How much does it cost to paint a house in Park Ridge?

Why two houses the same size can cost very different amounts

Park Ridge and its neighbors hold a wide spread of houses: 1920s bungalows with plaster walls and oak trim, brick ranches and Georgians from the 1950s, split-levels and raised ranches from the 1960s, and newer two-story homes on teardown lots. Floor area tells you very little about what any of them will cost to paint.

Most of the price is labor, and most of the labor is prep. Paint and primer are a fairly small slice of a typical job. The rest is time: moving furniture, covering floors, scraping, patching, caulking, sanding and cutting lines by hand. A drywall bedroom in a 1990s Colonial with flat ceilings goes quickly. A bedroom in a 1920s bungalow with cracked plaster, wide casings and a radiator under the window does not.

So we price by the parts of the house and the condition of each part, then add them up. Walls, ceilings, trim, doors, cabinets, siding and repairs each get their own line. That gives you an estimate you can read item by item and trim back if the total is more than you want to spend this year.

What interior walls, ceilings and trim usually run

For a typical bedroom, dining room or living room, two coats on the walls runs $465 to $890. The low end is a smaller room with sound walls, a color close to the one already there and furniture that moves easily. The high end is a large room with tall walls, a big color change in either direction and a fair amount of patching first.

A ceiling in the same room adds $245 to $520. Ceilings with water stains from an old roof or bathroom leak need a stain-blocking primer before the finish coat, and the vaulted ceilings in many split-levels and newer homes need taller ladders or planks. Both push toward the top of that range.

Trim is priced at $1.85 to $4.40 per linear foot. Postwar ranches tend to have narrow, simple baseboards and casings, so trim stays a modest line. Older homes in Park Ridge, Evanston and Oak Park often have wide casings, crown molding and plate rails that add up quickly, especially when the woodwork carries many layers of old paint that need sanding before a new coat will lie flat.

• Interior door with frame: $135 to $265 each
• Accent wall: $285 to $640
• Cast iron radiator: $165 to $385 each
• Basement walls: $1.65 to $3.90 per square foot
• Color consultation session: $165 to $345

Kitchens, staircases and woodwork that change the budget

Kitchen cabinets are the largest single interior line most homeowners ask about. Painting a typical suburban kitchen runs $3,850 to $7,480. The number depends on how many doors and drawer fronts there are, whether the boxes are solid wood or a laminate that needs a bonding primer, whether there are glass doors or open shelves, and how much grease has built up near the range. We take the doors off, degrease, sand, prime and spray, so most of that cost is careful handling rather than paint.

Staircases run $1,450 to $4,380. A straight run of carpeted stairs with painted risers and a plain handrail sits near the bottom. A turned staircase in a center-hall Colonial with stained treads, painted spindles and a newel post sits near the top, partly because the family still needs the stairs while we work, so we plan the job in stages.

Staining and varnishing original woodwork runs $640 to $1,780 per room. That applies mostly to oak and pine trim in 1920s bungalows and early 1900s homes on the North Shore, where the goal is to clean and recoat the existing clear finish rather than cover the grain with paint.

What an exterior repaint costs on a frame house or a brick ranch

A full exterior repaint of a two-story frame or sided house runs $7,850 to $16,400. That covers washing, scraping loose paint, priming bare wood, caulking open joints and two finish coats on the siding and trim. A compact two-story Colonial with aluminum siding in fair shape lands near the bottom. A large wood-sided Victorian in Evanston or a Glen Ellyn foursquare with deep eaves and many windows lands near the top, and the biggest North Shore homes can go past it.

Brick ranches are a different job. On most of them the brick stays as it is, and the paint work is the trim, soffits, fascia, garage door and front door. That package runs $2,940 to $6,480 for most ranches in Park Ridge, Niles, Des Plaines and Morton Grove. If the brick was painted years ago and is now peeling, recoating it adds $2.65 to $5.40 per square foot of wall.

Cedar siding on 1950s to 1990s homes in Northbrook, Glenview and Deerfield is usually stained rather than painted, at $1.95 to $4.40 per square foot. Going from semi-transparent to solid stain, heavy weathering on the south and west walls, and boards that need cleaning and brightening first all push that number up.

• Siding paint: $2.15 to $4.85 per square foot
• Soffit and fascia: $4.35 to $9.80 per linear foot
• Window sash and frame: $185 to $465 each
• Garage door: $345 to $780 single, $465 to $960 double
• Deck of 300 to 500 square feet: $985 to $2,640
• Front porch floor, steps and railings: $1,180 to $3,960

Which repairs and prep items move an estimate up

Repairs surprise people most, because nobody sees them until the walk-through. Inside, a small drywall patch runs $185 to $435 and a water-damaged section runs $460 to $1,240. Plaster cracks or a small damaged area run $265 to $780, and a full skim coat of a room runs $1,380 to $3,460. Taking down old wallpaper adds $485 to $1,320 per room, and popcorn ceiling removal runs $2.35 to $5.80 per square foot.

Outside, the common extra is rot. Window sills, the bottoms of door casings, garage door jambs and porch posts take the most water. Cutting back and rebuilding a soft spot runs $235 to $860 per spot. Pressure washing the whole house before painting runs $345 to $890 when it is not already part of the prep on that job.

Homes built before 1978 add one more line, and most postwar suburbs fall inside that window. When the work disturbs painted surfaces, lead-safe setup adds $145 to $385 per room for plastic containment, wet methods and HEPA cleanup. Outside, it shows up as ground sheeting under the work area and cleanup at the end of each day.

How to keep a painting budget where you want it

The surest way to control the number is to decide what matters most this year. Many homeowners do the main living areas and the kitchen first, then bedrooms the following winter. On the outside, a ranch owner might paint the trim and garage door this summer and leave the deck for early fall.

A few choices change the total more than people expect. We put them in writing on the estimate so you can see what each one is worth before you decide. Call (312) 579-0481 any time of day to set up a walk-through and get an itemized number for your house.

• Staying near your current color often saves a coat
• Clearing small items and wall hangings before we arrive saves labor
• Doing ceilings and walls in the same visit avoids a second setup
• Fixing roof and gutter leaks first keeps stains from coming back
• Booking exterior work for late spring or early fall gives paint the best weather

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