What to Know Before a Painting Estimate

You want your living room painted. You call your local painting contractor, and as CertaPro Painters franchise owner Dan Mahaney explains, that initial call can lead right into scheduling an estimate – why wait? So, the estimate should be pretty simple, right? Well, it won’t be complicated, per se, but there’s more to an estimate than “Here’s my living room, it has four walls, I’d like it to be sage green.” There are features and aspects of the room to take into consideration, things so basic you might take them for granted. Plus, you might want to know a few terms.

What is being painted?

There is more to your living room (or bedroom, or dining room, or whatever room you’re having painted) than walls. An estimator will ask if you’re going to paint the ceiling, as well. This is something to consider. If your ceiling was painted a color before, you might want to change that to match your new color. If it’s white/ivory/neutral, you might want to leave it that way in order to open up the room. If you are painting the ceiling, the estimator will also ask if your ceiling has molding. This is another feature than can affect the proposal. Moving downward in the room…

How many windows do you have in the room? What kind of windows are they, how many panes do they have? Remember, these have to be painted, too. Then there are doors and closets, and the number of panels, if any, on these doors makes a difference, too. A flat door is easier to paint than a French door, a multi-paneled door, or a bi-fold door. Your estimator will also want to know things like are they painting any baseboards? Are they painting any chair rails? Will they be doing any Wainscotting? Getting lost? Here’s a little crash course:

• Wainscoting: Wainscoting is a style of paneling on the wall, and it is applied to lower part of the wall, usually about three feet to five feet from the floor. It can end at a point it meets a chair rail or some other sort of paneling closure. It meets the floor at the baseboard. It most typically consists of decorative panels, or tongue-in-groove panels, in which the vertical running panels have edges that fit together. Together, they make a flat surface that looks like one. Basically, wainscoting would make your living room walls appear as though two different walls have joined together. Painting these panels can be a bit more time consuming, and you may even consider painting them a different color than the walls above.
• Baseboards: Also known as the “skirting board,” this is that panel that runs along where the floor meets the wall, sort of covering that line and making it a smoother transition. It is meant to protect the wall at the level where it might be scuffed, kicked, or most prone to being damaged. It can be decorative, with molding, or it might be a simple wood panel. You can leave this unpainted, or have it match the wall.
• Chair Rails: A chair rail, or “dado rail,” is a horizontal panel, about the vertical width of a rail, perhaps six inches on average, that is fitted around the perimeter of the room, about three to five feet up from the floor. This can be the top of panels such as discussed with Wainscoting, or it may just be a decorative rail. These rails sometimes contain intricate molding, and are usually not painted the same color as the rest of the room.

Ceiling Molding

This one is pretty self explanatory. Picture a more elaborate baseboard, only this one runs along where the wall and the ceiling meet. Even when simple, this adds a nice, antique-y, decorative touch to the room. Sometimes these moldings are intricately carved and designed, especially in Italian or French style interiors. Again, these moldings are most often left white, or at least a different color than the walls.

Knowing your room well and all of its features will help you get an exact, comprehensive, and detailed estimate.