Quote guide
How our online quote works.
A screen-by-screen walk through the quote builder: what each question means, what to pick when you are not sure, and what happens after you send it.
Getting started
Inside, outside or something else
On screen “What are we painting?”
Press Begin online quote on our quote page — no address and no account needed to start. The first screen asks what the quote is for. Pick one: tapping a choice only selects it, and Continue at the bottom of the screen moves you on. That is how every screen works — nothing jumps ahead until you press it, and Back takes you to the screen you were on.
- Interior — Walls, ceilings, trim and doors — room by room or a whole home.
- Exterior — Decks, fences, front doors, garage doors, porch pillars and railings.
- Something else — Popcorn ceilings, stairs, drywall repairs.
One quote covers one of the three. If you want the inside and the outside done, send this quote, then start another one for the rest.
Your answers save as you go, on the device you are using. Close the page and come back, and Continue my quote picks up where you stopped.
Interior
Two ways to start
On screen “Interior repaint”
An inside quote starts by asking how you would like to build it:
Start from a typical homePick the layout closest to yours — we fill in the rooms, you tap each one's size. Quickest way to a price.
Pick my rooms one at a timeChoose each room yourself — bedroom, bathroom, hallway — and tell us about it as you go.
A typical home is the quickest way through. Pick the layout closest to yours and the rooms are filled in — close enough is fine, because the next screen lets you add or remove rooms. The layouts:
Whole homes
- 2-bed condo — 2 bed · bath · living · kitchen
- Main floor — living · dining · kitchen · hall
- Whole house — 3 bed · 2 bath · main floor
- Bungalow — 2 bed · bath · living · dining
- Townhouse — 3 bed · 2 bath · two storeys
- Basement — rec room · bed · bath · hall
Just a room or two
- One bedroom — a single bedroom
- One bathroom — a single bathroom
- Living room — just the living room
- Bed + bath — a bedroom and a bathroom
- Kids' rooms — nursery · bedroom · bath
- Primary suite — bedroom · ensuite · walk-in
- Entry & stairs — foyer · stairwell · upper hall
2-bed condo
Main floor
Bungalow
Whole house
What we paint in each room
On screen “Interior repaint — by room”
Every room is a row, with a box for each of the three things we paint in it. Tick what we are painting in that room. The row across the top ticks a column for every room at once.
Walls
Ceilings
Trim
Add a room puts another room on the list. A room's Options button opens Duplicate and Remove directly under that room. Every room needs at least one box ticked before you carry on.
Trim here means the painted wood — baseboards, and whichever other pieces you pick on the trim screen. Doors are counted once for the whole house a little later, not room by room.
Room sizes
On screen “Room sizes”
Every room needs a size before you can carry on, and a tick shows on each room once it has one. There are two ways to give it:
- Pick the closest of three sizes. They are named by what fits in the room, so you can recognise yours rather than guess at it. For a bedroom:
- Or type the floor's length and width in feet — or step them with the − and + buttons either side.
Single bed9 × 10 ft
Queen bed11 × 12 ft
King bed13 × 15 ft
Measuring? Length and width of the floor, wall to wall, rounded up to the nearest foot — and take nothing off for windows, doors or closets. Our measuring guide explains why, and what to do without a tape measure.
A room that is not a rectangle, like an L-shaped living room, is easiest entered as two rooms. You can label them when you check your rooms at the end.
Ceiling height
On screen “Ceiling height”
One height for the whole house — 8, 9 or 10 ft, or type your own — and a row for any room that is different. This screen only appears when we are painting walls or trim, because that is what the height changes.
Not sure? Look at a door. Most interior doors are 6 ft 8 in tall, so the wall above one tells ceilings apart: about 16 inches of wall on an 8 ft ceiling, 28 on a 9 ft one and 40 on a 10 ft one.
8 ft
9 ft
10 ft
A stairwell's walls run two storeys, so a stairwell starts at 16 ft. A vaulted or cathedral ceiling: give that room the height at its highest point.
A big colour change
On screen “Colour change”
Answer yes if the new colour is much lighter or much darker than what is on the walls now — beige to an off-white, a deep navy or red to white, a pale wall to charcoal. Your answer applies to every room, or tick just the rooms that are changing in the list below it. The screen only appears when we are painting walls.
A big change means three coats, not two: a stain-blocking primer, then two top coats, so the new colour comes out solid rather than patchy.
Now
Kilim BeigeSW 6106
2 coatsPatchy
3 coatsSolid
AlabasterSW 7008
An accent wall, or a second colour in a room, costs a little extra. Mention it under Anything else? on the details screen and we will price it with you.
