Shutters and window trim on a cream-sided two-story house, cut in by hand from an extension ladder. The siding itself is vinyl and was left as it was; the work is the painted joinery on it.
This is the most common exterior job we are asked for and the one people underestimate. A house can look tired because of its shutters and casings alone, and repainting only those is a fraction of a full elevation. But it is all edge work, all of it at height, and none of it can be sprayed without masking everything around it.
Painting shutters properly
A shutter that has been on a south wall for a decade is chalky, and paint put straight onto chalk lifts off with the first freeze. So they are washed, scuffed back and primed where the old finish has failed before any color goes on. Where a shutter comes off easily it is better finished off the wall; where it does not, it is cut in where it sits.
Ladder work is the other half. A pail hooked to the rail, one section at a time, and the ladder moved rather than reached from. That is slower, and it is the reason nothing gets dropped down a wall.
What to expect if you want this
If the siding is sound and only the trim has gone, say so when you call. It is a much smaller job than a full exterior and it is worth pricing on its own rather than being folded into one.
