Frequently Asked Questions

Color Touch Painting provides professional house painting services throughout the San Francisco Bay area. Primarily we focus on the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Western Contra Costa, but we occasionally serve Southern Marin and northern Santa Clara. Some of the cities we provide painting service to are:

• San Francisco
• San Ramon
• Oakland
• San Mateo/Redwood City
• Berkeley
• Alameda
• Fremont
• Castro Valley
• Dublin/Pleasanton
• Danville
• Alamo
• Walnut Creek
• Lafayette
• Orinda

We have been providing residential and commercial painting services to San Francisco and the bay area since 1994. We recently opened a second office in San Ramon to better serve our East Bay customers.

Yes. We are always happy to come out to a client site to look at what’s needed and offer any insights or advice that will help get the best painting job possible. Our prices are always fair and competitive. You can book a time online using our contact form or call us at either number below:

San Francisco Office: (415) 469-7261

San Ramon Office: (925) 999-8085

Sure, please check out our online house painting galleries. We have an interior painting gallery, and exterior painting gallery and some before and after pics that will give you a sense of the work we do.

Yes – painting kitchen cabinets is one of our specialties! Painting or refinishing kitchen cabinets is a great way to update and upgrade your kitchen. A modern kitchen is one of the best ways to add value to your home. We have done a lot of kitchen cabinet makeovers and over the years have found which paints work best. Click here to learn more about that.

When choosing a house painter, the main question to ask is ” Are they licensed?” Be sure to hire a licensed painting contractor! Why is this important? Licensed painting contractors carry both liability insurance and worker’s compensation insurance as well as a completion bond. This protects you, the client, in case of a mishap. Additionally, check your propsective painting company out on-line to see what types of reviews have been written about their work.

Some questions to ask when hiring an exterior house painter are:

• Do you have a contractor’s license and is it current? You can easily check license status on the Contractor’s State Licensing Board (CSLB website).
• Do you have employees, how many? Do you sub-contract any work out to others (not desireable)?
• Do you carry liability insurance and worker’s compensation insurance for all employees?
• Will there be a supervisor on site?
• How do you plan to access the areas being painted?
• What is your general painting sequence/plan of attack?
• Do you apply paint with a brush, roller or spray? (best results are brush/roll, or when sprayed paint is then “back-brushed” or “back-rolled” to work it into the substrate).
• What types of painting products do you use? What type of filler do you use? Exterior spackle should not be used as it can “re activate” due to ambient moisture and cause bubbling.
• Do you have a preferred brand of house paint that you use?
• Can you provide help with choosing colors and applying samples prior to painting?
• what is your payment schedule?
• Do you offer a warranty?

• Do you have a contractor’s license and is it current? You can easily check license status on the Contractor’s State Licensing Board (CSLB website).
• Do you have employees, how many? How long have they worked for you?
• Do you sub-contract any work out to others (not desireable)?
• Do you carry liability insurance and worker’s compensation insurance for all employees?
• Will there be a supervisor on site?
• What do we need to do to prepare our home for painting beforehand?
• What is your general painting sequence/plan of attack?
• Do you apply paint with a brush, roller or spray? Keep in mind that spraying is faster but generates a lot of dust!
• What types of painting products do you use?
• Do you have a preferred brand of house paint that you use?
• Can you provide help with choosing colors and applying samples prior to painting?
• what is your payment schedule?

The short answer…interior paint jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area can run anywhere from $4 to $15 or more per square foot for painting of walls, trim and ceilings. So. If you have a 1000 square foot rental and are looking for a quick paint job of walls, ceilings and trim, it may cost you about $4000. If you have a 6000 square foot Pacific Heights home and want a really high-end paint job, it could cost $90,000 or more!

Clients will sometimes ask us to provide a “ballpark” estimate to paint the interior of their home. There are so many factors that go into estimating an interior paint job, that it is always best to meet your potential painting contractor in person (don’t you want to know who you will be doing business with?). That said, if you want a decent ballpark estimate from a painting contractor, be sure to provide photos, dimensions and a count of the elements being painted (doors, trim, windows, closets, etc.). Some factors to consider are:

• Are you painting walls, ceilings and trim or just walls?
• How many coats of paint (two are generally recommended)?
• How many doors and windows are there?
• Do you have crown molding and baseboard?
• How many closets are there?
• What level and quality of paint preparation is required?
• Is there any water damage or peeling paint?
• Will the space to be painted be vacant or occupied?

