What the prep line on your estimate is paying for
Prep is usually the largest item on a painting estimate and the one nobody sees. Here is what is actually happening during it.
· 1 min read
On most of our estimates, preparation is a bigger line than paint. People ask about that, and it is a fair question, because prep is the part of the job you never see once it is finished.
What the hours go on
Preparation is not one task. On an exterior it is usually some combination of:
- Washing the elevation and letting it dry properly before anything else starts
- Cutting out and filling stucco cracks so they do not telegraph through
- Scraping and sanding back anything that has lost adhesion
- Caulking joints, penetrations, and trim junctions
- Priming bare or repaired areas so the finish coat has one surface to sit on rather than three
- Masking windows, fixtures, pavers, and planting
None of that changes the colour of the house. All of it decides how long the colour stays on it.
Why it is the first thing to get cut
When a price needs to come down, prep is where it goes, because it is invisible in the finished job and nobody can point at what is missing on the day. That is exactly why it is worth reading on an estimate. Two quotes for the same house can be a long way apart and be describing genuinely different amounts of work.
What to ask when you are comparing
Ask what happens to the cracks. Ask whether bare areas get primed, and with what. Ask what gets caulked. If an estimate does not say, that is worth knowing before you choose on price.
Our estimates are itemised so you can see where the hours sit, and so you can take the whole thing or the part that matters this year.