How to Quote Exterior Painting Jobs From Customer Photos

Exterior jobs are where painters lose the most time to quoting. You drive out, walk the house, look up at the eaves, poke at a few boards, guess at the area and drive home. Then the customer goes with someone else, or decides to wait until next year.

The thing is, almost everything that drives an exterior price is on the outside of the house. Surface type, condition, height, access, how much prep it needs. A customer with a phone can show you most of it if you ask for the right shots. This guide covers the questions and photos that matter, what to look for, how to price from photos without getting caught short, and when you still need to go and look.

Why exterior work suits photos

Exterior jobs are out in daylight, and the problems show:

• Surface type. Weatherboard, brick, render, fibre cement sheet, metal cladding. Each changes your prep, products and rate.
• Condition. Peeling, chalking, cracking, mould, bare timber.
• Height. Single storey, double storey, or a steep block that makes one side much taller.
• Access. Narrow side paths, garden beds, a pool fence. This decides whether you need scaffold, a lift or just ladders and planks.

What photos won't give you is exact measurements. More on that below.

The questions to ask

Get these answered before you open the photos:

1. What needs painting? Walls only, or walls plus trims, eaves, gutters, fascias, doors and windows. Customers often say "the outside" and mean different things.
2. What is the main exterior surface? They will usually know if it is brick or weatherboard. If they don't, the photos will show you.
3. How many storeys? Then check it against the photos, because a sloping block can make a single storey house two storeys at the back.
4. What is the current condition? Their own words tell you how fussy they will be about prep.
5. Any obvious prep work needed? Rotten boards, cracked render, old caulking, mould.

It is worth adding a couple of your own:

• Roughly how big is the house? Number of bedrooms or approximate floor area is enough for a first pass.
• Same colours or a change? A big colour change can mean extra coats.
• When was it last painted, if they know? Helps you guess what is under there.

The photos that matter

Ask for a set that lets you walk around the house without being there.

Reading the photos

• Chalking or powdery paint means washing and a suitable primer or sealer before topcoats.
• Peeling down to bare timber means scraping, sanding and priming, and possibly board replacement. Price the prep, not just the paint.
• Cracked render might be cosmetic or might be movement. Patch it as part of the job, but say in the quote that structural cracking needs looking at by someone else.
• Mould usually means a wash and treatment first.
• Rotten boards or fascias are carpentry, not painting. List them as an exclusion or a separate line.

Measuring without a tape

Photos don't give you square metres. Your options:

• Use your own rates per house size and type.
• Use a free satellite or street view image to check the footprint and roof line.
• Quote a firm price on the scope you can see, with your assumptions written down.

How to price it safely

List the surfaces. Walls, eaves, fascias, gutters, downpipes, windows, doors. If it isn't listed, it isn't included.

List the prep. Wash, scrape, sand, fill, prime, caulk. Say how far you are going, for example "loose and flaking paint removed", not "full strip".

Write down the conditions. Price assumes surfaces are sound under existing paint. Rotten timber replaced at an agreed rate. Lead testing as needed before any sanding.

Price access separately. If scaffold or a lift is needed, put it on its own line so the customer sees why the price moved.

Give options. Walls only, or walls and trims. Two coats or three on a big colour change. Customers like choosing, and it stops them comparing your full job against someone else's walls only price.

When to go and look

Even then, the photos mean you turn up knowing what you are looking for.

Getting the photos in one go

Asking a customer to "send some photos of the house" usually gets you the front, from the letterbox, at dusk.

QuoteSnap has a ready-made Exterior Painting form with the questions above and photo requests for the front of the house, problem areas, and the back and sides:

You can add your own questions, like house size or colour changes. You text or email the customer a link, and they answer and take photos in their phone browser. Artificial intelligence (AI) checks each photo as it comes in and asks them to retake it if it is blurry, too dark or not of the job.

You get the answers, photos and a short AI summary of what is in the photos, the condition and anything to check, such as access or safety. It won't measure the house for you. You read the job, decide if you need a visit, and price it on your phone.

There is also an Interior Painting form on the painters page. For tips on turning a good quote into an accepted one, read how to win more quotes without dropping your price.

QuoteSnap is free for 7 days if you want to send the exterior form on your next enquiry and see what comes back.

The short version

• Ask what needs painting and how big the house is
• Get the front, back, both sides, the worst areas and the access
• Price the surfaces and prep you can see
• Put access on its own line
• Write down your conditions
• Go and look when a wrong guess would hurt