely. A $9,100 bid that answers all three is usually cheaper over ten years than a $6,400 bid that answers none — because the second one is two jobs, and you are paying for the first one twice.
What we put on ours
Our estimates name the surfaces, the prep, the number of coats, the product, the days on site and the total, and the written price is the price. Rot found at the walkthrough is priced before it is painted over. It is not a sales position — it is just the only version of the page that lets you compare us to anybody else.