What a painting quote should actually list, line by line

One is a WhatsApp message: paint house R48,000. One is a page with a total and the words two coats Plascon. One is four pages and R92,000. You are sitting at the kitchen table trying to work out whether the expensive one is a rip-off or the cheap one is a disaster, and there is genuinely no way to tell from what you have been given.

That is not an accident. A vague quote is a commercial strategy. If nothing is specified, nothing can be held against you afterwards, and every corner cut is a corner that was never promised in the first place.

So here is the full list of what a real quote contains. Print it, hold each quote against it, and the R40,000 gap explains itself in about five minutes.

1. 1Measured areas. Square metres of wall, by elevation, and separately the trim, ceilings, gutters, fascias and any roof work. A quote without measurements is a guess, and a guess always shrinks the scope once work starts.
2. 2The condition it found. What the surfaces are doing now: chalking, hairline cracking, flaking, damp, previous enamel over PVA, rust on the steel. This is the diagnosis, and it justifies everything after it.
3. 3Preparation, step by step. Wash method, scraping, sanding, crack cutting and filling, rust treatment, and how much of each wall is being taken back to substrate. This is the biggest hidden variable in the entire trade.
4. 4Primer, by name, and where it goes. Different substrates need different primers. Plaster patches, bare steel, galvanised, timber and previously enamelled surfaces all need something specific, and none of them are optional.
5. 5Products by name and system, not brand alone. Not just Plascon. Which product, in which sheen, in which system, and how many coats of each.
6. 6Number of coats, per surface. Two on sound walls, three where colour change or porosity demands it. It should say which is which.
7. 7Colour schedule. Every colour, by code, against every surface. This prevents the argument you would otherwise have on day four.
8. 8Access. Ladders, scaffolding, rope access, height allowances. On a double storey this is real money and it should be visible rather than folded silently into the rate.
9. 9Protection and cleaning. Sheeting, masking, plant protection, daily clean-up and final make-good.
10. 10Programme. Start date, working days, hours on site, and what weather delays do to it.
11. 11The guarantee, in writing, with what it covers and what voids it. Plus payment terms and the deposit.

A cheap quote is not usually a cheaper contractor. It is a smaller job wearing the same words as a bigger one.

None of those four are visible at handover. All four are visible in year three, which is comfortably after the deposit is spent and the guarantee holder has stopped answering.

Do the arithmetic on your own quotes. Take the total, divide by the measured area, and see where each one lands on that table. A quote at R35 per square metre for an exterior repaint in Durbanville is not a bargain, it is a wash and a single thin coat, and the number tells you so before anybody starts.

• Day one should look like destruction, not decoration. Scraping, sanding, cutting cracks open, dust everywhere. If day one is paint going on, the preparation did not happen.
• Count the drums. Take a photograph of what arrives on site against what the quote allowed for. This is the single most powerful check available to a homeowner.
• Look for the primer. A primed wall looks patchy and dull, in a different colour to the finish. If you never see that stage, ask why.
• Check a shaded corner and behind a downpipe at the end. Coverage failures live where they are hardest to reach.
• Look along the wall at a low angle in raking afternoon light. Roller misses, thin patches and skipped edges show up instantly.
• Hold back a meaningful final payment until the punch list is done. Ten per cent, agreed upfront and in writing.

Measured elevations, a written condition report with photographs, the preparation spelled out step by step, primer and products named, coats per surface, the colour schedule, access, protection, the programme, and the guarantee wording. One fixed price for the whole job, not a room by room drip feed.

It is longer than most, and that is the point. Everything in it is something you can hold us to.