Tessera Free Quote

Painting

Painting
in Kansas City.

Interior and exterior painting Kansas City. Real prep that lasts — not a power-wash and a topcoat. Two-coat minimum. Top-tier paints. The KC house painter who is RRP-certified for pre-1978 homes. Detailed quote within 24 hours.

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What we handle on a paint job

Paint jobs are mostly prep. The actual rolling and brushing is a fraction of the work — what determines whether the job lasts 4 years or 12 is what happens before the first coat goes on. The cheap painter and the right painter use the same Sherwin-Williams cans. The difference is hours of scraping, sanding, priming, and caulking the cheap painter skipped. We don't.

Our scope on a typical paint project includes:

Interior

  • Floor & furniture protection — drop cloths over flooring, furniture moved to the center of the room and covered, fixtures masked, vents and switch plates removed.
  • Surface prep — nail-hole filling, drywall patch repair, sanding patches smooth, caulking gaps at trim and ceiling lines, dusting / vacuuming wall surfaces before paint.
  • Priming — bare wood, drywall patches, stains, water damage areas, dramatic color changes, and any new construction. Stain-blocking primer on tannin or smoke / nicotine bleed-through.
  • Cutting in — ceiling-to-wall, trim-to-wall, around door and window frames. Done by hand by trained painters; not a robot job.
  • Two-coat application — walls, ceilings, and trim each get two full coats. Second coat after first is fully dry per the manufacturer's recoat window.
  • Trim & doors — sprayed or brushed-and-rolled depending on the surface and your preference. Door hinges and hardware removed and reinstalled.
  • Cleanup — switch plates and vents reinstalled, furniture moved back, drops folded and hauled, walk-through with you to mark any touch-ups.

Exterior

  • Power wash — entire siding, trim, soffits, fascia. Removes loose paint, dirt, mildew, and oxidation. We do not power-wash so hard we drive water into the siding gap behind. Calibrated pressure.
  • Mildew treatment — wherever mildew or algae is present, we apply a sodium-hypochlorite or commercial mildew killer before primer.
  • Scraping & sanding — hand-scrape to sound substrate on any peeling, alligatored, or chalky areas. Sand feathered edges smooth so the new finish doesn't telegraph the prep line.
  • Priming — oil or specialty bonding primer on bare wood, peeling areas, chalky surfaces, and tannin-bleeding species (cedar, redwood). Spot-priming where appropriate; full priming where the entire surface needs it.
  • Caulking — window-to-siding, door-to-siding, trim-to-siding, corner boards, and any joint that has opened up. Quality acrylic-latex or polyurethane caulk; not 99-cent-tube fillers.
  • Two-coat application — siding sprayed-and-back-rolled, trim sprayed, doors and shutters sprayed or brushed depending on installed-vs-removed. We back-roll exterior spray on rough siding so paint actually bonds into the grain — spray-and-walk-away is a common shortcut that fails fast.
  • Window glass & concrete cleanup — razor-blade cleanup of any spray on glass, scrub-cleanup of any drift on concrete or pavers.
  • Final walk-through — punch list with you. Touch-ups completed before the truck leaves.

RRP — pre-1978 homes

Federal Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) regulations require an EPA-certified contractor for any disturbance of paint on pre-1978 homes if children under six or pregnant women may be present. We are RRP-certified.

On a pre-1978 home our protocol is:

  • Test suspect surfaces with EPA-recognized lead test kits (we use 3M LeadCheck or D-Lead).
  • If lead is present, isolate the work area with 6-mil poly sheeting on the ground (interior) or 10-foot perimeter (exterior).
  • Use HEPA-filtered shrouded tools, not bare sanders. Wet methods where possible.
  • Clean up debris with HEPA-vacuum and disposable wipes per RRP protocol.
  • Document the work per EPA recordkeeping rules.

Older single-family homes in KC neighborhoods (Brookside, Waldo, Hyde Park, the older parts of Independence and the East side, much of historic Kansas City KS) are pre-1978. We do not pretend the rule does not exist.

Pricing factors

Kansas City paint jobs generally fall into these bands:

Interior

  • Single room (walls + ceiling + trim, two coats, minimal prep) — $400 to $1,200.
  • Whole-house repaint (2,000-2,500 sq ft, walls only, single color) — $3,500 to $7,000.
  • Whole-house repaint (walls, ceilings, trim, multiple colors, 2,000-2,500 sq ft) — $7,000 to $14,000.
  • Cabinet repaint (kitchen, doors and frames, full sand + prime + topcoat) — $3,000 to $7,000+ depending on cabinet count and detail.

Exterior

  • Single-story 2,000-2,500 sq ft — $5,000 to $14,000 depending on prep extent.
  • Two-story 2,500-3,500 sq ft — $9,000 to $22,000.
  • Trim-only refresh (no siding) — $2,500 to $6,000.
  • Significant peeling / failure — add 30-50% for the additional scrape and prime time. Quoted honestly after a walk-through.

