A property manager called me last spring, frustrated. She had three exterior painting quotes for her condo corporation and they ranged by nearly forty thousand dollars. She assumed the low bid was cutting corners and the high bid was gouging. When I read all three, the truth was simpler and more expensive to ignore: none of them were bidding the same job. Different surfaces, different prep, different number of coats. This post is for boards and property managers who are about to tender a painting project and want bids they can actually compare, before the pricing comes back, not after.
1. Name the exact surfaces, what is in and what is out
The single biggest reason quotes diverge is that each painter is guessing at the boundaries of the work. One includes the balcony soffits and railings; another prices only the flat wall field; a third throws in the ground-floor lobby because it seemed implied. They are all being reasonable, and they are all bidding a different building.
Before you send anything out, write down the specific areas: which elevations, which floors, corridors versus suites, railings, soffits, doors and frames, stairwells. Put square footage or storey counts on it if you can. Then write down what is explicitly excluded, because the exclusions matter as much as the inclusions.
What to look at: Take your own walk-through list and ask, could two painters read this and disagree about what is included? If yes, it is not specific enough yet.
2. Specify the coating system, not “quality paint”
Every quote will say it uses quality paint. That phrase means nothing on its own. What actually drives cost and longevity is the product line, the number of coats, and whether a primer or a dedicated topcoat system is called for on the surfaces that need it.
When you specify the system yourself, product tier, coats, and where a primer is required, you take the biggest hidden variable off the table. This is a specification decision, and it is one you can make before you ever see a price. Now a painter who wants to quote one thin coat has to tell you that in writing, instead of hiding it in a low number. You do not need to know the chemistry. You need every bidder pricing the same coats of the same class of product.
What to look at: Make each quote state the product line, the number of coats, and the primer plan in writing. A bid that only says “two coats premium paint” with no product named is a bid you cannot compare.
3. Put the prep standard in writing, it is the line item you cannot see
Prep is where honest bids and cheap bids separate, and it is invisible once the paint is on. Washing, scraping, sanding, patching, spot-priming bare or rusted areas, taking failing coatings back to a sound surface, all of that is real labour, and it is the first thing a low bid quietly drops.
If your scope does not define the prep, you are trusting each painter to include the same amount of it, and they will not. Spell out the expected preparation for the conditions your building actually has: chalking, peeling, rust bleed at railing anchors, previously patched drywall. The bid that looks expensive is often just the one that priced the prep your building needs.
What to look at: Rub a hand along a chalky exterior wall or look at the base of your steel doors. If the surface needs work, the scope should say so, so nobody gets to assume it away.
4. Define access, site conditions, and the working hours
On larger buildings, how the crew reaches the wall can cost more than the coating. A boom lift, scaffold, or swing stage is a different number than a ladder, and each bidder will assume differently unless you tell them. The same goes for parking that cannot be closed, balconies that stay occupied, and whether work has to happen after hours or on weekends.
Set these conditions in the scope: who provides and pays for access equipment, what site constraints apply, and the acceptable working hours. Then every bid reflects the same real-world job instead of a convenient version of it.
What to look at: For anything above the second floor, make each quote state the access method it assumes. That one question turns a lot of “expensive” bids into the honest ones.
What to do if you are about to tender a painting project
If you are a board or property manager getting ready to collect painting bids, the work that makes them comparable happens before you send the request out: the surfaces, the coating system, the prep standard, and the access all defined up front. Once the bids come back, that same scope is what lets you read them side by side with confidence. I walk buildings across Ottawa and the surrounding areas, Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, Orleans, Manotick and Stittsville, and help owners put a scope together that gets apples-to-apples pricing, part of the painting and drywall work we do and the projects in our work. If you would like a second set of eyes before you tender, call me at 613.325.3011 or email yasir@heims.ca.
— Yasir, HEIMS Construction
HEIMS Construction is an Ottawa-based commercial painting and drywall contractor serving property managers, condominium corporations, and multifamily building owners across the Ottawa region. We are fully licensed and insured, carry WSIB coverage and $5M liability insurance, and are members of BOMA Ottawa.