We bought our home four years ago, and it's got that '90s vibe going on with old brown wood trim and hollow core doors. The house is about 2,000 sq ft and has eight doors. We finally tackled some less exciting repairs like fixing the water pump and septic system, which now leaves us with a little cash to spruce things up. We thought a budget of around $15-25k for updating the trim and doors would be sufficient. However, we just received a jaw-dropping quote of $90,000 for the installation of new builder-grade trim and eight doors, with just the painting quoted at $25k. Is this a realistic estimate or completely insane? How do people even budget for these kinds of renovations?
4 Answers
I feel for you! I live in a high-cost area and got similar quotes. I ended up sourcing high-quality doors from a lumber yard and did it myself. It took some effort, but it only cost about $6k instead of the crazy quotes I was receiving!
Wow, $25k just for painting? That's crazy! Honestly, I use some high-quality paint products and my total for painting would probably be around $15k for that kind of space.
We've done the calculations too. We wanted to hire professionals since we know they would do a better job, but it feels excessive.
Definitely keep looking for quotes. That sounds like a 'let’s see if they bite' kind of estimate. I just did a similar project where I redid my trim for about $2000 in materials, and it only took some patience and time.
We’re pretty handy too, but with a small baby, it’s hard to find the right time to commit. I’m thinking of just painting the existing trim temporarily.
Absolutely! Give it some paint, and you may find that it freshens up the look quite well for now.
That quote seems way out of line. It sounds more like a 'we don't want to do this job' price. If you're handy, I would suggest tackling the project yourself. You can save a ton of money and if you take your time, you'll end up with a great result!
I totally get that mentality. If a contractor gives me a wild quote like that, I definitely won’t recommend them or hire them again.
Exactly! They probably focus on high-end clients and just threw out an astronomical number for yours.
That's the route we’re considering now! Maybe even training my baby to help with the miter saw!