Why customers pick Tessera for paint

  • You hear back fast. Quote within 24 hours, not three weeks.
  • Prep is real, not just a power-wash and a topcoat.
  • Two coats minimum, every project, regardless of can claims.
  • Top-tier paint — Sherwin-Williams Duration / Emerald, Benjamin Moore Aura. Not Behr.
  • RRP-certified for pre-1978 homes.
  • You retain 10% until the punch list is fully signed off.

Painting FAQ

What homeowners ask us most.

How long does a paint job take?

Interior — a single-room paint job (walls, ceiling, trim, two coats) typically wraps in 1 to 2 days for a standard bedroom. A whole-house interior repaint runs 5 to 10 working days depending on home size, ceiling height, and trim complexity. Exterior — a single-story 2,000-2,500 sq ft home runs 4 to 7 working days for full prep + two-coat install. Two-story homes run 7 to 12 working days. We schedule around weather (rain, low temps below 50°F, high humidity) — KC weather drives the calendar more than anything else on exteriors.

What does a paint job cost in KC?

Interior single-room repaint (walls + ceiling + trim, no major prep): $400 to $1,200 depending on size and ceiling height. Whole-house interior repaint: $4,000 to $12,000 for a 2,000-2,500 sq ft home depending on prep needed and color complexity (one color throughout is cheaper than every-room-different). Exterior single-story: $5,000 to $14,000 for a 2,000-2,500 sq ft home. Exterior two-story: $9,000 to $22,000. The single biggest cost driver is prep — a peeling, chalking, or alligatored existing finish requires hours of scraping, sanding, priming, and caulking before paint goes on; a clean, well-maintained existing finish needs almost none.

How many coats? What about primer?

Two coats is our minimum on every paint job, exterior or interior, regardless of what the can label claims about "one-coat coverage." Most paints can technically cover in one coat over a similar shade with perfect application, but two coats produce the durable, even film that actually lasts. Primer goes on bare wood, drywall patches, stains, water marks, mildew areas, and dramatic color changes (light over dark). On exteriors with chalking or weathered surfaces, we use a bonding primer specifically designed for that condition.

How do you handle peeling exterior paint?

The honest answer: we scrape, sand, prime, and caulk before paint touches the surface. Power-washing alone does not remove failing paint — it just blasts loose what was about to fall off and leaves the rest to fail again. On homes with significant peeling, we hand-scrape down to sound substrate, sand smooth, prime the bare areas with an oil or specialty primer, caulk all joints and seams, and only then begin the topcoat. This is hours, sometimes days, of labor that cheap painters skip — and it is why their paint jobs fail in 3-4 years instead of 8-12.

My house was built before 1978 — what about lead paint?

Federal Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) rules require EPA-certified contractors for any disturbance of paint on pre-1978 homes if children under 6 or pregnant women may be present. We are RRP-certified. On any pre-1978 home, we test suspect surfaces with EPA-recognized lead test kits, isolate the work area with poly sheeting, use HEPA-filtered tools, and clean up per RRP protocol. Old single-family homes in KC neighborhoods like Brookside, Waldo, Hyde Park, and most of the East side are pre-1978. We treat them correctly.

What paint brands do you use?

For interior work, we use mostly Sherwin-Williams (Cashmere, Emerald, Duration Home depending on the room and finish), Benjamin Moore (Aura, Regal Select), and occasionally PPG. For exterior, we use Sherwin-Williams Duration / Emerald or Benjamin Moore Aura Exterior — both are top-tier 100% acrylics with proven 8-12 year service life in KC weather. We do not use builder-grade contractor paints (Behr, Valspar, store brands) on customer projects — they cost less per gallon and fail measurably faster, which is bad math for everyone.

Do you spray or brush-and-roll?

Both, depending on the surface. Walls and ceilings: brush-and-roll, with a quality roller cover sized to the texture. Trim, doors, and cabinets: spray when possible (better finish quality), brush-and-roll where masking would cost more than the spray quality is worth. Exterior siding: spray-and-back-roll on new siding (fills the texture grain), spray-only on smooth trim. We do not spray-and-walk-away on rough siding — back-rolling is what gets the paint into the grain so it bonds and lasts.

How are payments structured?

Standard schedule on a paint project is 30% at signing (locks materials and schedule slot), 60% at substantial completion (all surfaces painted, second coat done), and 10% retained until the punch list is fully signed off. Smaller jobs (single rooms, sub-$1,500 projects) typically run COD with no progress draw.

Next step

Ready to repaint?

Send the project details and we will be back within 24 hours with a real, detailed estimate — including the prep call, not a placeholder range.

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