Exterior and Interior Painting in Tacoma and South Puget Sound
Full prep, honest coverage, coatings rated for this climate.
Licensed BESTPPC752LD$30,000 bondedInsuredFree estimatesSe habla español
The situation
What you're actually dealing with
An exterior paint job is roughly eighty percent preparation and twenty percent paint. Washing, scraping, repairing, caulking and priming are what determine whether the finish lasts eight years or three.
Paint fails faster in the Pacific Northwest than almost anywhere else in the country, and it fails for a specific reason: siding here stays wet for months at a time and never fully dries between rains. Water gets behind a failing caulk joint, the substrate swells, and the coating lets go from underneath. Repainting over that without fixing it buys you two winters.
So the honest version of this work involves telling you where the siding has gone soft, where the caulk has failed, and what has to be repaired before a brush touches the house. That conversation happens at the estimate, not after the job starts.
Public record
Verify with L&I- WA contractor license
- BESTPPC752LD
- Construction Contractor, General · Active · UBI 605 604 724
- Contractor bond
- $30,000
- The North River Insurance Company · double the $15,000 a specialty contractor carries
- General liability
- $1,000,000
- State National Insurance Company Inc · four times the $250,000 state minimum
Scope
What a typical job includes
This is the standard scope. Yours is written out and agreed before anything starts.
- Pressure washing to remove dirt, chalking, moss and mildew
- Scraping and sanding of all failing and loose coating
- Repair or replacement of rotted siding and trim
- Caulking of joints, seams and penetrations
- Spot priming of bare wood, or full prime where the substrate calls for it
- Masking and full protection of windows, roofing, decking and landscaping
- Two finish coats unless the substrate and color change require more
- Trim, fascia, soffit and door coverage as scoped
- Daily cleanup and a final walkthrough
Cost
What drives the price
Best Pro does not publish price ranges, because a number posted on a website has to ignore everything that actually makes your job cost what it costs. Here is what a quote is built from instead.
- The square footage of the surface, and how many stories require ladder or staging work
- The condition of the existing coating, since a house that needs full scraping is a different job than a sound repaint
- How much siding and trim rot has to be repaired first
- Siding material: lap siding, cedar shingle, T1-11 and stucco all prep differently
- The number of colors and the amount of hand-cut trim detail
- Whether a significant color change requires an extra coat for coverage
The free estimate covers all of it: an on-site walkthrough, a written scope, and a firm number you can compare against anyone else's.
Get my free estimateProcess
How a painting job runs
Step 1
Walkthrough and written scope
We walk the exterior together, note every area of rot and coating failure, and agree on what is being repaired versus what is being painted over. Everything goes in writing.
Step 2
Wash and dry
The house gets washed, then given time to dry. This step gets rushed constantly in this trade and it is the single most common reason a repaint fails early.
Step 3
Repair and prep
Scraping, sanding, rot repair, caulking and priming. This is where most of the labor actually goes.
Step 4
Paint
Masking, then finish coats applied by spray, brush or roll depending on the surface. Cut lines are done by hand.
Step 5
Cleanup and walkthrough
Masking removed, site cleaned, and a walk of the whole exterior with you in daylight so anything missed gets caught before we leave.
Options
Materials and choices
Straight guidance on what suits this climate and this housing stock, including where the cheaper option is genuinely fine.
- 100% acrylic latex exteriors
- The correct choice for nearly every house in this climate. It stays flexible through the wet-dry cycle, breathes enough to let trapped moisture escape, and holds color against the summer UV.
- Elastomeric coatings
- Appropriate on stucco and masonry, wrong on most wood siding, because it seals tightly enough to trap moisture in a substrate that needs to dry outward.
- Solid-body and semi-transparent stains
- For cedar siding, shingles and fencing where you want the grain to show. Shorter recoat interval than paint, but a much easier surface to maintain.
- Interior work
- Walls, ceilings, trim, doors and cabinets. Low-VOC products for occupied homes, and furniture and flooring fully protected.
Recent work
Exterior and Interior Painting projects
Questions
Painting questions, answered
The reliable exterior painting window in the south Puget Sound runs from roughly May through September, when surfaces dry properly and temperatures stay within the coating's application range. Interior work runs year-round.
Yes. Best Pro Contractors repairs or replaces rotted siding and trim as part of the prep. Painting over rot hides the problem for a season and guarantees the coating fails early.
Two finish coats over properly prepared and primed surfaces is the standard. A significant color change, a porous substrate or bare wood may require additional coats, and that is identified in the written quote rather than after the work starts.
A properly prepared exterior repaint using quality acrylic coatings should last eight to twelve years in this climate. Preparation, not paint brand, is what determines which end of that range you get.
Yes. Best Pro Contractors handles interior walls, ceilings, trim, doors and cabinetry, using low-VOC products in occupied homes.
Also available
Related services
Get a free painting estimate
Tell us what you need and Alberto gets back to you within 24 hours. Estimates are free and there is no obligation.
Free estimates, no obligation, and se habla español.