Three painters walk through the same house in Bronte and you get back $9,800, $14,500 and $21,000. Same rooms, same walls, wildly different numbers — and no obvious way to tell whether the cheap one is a bargain or a disaster. That's the single most common phone call I take, and after 20+ years quoting work across the Eastern Suburbs, here's the honest explanation and the method I'd use if I were the one hiring.
Why the numbers are so far apart
Here's the uncomfortable truth: those three painters almost certainly quoted three different jobs. Painting is not a commodity like a fridge. The word "paint the house" hides a dozen decisions, and each one moves the price by thousands:
- Coats. Two coats over a sealer is the standard. One coat over old paint is roughly 40% less work — and it will look fine for about eighteen months.
- Prep. Washing, sanding, filling, caulking gaps, treating rust and mould, spot-priming bare patches. Prep is genuinely 60–70% of a proper repaint's labour, and it is invisible the day the job finishes.
- Products. A premium exterior system versus a builder's-grade trade line can be a $1,500–$3,000 difference in materials on an average house, and a five-year difference in how long it lasts.
- Scope. Ceilings, eaves, window reveals, the inside of the wardrobes, the garage — all easy to leave out, all expensive to add later.
- Access. Scaffold on a steep Eastern Suburbs block can be a third of the total. One painter prices it; another assumes ladders and hopes.
So the cheapest quote is not usually a painter being generous. It's usually a smaller job wearing the same name.
The fix: make them all price the same thing
You don't need to know anything about painting to solve this. You need every painter to answer the same list. Send this in your enquiry email — copy it word for word if you like:
Two things happen. First, the quotes come back genuinely comparable, and the conversation at your kitchen table changes from "why is this one $11,000 cheaper?" to "same job — now I'm choosing on confidence." Second, you learn something from who doesn't answer. A painter who won't put products and coats in writing has told you what you needed to know, for free.
This is exactly how strata committees are required to run it, and for good reason — the same discipline is worth borrowing for a house. There's more on that process in our strata painting guide.
The ten red flags
None of these are automatically fatal on their own. Two or more together, and I'd keep looking.
| Red flag | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| One number, no scope | A price with nothing underneath it can be reinterpreted later. "I didn't include the ceilings" is unarguable if the quote never mentioned them. |
| Deposit over 10% | Illegal in NSW on residential work — and the defining feature of jobs abandoned half-done. |
| No licence number | Required over $5,000 including materials, and checkable in 20 seconds. Its absence is a choice. |
| "Quality trade paint" | Not a product. Real quotes name the brand and the line, because the painter intends to actually use it. |
| Prep described as "as required" | Required by whom? This is the clause that lets a two-day prep become a two-hour one. |
| Pressure to sign today | A discount that expires this afternoon is a sales tactic, not a price. Real quotes hold for 30 days. |
| Cash only, no GST, no ABN | No paper trail means no warranty you could ever enforce, and no insurance if something goes wrong. |
| Door-knocking with "leftover paint" | There is no leftover paint. It's a script, and it has been running in the Eastern Suburbs for decades. |
| No insurance certificate | If an uninsured painter falls off your roof, that becomes your problem in a way you do not want to discover. |
| Warranty that's only spoken | "We stand behind our work" costs nothing to say. Ask for the years, in writing, on the quote. |
What NSW law actually requires
Worth knowing, because it settles most arguments before they start:
- Over $5,000 (labour and materials): the painter must hold a NSW licence. Check it on the Service NSW licence register — ours is 254277C.
- Over $20,000: a written contract is required, and the job must carry Home Building Compensation cover.
- Deposits are capped at 10% of the contract price. Not 30%, not "half up front for materials."
- Statutory warranties apply regardless of what the quote says — two years for general defects, six for major ones. A painter's own warranty sits on top of that, which is why the length tells you something about their confidence. Ours is 5 years in writing.
What fair actually looks like in 2026
Rough Eastern Suburbs ranges for properly prepped, two-coat work in premium systems. Your place will sit somewhere on these depending on condition, height and access:
| Job | Typical range | What pushes it up |
|---|---|---|
| Single room, walls & ceiling | $600 – $1,500 | High ceilings, heavy patching, dark-to-light colour change |
| 3-bedroom interior, full | $6,000 – $12,000 | Ornate trim, cornices, staircases, occupied-home staging |
| Full exterior, freestanding house | $8,000 – $25,000+ | Scaffold, timber repairs, render cracks, salt-damaged substrate |
| Weatherboard cottage exterior | $12,000 – $22,000 | Board replacement, lead-safe handling on pre-1970 homes |
If a quote lands well under the bottom of these for the same scope, the money has to come from somewhere — and it comes out of prep or coats every time. There's a fuller breakdown in our Sydney house painting cost guide.
The three questions that actually separate painters
Once the numbers are comparable, price stops being the deciding factor. These three do more work than anything else:
- "Can I see a job you did around here five years ago?" Anyone can show you a photo from last week. Fresh paint always looks good — five-year-old paint tells you whether the prep was real. This is the single best question you can ask.
- "Who's actually on site, and are they your people?" Plenty of quotes are won by one person and worked by subcontractors nobody has met. Not automatically bad, but you should know before, not after.
- "What happens if it rains for a week?" The answer tells you whether they've thought about your job specifically or are just filling a calendar.
You can see our own five-year-old work around the area on projects like Queens Park and Union Street, Paddington, and what we put in writing on our Why Us page.
Frequently asked questions
How many painting quotes should I get?
Three. One gives you no reference point, two can't tell you which is the outlier, and past three you're mostly spending your own time. What matters far more than the number is that all three priced the same written scope.
Why is one quote so much cheaper?
Almost always because it's a smaller job — two coats become one, prep gets trimmed, a cheaper paint line is substituted, or surfaces like eaves and window reveals are quietly left out. Ask it to list coats, products and surfaces and the gap explains itself.
How much deposit should a painter ask for?
No more than 10% of the contract price — that's the legal cap in NSW. Progress payments against completed stages are normal; large up-front payments are not.
Does my painter need a licence?
Yes, for residential work over $5,000 including materials, and the number belongs on the quote. Ours is 254277C and takes about 20 seconds to verify.
Is the cheapest quote ever the right one?
Yes — when it prices the identical scope, names the same products and coats, and carries the same licence, insurance and written warranty. Cheap is only a problem when it's cheap because something was removed. Get the scope right first, then the lowest price is a perfectly sensible choice.
If you'd like a quote you can actually hold up against the others, ours are free, walked in person and itemised line by line — see how our quoting works.