Most painting quotes you'll find online are national averages, and national averages are close to useless here. A house in Ocean City sits in salt air, takes direct afternoon sun off the bay, and holds humidity three months longer than a house in Cherry Hill. That combination changes both the prep required and how long the finish lasts. The numbers below are built from Cape May County labor rates and current Sherwin-Williams material pricing, and they're stated as ranges on purpose — a firm price requires someone standing in front of the house.
The short version
| Project | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Interior repaint, single room (walls + ceiling) | $600 – $1,100 |
| Interior repaint, whole house (1,800 sq ft) | $4,500 – $7,000 |
| Exterior, single story (1,400 sq ft home) | $3,200 – $4,600 |
| Exterior, two story (2,200 sq ft home) | $5,000 – $7,500 |
| Deck wash, prep and stain (200 sq ft) | $650 – $1,100 |
| Deck with railings, stripping old finish | $1,400 – $2,400 |
| Cabinet refinishing (10 doors, sprayed) | $3,800 – $6,500 |
If your number lands outside those bands, something specific is driving it — and it's worth knowing what before you sign anything.
What actually moves the price
1. Prep is the job
Homeowners assume square footage sets the price. It's roughly a third of it. Prep — scraping, sanding, caulking, patching, priming bare or chalky spots — is where the labor goes, and on a Shore home that hasn't been painted in a decade it can be 40% of the total. A bid that quietly skips prep isn't cheaper. It's a finish that peels from the bottom up in two or three seasons, and the next painter quotes you more than the difference you saved because now there's failed coating to strip before anything new goes on.
Ask every bidder whether prep is itemized or bundled into a lump sum. Bundled isn't automatically bad, but itemized tells you what they think the house actually needs.
2. Access and height
Two stories with a steep pitch means ladders, staging, tie-offs and slower work. That's real labor, not padding. A single-story ranch and a three-story Victorian with the same square footage are not the same job, which is why any honest estimate asks about stories before it asks about anything else.
3. Paint tier
Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint and Duration are roughly a 15–20% material swing, and the difference buys five-plus additional years of life. On salt air, that gap shows up faster than it does inland. Premium paint is not marketing — it's more solids per gallon, better fade resistance, and a longer warranty from the manufacturer. On a house you plan to keep, it usually pays for itself before the second repaint.
4. Color change
Going from a deep navy to off-white is not a one-coat job. Deep bases have less titanium dioxide, so the new color needs a third coat or a tinted primer to cover cleanly. Going light-to-dark is easier. If you're making a big jump, expect the bid to reflect it — and be suspicious of one that doesn't.
5. Season
Cape May County has a narrow good window for exterior work. Spring is when everyone calls, so crews book six to eight weeks out and you get painted in June at peak pricing. Summer heat makes latex flash too fast on sun-facing siding, so good crews work mornings only. Fall — roughly September into mid-October — is the best adhesion window of the year at 60–70°F with low humidity, and crews have availability. Below 50°F, latex stops curing properly. Anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing with your money.
Rule of thumb: if the exterior hasn't been painted in more than eight years, budget for prep as a line item, not a surprise. It's the single most common reason a final invoice exceeds the original quote.
How to read a painting bid
A $3,800 bid and a $6,200 bid for the same house are rarely the same job. Before you compare totals, compare these five things:
- Coats and product. How many coats, and the exact product name and sheen? "Premium paint" means nothing. "Duration Home, satin, two coats on all siding" means something.
- Prep scope. Pressure washing, mildew treatment, caulking at trim and windows, priming bare wood. Each should be listed or explicitly excluded.
- What's not included. Rot repair, gutter work, lead paint handling on pre-1978 homes. A bid that's silent on these isn't necessarily hiding them — but you want it in writing either way.
- Warranty terms. How long, on what — labor, material, or both — and what voids it. A two-year workmanship warranty is standard here. One year is thin. "Lifetime" with no terms attached is a marketing line.
- Who's on the crew. Employees or day labor, and is the person who quoted it the person who runs it. On a Shore house with a lot of detail work, that matters more than the price difference.
Interior versus exterior: different economics
Interior work is priced per square foot of floor area because walls and ceilings scale with the room. A typical three-bedroom colonial is about 1,800 square feet of floor area, which lands in the $4,500–$7,000 band once you include ceilings and trim. Add doors, casings and baseboards and you're at the top of it.
Exterior work is priced per square foot of the home because siding area roughly tracks the footprint plus the wall height. Two-story homes carry a height multiplier on top of that. The wildcard is condition: a house with intact paint and no bare wood is a straightforward job, while a house with peeling south-facing siding and mildew at the north wall is a prep project that happens to end in paint.
Decks are priced per square foot of deck surface, and the range is wide because "stain the deck" covers everything from a light wash and one coat on new pressure-treated lumber to stripping a failed solid stain off 400 square feet of railing spindles. Those are not comparable jobs at any price.
Three things that save real money
Bundle the exterior and the deck. Same crew, same setup, same mobilization. Most painters will sharpen the second job rather than book a separate trip.
Book in the shoulder season. Late September and early October are the best painting conditions of the year here, and the least booked. You're not trading quality for price — you're trading convenience.
Fix the water first. Painting over a leak, a failed gutter or rotted trim is money thrown away. The paint will fail at exactly the same spot within two seasons. If a bidder doesn't mention it, ask.
Frequently asked
How long does a house exterior take?
A typical two-story Cape May County home is three to five working days of actual painting, spread across a week or two including prep, drying and weather. Rain pushes everything.
Do I need to move out for interior work?
No. Crews work room by room and you keep living in the house. Furniture gets moved to the center and covered; floors get drop cloths. The only real disruption is the smell, which is mild with modern low-VOC products.
Is it cheaper to paint in winter?
Interior work, sometimes — crews are less booked. Exterior work, no: below 50°F latex won't cure properly, and anyone offering a winter exterior discount is either using a product that won't last or planning to rush it.
How often should a Shore home be repainted?
Exterior every five to seven years with quality paint, interior every seven to ten depending on traffic and whether you have kids or pets. Salt air shortens the exterior interval; a power wash and mildew treatment in between extends it.
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