Trim
On screen “Trim”
The trim screen asks which pieces we are painting. One answer covers every room with trim ticked; open a room's own row to make that room different. Every room with trim needs at least one piece picked.
- Baseboards — Trim along the bottom of walls.
- Crown moulding — Trim where wall meets ceiling.
- Wainscoting — Panelling on the lower wall (3–4 ft high).
- Chair rail — Horizontal moulding at chair-back height.
- Window frames / casings — Trim around each window.
- Pillars / columns — Interior columns.
Wainscoting includes the baseboards beneath it: included with the wainscoting — priced once, at the wainscoting rate.
Window frames and pillars are counted per room, on that room's row. Count each window you want framed — each section of a bay window counts as one, and so does a sliding patio door.
Doors and closets
On screen “Doors and closets”
Doors are counted once for the whole house, by type. Each door's price covers both sides, the frame and the trim around it, and a door between two rooms is one door — count it once. We start you at the usual number for your rooms; change it to match your home. The doors question only appears when some room has trim ticked.
Flat doorsSmooth, no panels
Panel doorsRaised or sunk-in panels
French doorsGlass panes · a pair is one
Closet doorsBifold or sliding · a set is one
Closets are painted inside — the walls, ceiling and shelf — and counted the same way, with closet doors counted with the doors. A walk-in closet you want painted is a room of its own: add it as a Walk-in closet.
Drywall repairs
On screen “Drywall repairs”
Any holes right through the drywall? Only the ones you can see through, bigger than about an inch. Scuffs, dents and nail holes are normal prep and already included.
If there are some, count them by size:
- Holes 1"–3" — a golf ball
- Holes 3"–9" — a fist, up to a soccer ball
- Bigger than that, or water damage
Each size is its own line on your quote. On an inside quote this screen always appears — answer no if there are none. It is also one of the three things under Something else.
Checking your rooms
On screen “Check your rooms”
The last inside screen lists every room with an Edit button. Open a room to change the things only that room needs:
- Its type, with Change room type, or a label with Add a label — handy for telling two bedrooms, or the halves of an L-shaped room, apart.
- Its ceiling. Smooth, Vaulted, Popcorn — mark a vaulted ceiling here, and give the room its height at the highest point on the ceiling screen.
- Popcorn in just this room: paint its ceiling, pick Popcorn, and tick Remove popcorn ceiling.
- Its own trim, if it differs from the rest of the house.
SmoothFlat, no texture.
VaultedAngled / cathedral, higher than walls.
PopcornBumpy, textured (older homes).
Exterior
Picking what's outside
On screen “What are we quoting outside?”
The outside quote starts with a list of what we quote. Pick everything that applies; each one gets its own question next.
Decks & fences
- Ground deck — Boards you walk on
- Raised deck — Up off the ground
- Railings — Posts & spindles
- Lattice — Skirting panels
- Fence — Total run
- Pergola — Canopy beams
Doors & porch
- Front door(s) — Entry doors
- Garage door(s) — Single or double
- Porch — Pillars & railings
Deck steps come with a deck: pick a ground or raised deck and we ask about its steps.
Decks, fences and pergolas
On screen “Exterior staining”
Each item you picked asks for its size. Tap the closest, or type your own if you know it. For a deck, that is the length and width of the boards you walk on — the underside is never included.
- Fence: the total run of fence. Both faces are stained, so count the run once.
- Deck steps: we assume a typical flight — set it to 0 if your deck has none.
Then the stain and the state of the wood. We use Cabot stains, from clear to solid colour:
- Clear Solution — Water-repellent, no pigment. Natural wood look.
- Australian Timber Oil — Penetrating oil with warm pigment that enriches the grain.
- Semi-Transparent — Light pigment. Grain visible, real UV protection.
- Semi-Solid — Heavier pigment. Rich colour, hides minor greying.
- Solid Color — Opaque, paint-like. Hides splinters, greying, patches.
Then pick the wood condition that looks most like your boards:
- Brand new / freshly installed
- Good — clean, sound boards, minimal greying
- Weathered — greyed out, cupping or splinters
- Very weathered — soft spots or rotting boards
- Peeling stain — old finish flaking, needs stripping back
Front doors, garage doors and porches
On screen “Exterior painting”
Each thing you picked asks a few questions of its own:
- Front door(s): the type of door and how many. Both faces are priced.
- Garage door(s): the style, single or double, how many — and Paint the trim around the door(s) if you want the trim too.
- Porch: how many pillars and how tall, and the length of the railing. Whichever of the two you have is enough.
Going from a dark colour to a light one, or the other way? Tick Drastic colour change: it adds a primer coat so the old colour does not show through, and it applies to everything you picked.
Something else
Popcorn, stairs and drywall
On screen “What can we help with?”
