Estimate Exterior Painting From Photos: What to Ask For

Here is how to estimate exterior painting from photos when the customer is two towns over and wants a number this week: ask for a fixed set of pictures, pull the perimeter from satellite imagery, use the front door as the ruler for height, turn the wall area into gallons and hours, and send a range that names what the visit will settle.

Which photos to ask for, and how to ask for them

Ask for a specific list, not "send some pictures." A homeowner with a phone sends what you name and little else, so name everything.

1. 1Step 1: Each side of the house, square on, with the ground and the roofline both in the frame. One more for each wing or bump-out.
2. 2Step 2: Every place the paint is failing, close enough to see whether it is peeling, cracked, chalking or blistered, and one step back to show where on the wall it sits.
3. 3Step 3: The soffit and fascia on two sides, and the gutter line.
4. 4Step 4: The front door with the siding beside it, filling the frame, so its height can be read against the courses.
5. 5Step 5: Every place the siding meets the ground, a deck, a porch roof or a chimney.
6. 6Step 6: Trim, shutters, railings and the garage door, with a count typed in the message.

The door is the ruler. A door retailer's size guide puts the standard exterior door at 80 inches by 36 inches, 6 feet 8 inches tall, and says 96 inches is now very common for newer homes. Ask which the house has, then count door heights from grade to the eave in the square-on photo: two and a half standard doors is 16 feet 8 inches of wall. Ask for daylight and a level phone; a shot looking up from the porch stretches the wall and hides the eave.

Measure wall area from satellite and the photos

Google Maps' own help page says that on a computer you right-click your starting point, select Measure distance, and click anywhere on the map to add points along the path. Trace the outside wall corner to corner and the total is the perimeter. The free satellite tool traces the same outline for square feet and linear feet with no account.

1. 1Step 1: Perimeter: trace the wall line, not the roof edge; overhangs sit outside it.
2. 2Step 2: Height: door heights to the eave in the square-on photo, times 6 feet 8 inches for a standard door; a split level gets its own height per side.
3. 3Step 3: Gross wall: perimeter times height.
4. 4Step 4: Openings: count the doors and windows and take out their area. A standard door at 3 feet by 6 feet 8 inches is 20 sq ft; read a window's size against the door beside it.
5. 5Step 5: Gables: half the width times the rise, read against the door; add them back in.
6. 6Step 6: Everything else by the count: windows for the trim, doors, shutters, columns, the garage door.

What photos cannot tell you: lead, rot and moisture

A photo shows peeling; it does not show what is under it. The EPA's sources of lead page says a home built before 1978 is more likely to have lead-based paint, and its chart puts the likelihood at 24 percent of homes built from 1960 to 1977, 69 percent from 1940 to 1959 and 87 percent before 1940. The year built comes from the county assessor's listing or the customer; ask for it with the photos.

Rot is found by hand. This Old House's trim repair guide says to take a screwdriver or awl to areas that are nearly horizontal and do not drain well, and that if the tool's tip pushes easily into a suspect board, the rot has to come out; probe anywhere there is end grain, which wicks up water. Peeling at a sill in a close-up is the flag.

Moisture is a number only a meter gives. The Wisconsin Historical Society's paint failure page says paint cannot adhere to any surface with a moisture content above 15 percent, that the only way to determine it is with a moisture meter, and that wood that feels soft or has rotted will not hold paint and has to be replaced first.

What a photo can tell you is where the water comes from. Sherwin-Williams' moisture peeling page lists worn out or missing caulking, clogged gutters, leaking roofs, interior moisture migrating to the exterior walls and painted surfaces too close to bare ground, says siding should be installed not less than 6 inches above the ground, and does not recommend painting over cracked or peeling paint. Peeling under a gutter joint or along the bottom course is a repair line the close-up shows before anyone drives out.

The lead paint rule for homes built before 1978

Once the year built says pre-1978, the federal rule is part of the price. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Program page says the federal government banned the sale of lead-based paint for use in homes in 1978, that approximately three-quarters of US homes built before then still contain some, and that anyone paid to perform work that disturbs paint in that housing must be certified in lead-safe work practices, including all firms, even sole proprietorships.

The exemption is narrow. The EPA's page for contractors exempts minor repair and maintenance that disturbs 20 square feet or less on the exterior of a home or building, and says a certified renovator may declare specific components lead-free using an EPA recognized test kit. One wall of peeling clapboard passes 20 square feet before lunch, so a pre-1978 house with peeling in the photos is a lead job unless a test says otherwise, and the range should say so. Pricing exterior house painting covers the certification and the lead line.

Good to know: This is general information, not legal advice. Read the current EPA rule and your state's lead program before relying on it.

A photo estimate versus a firm price after the visit

The range is a real number with its edges stated: wall area, the coverage figure the paint maker publishes and your own pace, run at the low and the high end of each. Benjamin Moore's page for Regal Select Exterior states 275 to 375 sq ft per gallon, 1 or 2 recommended coats, a 1 hour dry time and a 4 hour recoat. The low end is rough siding, the high end smooth painted boards; a photo cannot feel the surface, so run both.

The wage floor is public. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the median pay for painters at $23.75 an hour, $49,400 a year, in May 2025. Your loaded rate sits above the wage; the hours come from your own timed jobs.

A painting request form that brings the photos in with the address

In MakeHay, the request form goes on your website or out as a link, and a request lands in Requests with the customer's details, the photos and the job site address; the owner is emailed (work a request). A request with an address can start a draft quote in one tap, a satellite measurement of the footprint goes straight into the quote, and the customer approves and signs the quote online after the visit.

The request form takes the customer's details and the job site address, and the photos land in the same request.

Put the shot list and the year built in the reply to every request. Turning website requests into booked jobs covers the reply; estimating pressure washing without a site visit uses the same trace for the wash before the paint.

Sending the range so it stays a range

Write the range as two numbers with the list between them: what it includes (two coats, the product by name, the window and door count), what the visit settles (lead, rot, moisture, substrate), what moves it most (a pre-1978 build year and rot at the sills, each its own line), and the next step (the visit date, then a quote the customer approves from a link).

A customer who got the range with its edges named reads the firm price as the visit doing its job.