We look at the job before we put a number on it. Here is what you get, what changes the price, and how to read the bids already sitting on your kitchen table.
Preparation is 30 to 40 percent of a typical exterior painting price, which is why Olmos Painting does not publish a price range: the figure that decides your job is condition rather than square footage, and how much of the existing coating has to come off cannot be judged from a photograph. That single factor routinely separates two quotes on identical houses by thousands of dollars. We look at the surfaces, then put an itemized number in writing — free, across Madison and Dane County, with no obligation attached to it.
Six things, every time. If a bid you are holding is missing more than one of them, it is a guess with a dollar sign in front of it.
Walls, ceilings, trim, doors, casings, closets — named individually rather than bundled into “interior painting.” If a surface is not on the list, it is not in the price, and you can see that before you sign instead of on the last day.
How much scraping, what gets sanded, what gets patched, what gets primed and with which primer. This is the line item that separates two bids that look thousands apart for no visible reason.
And what happens if the color does not cover in two. That contingency written down in advance is the difference between a finished job and an argument.
Named line and sheen, not “premium paint.” You can look it up, price it yourself, and compare it against what the other bids specified.
Start, expected duration, and what happens to the schedule if the weather turns. Exterior work in Wisconsin has a real season and we would rather say so than promise a week we cannot hold.
The exclusions, in plain words. Roof leaks, active moisture, rotted trim that needs a carpenter — if we see it, it goes on the estimate as something to handle before or instead of paint.
Not the square footage first. These seven things decide the number, roughly in the order they usually matter, and they are the same seven that explain why two bids on one house can be far apart.
Up to 40% of the price
Two identical Madison colonials can quote thousands of dollars apart. The difference is almost never square footage. It is how much of the old coating has to come off before anything new goes on. Scraping, sanding, and priming bare wood is slow, skilled, unglamorous work, and it is the only reason the finish lasts.
10 to 20%
A room with 9-foot ceilings has 12% more wall than the same footprint at 8 feet, and a two-story foyer needs staging that a bedroom does not. Height is the cost nobody accounts for when they estimate from a floor plan.
One extra coat
Going from a dark accent wall to a warm white is a three-coat job, not a two-coat job. Going from beige to a slightly different beige is two. Red and deep saturated colors are the worst offenders because their tint bases hide poorly.
Slowest square footage on the job
Trim is priced by linear foot and cut by hand. A room with six-panel doors, wide baseboard, crown, and divided-light windows can cost more to paint than the walls it surrounds.
Adds containment and disposal
Roughly half of Madison's housing stock predates 1978. Any paid work that disturbs paint in those homes falls under the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, which requires a certified firm, contained work areas, and specific cleanup. That is a real cost, and a contractor who does not mention it is either uncertified or cutting a legal corner.
5 to 12%
The gap between a builder-grade wall paint and a top-line acrylic is a modest amount per gallon and roughly four years of service life. On an exterior in a Wisconsin freeze-thaw climate, the cheap gallon is the expensive choice.
Timing, not markup
Exterior work in Wisconsin has a roughly 20-week window. May and September book out first. Interior work in January is easier to schedule and easier to staff, which is the one time of year flexibility genuinely helps you.
Line the estimates up on scope rather than on total. Make a simple grid: surfaces included, ceilings yes or no, prep described, number of coats, specific product line, warranty term, timeline, and whether the people doing the work are employees or subcontractors.
Most people discover halfway through that exercise that they are comparing three different jobs. That realization is worth more than any negotiation you could have had.
And here is a question worth asking every contractor, including us: “What would you do differently if I gave you twenty percent more budget?” A good answer comes immediately and is usually about prep. It tells you exactly what they had to leave out.
We do not publish a price range, because the honest number depends on things that are not visible in a photo or a floor plan: how much of the old coating has to come off, what the wood underneath is doing, ceiling height, and how many coats the color change actually needs. We look at the house, then put a number in writing. The estimate is free and there is no obligation attached to it.
No. Every estimate is free, written, itemized by surface and by prep, and it does not expire the moment we walk out the door. We do not charge a fee, we do not ask for a deposit to come look, and we do not require you to sign anything to receive the written number.
Because they scoped different work, not because one contractor is greedy. The usual difference is prep: how much failing paint gets scraped, whether bare wood is primed the same day it is exposed, and how many coats are actually included. Ask each contractor what percentage of the surface they expect to scrape and how they arrived at that number.
Condition, not size. Up to 40 percent of an exterior price is preparation, and two identical houses can be thousands apart based purely on how much of the old coating has to come off. Ceiling height is the second biggest, and it is the one nobody accounts for when estimating from a floor plan.
It is a derived number, not a primary one. A real estimate is built from surfaces, prep hours, ceiling height, coats, and materials, and any per-square-foot figure is calculated afterward. Working backward from a rate produces numbers that are predictably too low on older homes and too high on newer ones.
Usually a few days from the first call to someone standing in your house, and the written estimate follows within a day or two of that visit. If you text us a photo of what you are looking at, we can usually tell you on the phone whether it is a job worth scheduling a visit for.
Interior work is not cheaper in winter, but it is much easier to schedule. January through March is the quietest stretch for Dane County painters, so you get better dates and more attention for the same job. Exterior work is not possible for most of that window.
Only if the scope genuinely matches, and it usually does not. Painting has very little room for real efficiency advantage: materials cost what they cost and labor takes the time it takes. A bid far below the others is nearly always less prep, fewer coats, or cheaper product. Ask what is different rather than assuming you found a bargain.