Must A Home Painting Contractor In Omaha Visit To Issue An Estimate?

At Brush & Roll Painting, we receive numerous calls per week from homeowners around Omaha and beyond looking for a quick painting estimate on something. They often give us a quick brief about the paint job, maybe stating the square footage of a house, number of rooms and siding material.

Quite honestly, we don’t blame them. That’s exactly how most shoppers go about purchasing services and products online, and many times, such homeowners discover our services through our website, online business listing platforms, Google maps and so on. So they expect a quick price tag along with the offered services and products, like you would find on eCommerce sites.

Usually, most homeowners who request for a quick phone quote are comparing prices across different residential painting companies in Omaha, NE. And that’s ok, after all, home painting can be quite a significant investment. However, when it comes to residential painting projects, phone quotes often don’t work.

Why Phone Quotes Don’t Work

While we can actually issue a phone quote or a quick estimate over mail without visiting the site, such an estimate cannot be relied upon for accurate budgeting purposes. Like most other painters, when creating a painting estimate, we rely on a number of many more factors than just the number of rooms and square footage. Here is a quick look at the main ones:

· Condition of the surface –this is a major determinant because it will dictate how much labor goes towards surface preparation. If the paint and surface are severely damaged with signs of paint failure such as paint peeling, cracking, bubbling, flaking and missing caulk, the project will cost significantly more.

· Additional prep work –there’re many variable prep work tasks such as moving furniture and repairing damaged sidings that painters might charge an additional fee because they aren’t standard prep procedures. Also, if you need an extra top paint coat or two coats of the primer, you might be charged for those extras.

· Number of paint colors –most residential painting projects often require about two paint colors. However, if you need your home exterior painted in four different colors (main body, trim, window/door frames, front door, garage, deck, etc.), for instance, the painters are going to need extra time and labor transitioning from one color to the next, at your expense.

These are just the main factors, however, if you have a multistory home, high walls and ceilings, mildew and mold infestation, surface damages, or you’re making a sharp transition from dark to light colors, the cost of painting might be significantly high.
Why the Painter Needs To Visit for an Estimate

So a painting contractor would need to personally visit your home, listen to your painting needs and assess all the above factors and many more before considering issuing a painting estimate. They would also need to take measurements in order to estimate the amount of paint and primer required for the job.

In essence, you could be having two similar houses in terms of size, the number of rooms and siding material, but their repainting cost could vary due to a number of the above-mentioned factors. Depending on the nature of the current paint job, surface damages, and other challenges, the contractors may also recommend a different paint product to address your unique situation.

The Bottom Line

Painting contractors indeed have to visit your project before issuing an accurate estimate. If you still want to compare prices, consider inviting 2-3 contractors to your project and weigh the numbers versus the benefits. As a rule of thumb, don’t automatically go for the cheapest painter, go for value instead.

If you need any professional help with your home repainting project in Omaha, NE, our team at Brush & Roll Painting can help. To get started, simply book a FREE estimate below or call us today on 402-932-9764 if you need more details.