Skilled house painters in San Francisco generally make $25-$35/hour, which means that the Painting contractor that hires them will need to charge somewhere aroun $55 to $65/hour to cover labor, operating costs, payroll taxes, insurance, etc. A quick way to determine how much a job will cost is to think about how long a team of painters would take to complete it, then add about 10% for materials. So, a job that takes two San Francisco painters a week to complete might run about $5300.00. Some painting contractors might tell you that they charge “by the job” but this doesn’t make a lot of sense, because all house painting is based upon time and materials. for a painting contractor to stay in business, they need to know how much they need to bill per hour in order to cover labor cost and operating expenses. So don’t be afraid to ask a potential contractor what they charge per hour.

How much an exterior painting job will cost depends upon so many factors that it is difficult for a painting contractor to provide an answer without an on-site meeting and a discussion of your expectations. San Francisco Bay Area painting is subject to many micro-climates and varying weather conditions. An exterior paint job  in Contra Costa County generally holds up a lot better than an exterior paint job in San Francisco, where maritime conditions can wreak havoc! We use a combination of square footage, linear footage and number of painted doors, painted windows and other elements to work up an estimate. Then we compare that with materials cost (should run about 8% of total). We also compare that to a “gut check” on how long we think it will take a crew to complete the job.

Keep in mind that prep (removal of old, peeling paint) is everything! Heat removal on a badly peeling surface can take 10 square feet per hour, while light crack repair on sound stucco might take 100 square feet per hour. Then one has to contain and dispose of the old paint chips. Here is an example of an exterior estimate for painting a home that is 40′ by 60′ by 20′ high. Total square footage is 2000. Multiply this by 1.5 for height access (3000 square feet). Assume that there are 20 windows, two doors, and 200 linear feet of fascia trim:

• Assume light prep on stucco, so 30 hours
• Power-washing and setup.  12 hours?
• Painting is about 200 squre feet an our to brush and roll,  so 30 hours for two coats.
• Prep, prime and paint windows may take 1.5 hours each?  30 more hours.
• Front and side door for a total of  3 hours?
• 200 feet of trim (divide by about 10 to 13 for prep, prime and two coats of paint) 16 hrs.
• Access, containment and disposal  8 hrs.

We always divide the total number of hours by 6, for the downtime between tasks. 129 hrs + 21=150 hours or about one week for a crew of three painters to complete the job. Add about $700 for materials and $200 for a portable toilet and the total cost at a rate of $55/hr is $9150.00.

However, if you take those numbers and apply them to a wood-sided home with areas of  badly peeling paint, and apply a 20 square foot/hour to overall prep, the total labor cost becomes about 350 hours and about 3 weeks. In fact, it could be more! Total cost then exceeds $20,000.

When considering cost of painting the exterior of your home, always meet with your prospective painting contractors and ask plently of questions. Remember that prep is everything!

How long should an exterior paint job last? This is another loaded question! The durability of a properly applied coating depends on exposure to the elements. South-facing elevations usually fade faster, take more of a beating, and require more frequent painting. North-facing elevations will be more subject to mildew and algae growth. When Painting in the Avenues of San Francisco, keep in mind that west-facing elevations get hammered due to fog and salt, and rust is a real issue! That said, prep (removal of compromised or peeling paint) is everything! A conscientious painting contractor should ensure that a sound foundation has been built, before painting over it with a high-quality paint. Some steps that a good painting team will take to ensure this are:

• Clean the surfaces to be painted beforehand (unless they are badly peeling).
• Remove all loose, bubbled, peeling, or imminently peeling paint.
• Remove all loose caulk!!
• Re-fasten any loose siding and trim using exterior grade fasteners.Try to close any gaps that have been created by loose or rusty fasteners.
• Pre-seal any soft wood using wood hardeners such as zinnser “peel stop”. Softer wood may require a dryrot hardener.
• Replace any wood that is rotted or soft beyond hardening.
• Apply two coats of rust-convering primer to rusty metal.
• Prime all bare wood using a high quality exterior primer.
• Fill gouges and nail-holes using an epoxy product. Do not use spackle, as it will deteriorate over time.
• Caulk vertical trim edges and around windows using a urethanized elastomeric caulk, or a solvent based caulk such as OSI quadmax (Home Depot). Be sure to eliminate any areas where water might penetrate!
• Re-prime all previously patched areas.
• Apply two finish coats of a high quality paint!

Assuming that all of these steps are taken, your paint job should last at least 10 years, perhaps much longer!