I fear that I have become a really boring conversationalist as of late due to my being so fully immersed in this topic. This will be of little/no interest to many folks – but if you are faced with painting you might glean something of use. If nothing else, this seems a good way to keep track of the project. Actual names have been omitted, but recommendations can be solicited from me. 
The story so far:
Summer 2005 — The paint is falling off of our house in chunks. The gutters are sagging horribly because the wood to which they are attached is probably rotten. Mr. Guy and I reasonably suppose that we need to have the house repainted. We figure that when we have the house repainted we will have the gutters fixed simultaneously, some rotten window sills replaced and all will be dandy.
Stage One Painters are Considered
I talk to Mr. A_ .* Mr. A_’s company offers soup to nuts, prepping & painting & carpentry & glazing & guttering. Seems like an economical approach. While talking to Mr. A_ I learn a new word: “soffit.” Little do I know how this word will be drilled into my brain – how much money rides on this word. Mr. A_ offers to strip (by sanding), paint the house, fix a broken window and replace dry rot for $25,000. That’s an awful lot of money. All our friends have been telling us about their $5K paint jobs, so the number is pretty shocking. The estimate is nicely packaged in a branded folder along with multiple references and a stack of positive evaluation forms. It seems reputable. Then I talk to Mr. B_, a painter. Mr. B_ is aghast. How could sanding even be considered? A house of this vintage is filthy with lead paint. Sanding would throw all that lead into the air, into the garden, into the house (via our drafty windows). I am now completely distrustful of Mr. A_. Mr. B_ does not include paint removal in his services but will not give me an estimate until paint removal is arranged. He recommends three paint removal companies all of whom had been corroborated by a previous recommendation. That seems like a good sign.
Stage Two Paint Removers are Entertained
I talk to Mr. C_, a paint remover who has been in the business for decades. Sanding is horrible, says he, heat stripping is the way to go. Heat stripping with open flame. He gives me a bid for $19K. Just for stripping. Stripping the soffits accounts for 1/3 – 1/2 the total cost. Sigh. The next paint remover, Mr.D_ , insists that the house will require scaffolding in order to take care of the large soffits. $23k. Mr. E_ throws me for a loop by estimating $15K. I have gone from being flabberghasted by Mr. C_’s $19K estimate JUST FOR STRIPPING to being suspicious of Mr. E_ for estimating a mere $15K.
Mr. Guy becomes pale and terse when I share these numbers with him.
According to the paint removers, it will be October before they can attend to our house. October would possibly be too late to paint, but I am assured by Mr. D_ that our house would not be any the worse for being stripped and left to wait for painting until the spring. Our home features oil-sealed cedar siding and could weather the winter. I like Mr. D_’s pragmatism. Rushing the paint does seem like a bad idea, and I like the notion of a painting reprieve. Mr. D_ spends a good hour talking to Mr. Guy and I one evening. We grill him with every question we can think of. I’m leaning toward Mr. D_ for paint removal and feel ready to talk to painters again.
Stage Three Painters Again
During my appointment with painter Mr. F_, he expresses reservations about painting in October (which I expected) but also doubts that the house could over-winter in a stripped condition as easily as Mr. D_ claims. I now have doubts about Mr. D_, though Mr. F_ recommends Mr. D_ most highly of the paint removers. Mr. F_ feels that, though the siding may be fine, the trim is probably not oil-sealed and would not fare as well being exposed to 8 months of rainy weather. I reassess the priorities and decide that I can rest easy facing the rainy winter if I at least know that the gutters won’t leak. Perhaps the way to go is to simply address the gutter and dry rot (window sills and gutter fasciae) this fall and take care of painting in the spring. Mr. F_ gives me a pamphlet endorsing a carpentry and copperwork company that he particularly likes. I’m going to talk to carpenters now? Sigh. I decide to wait on the carpentry until I’ve talked to Mr. G_, another painter.
In the meantime, Mr. Guy and I take a brief driving tour of stripped houses. Nothing impresses us much except for a large house which has been stripped by Mr. E_, our lowest bid! Could it be that the lowest bid is actually our best option? I arrange to have Mr. E_ to come by and be grilled as we grilled Mr. D_. Maybe he just forgot to figure in something. Mr. Guy has met and talked to Mr. E_, the one contractor that I have not met in person, and has good feelings about Mr. E_ and his estimate.
Well, today I spoke with painter Mr. G_ and he seemed to be the sanest of the bunch. However, the full can of worms has been emptied at my feet. Oh, does it wriggle. Let’s look at the big picture, says Mr. G_. When working on a house it is best to address it from the top down. How is your chimney? Easy, I say, we had it rebuilt about 5 years ago—it’s fine. How is your roof? Um. This is a trickier question. At the beginning of the summer, a roofing fellow came by to prop up the sagging gutters (which have since sagged again due to their rotted mountings) and patch a hole in the roof which had become a doorway for squirrels. According to the roofer fellow, the roof had only a year or so of life left in it. Okay, says Mr. G_. The last thing on your list of priorities should be painting (this from a painter!). Firstly, your roof must be in good repair. Secondly, your gutters and chimney. Thirdly, there must be no dry rot. Fourthly, prep and paint. The roof has sagged enough that the shingles no longer extend over the gutters. Simply replacing the gutters will not solve that problem of water running between the gutters and the eaves. If we paint (and we’ve been promised a 10 year paint job) and then remove the roof, we will find a 3 inch strip of unpainted wood left behind after the removal. Oh, and by the by, Mr. G_ VIGOROUSLY recommends Mr. A_ while being careful not to cast aspersions on Mr. D_ or Mr. E_, but his message is clear and I find Mr. G_ to be the most persuasive and trustworthy of the contractors, yet. Can I convince Mr. Guy that Mr. A_ (who, incidentally, did not bother to walk along the spidery south side of our house even though I had cleared a path through it wearing a skirt) is, in fact, the paint remover for us? To his credit, his bid was the middle one and he was the only paint remover to give me an estimate on the spot. But, I harbor a tiny grudge about his not braving the spiders.
In any case, all signs point to reroofing. On the upside, reroofing is typically a $5k project not a $15-$25K project like painting.
So, we’ve now arrived at:
Stage Four Roofing Contractors
I’ll keep you posted.
*I have discovered there is a code of honor among contractors. One contractor will never badmouth another. They may damn with faint praise or laud the achievements of another contractor whom they prefer (thereby implying that said achievements are lacking in their competitors) but I have yet to hear any openly critical words.