Pick any of the three; each gets its own screen next.
- Popcorn Ceiling Removal — Scrape, skim, prime, paint
- Stairway Refinishing — Stairs, spindles, railings
- Drywall Repairs — Patches, water damage
Drywall asks the same questions it does on an inside quote — see Drywall repairs. Popcorn in one room of a repaint is better done inside the interior quote: see Checking your rooms.
Popcorn ceilings
On screen “Popcorn ceiling removal”
How many rooms need their popcorn ceiling removed. We work the ceiling area out from the count; if you know the exact area in square feet, you can type that instead.
Removal is the whole job: we protect the room, scrape the texture off, skim-coat the ceiling smooth, prime it and paint it.
Stairs
On screen “Stairway”
First, how far the work goes:
- Paint only — Sand, prime and paint the risers and stringers.
- Full refinish — Sand the treads back to bare wood and re-varnish, plus everything above.
Then the number of steps, how wide an average step is (across a tread, wall to railing), and how many spindles — or Estimate from steps if you would rather not count them. Tick Refinish the handrail to have the handrail sanded and re-stained to match.
Finishing your quote
Choosing the paint
On screen “Which paint should we use?”
Every paint choice in the quote is made on one screen, after the measurements. We have already picked what most customers choose, so you can change it or carry on:
Walls, stairs and drywall touch-ups
- Standard — SW SuperPaint — Durable, scrubbable, easy touch-ups. Budget-friendly.
- Premium — SW Emerald — Top-tier, washable, stays looking new for years.
Popcorn ceilings
- Standard — SW ProMar 200 Ceiling — Flat, low-spatter — hides seams. Budget-friendly.
- Premium — SW Premium Ceiling Paint — Moisture & mildew resistant, stays white.
Outside
- SuperPaint Exterior — Flexible film that resists cracking & fading. Budget-friendly.
- Duration Exterior — Thicker rubberized acrylic — resists blistering & dirt. Premium.
- Emerald Rain Refresh — Self-cleaning, best colour retention & mildew resistance. Top-tier.
On a repaint, trim, doors and mouldings are finished in Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel, and ceilings in a dedicated flat ceiling paint — neither changes with the wall paint. Deck and fence stain is picked on the staining screen, so a staining-only quote skips this screen. Colours come later — see What happens next.
Your details
On screen “Your details”
The last screen before your price asks who you are and where the job is: your name, email and phone number, the property address, how you would like us to get in touch, the type of home and your timeline.
- Why the phone number? It is how we reach you.
- The address needs a city or postal code. Start typing and pick yours from the list, or type it in full.
- Anything else? is for colours, parking, access — and any small extra you would like priced. See Work the builder doesn't list.
Your price
On screen “Your estimate”
You get one price for the whole job, before tax, built from the rooms and sizes in your quote. Nothing is booked until you send it.
- Send my details & request quote sends it to us, and we get in touch to book you in.
- Email me my quote sends you the PDF and a link that reopens the quote on any device, so you can come back to it.
- Download PDF and Copy share link keep a copy, or pass it on to somebody else in the house.
- Back takes you to any earlier screen to change an answer — nothing you entered is lost.
Wondering what a job like yours usually costs? Our cost guides set our prices beside published ranges from across the GTA.
After the builder
Work the builder doesn't list
Some work has no screen in the builder, and we still take it on:
- Kitchen and bathroom cabinets
- Wallpaper removal
- Exterior trim, soffits and shutters
- Garage and basement floors
A small extra alongside your quote? Add it under Anything else? on the details screen. It is not in the price you see — we price it with you before any work starts.
A job that is mostly things the builder does not list? Ask us to come and quote it in person instead. There is no charge for the visit.
What happens next
After you send your quote:
- 1We get in touch by the contact method you picked to book you in, and offer dates then.
- 2Every job needs a deposit of a third of the quote (33.33%) to book your dates. The rest is paid when the work is done, by card or e-Transfer.
- 3Choose your colours before your start date. Sherwin-Williams names or codes are perfect — Alabaster, SW 7008, say — and if you are stuck, we can help you choose.
- 4Before we arrive, move valuables, fragile things and electronics. We move ordinary furniture and cover what stays.
- 5There is no visit before the work. On the day it starts we confirm the price with you, and we hold it as long as what we find when we arrive matches what you entered.
- 6Outside work depends on the weather. If it is not right for paint, we reschedule rather than push through.
- 7You can cancel or reschedule at no charge up to 48 hours before your start. A price we hold is good for 30 days, and prices are before tax.
- 8Every job we finish carries our 2-year workmanship warranty.
The full terms are on our terms page.
Ready to build yours?
One question at a time, and nothing is booked until you send it.