Mach 4 Homes Remodels LLC

Three painters, three numbers, thousands apart. Same house.

That gap is almost never a difference in skill. It's a difference in what got left out of the scope and never written down anywhere you'd see it.

Six things come out of a low bid, roughly in this order: the pressure wash, the scraping, the sanding, the caulking, priming bare wood, and the second coat.

You don't find that out at the estimate. You find out in year three, when the south wall is chalking and the caulk lines have opened up, and whoever did the work is either out of business or telling you it's a maintenance issue.

Our scope is written line by line with the prep in it. If you want to take something out to bring the number down, you can — you'll just be doing it on purpose, with the trade-off in front of you, instead of finding out about it later.

Ask for the prep in writing. From anyone, not just us.

mach4homes.com or (425) 583-7295.

The patch was flat, the right color, and you can still see it from the doorway.

That means the repair failed, and three things usually give it away. The texture doesn't match — orange peel and knockdown aren't the same, and neither one sprays the same twice. The mud shrank, because it went on thick and got rushed. And the paint flashes, because bare compound drinks primer differently than the wall around it.

We match texture on a sample board before it goes anywhere near your wall.

The bigger thing though: find what caused it first. Around here a ring on a ceiling is usually a roof, a flashing detail, or a bath fan venting into the attic instead of outside. Patch it without that and you'll be patching it again next winter.

Free estimate, written scope. mach4homes.com or (425) 583-7295.

Go outside and look at where your deck attaches to the house. I'll wait.

That board is called the ledger, and it's where deck failures start. Not the decking. Not the railings. The ledger.

If it was nailed instead of bolted, or nobody flashed above it, water has been getting in behind it for years and quietly working on the rim joist of your house. Nothing on the surface tells you that's happening — which is exactly why a resurfacing number given from the curb isn't worth much. New boards over a bad frame just hide the problem under new material, and everybody's happy until they're not.

We pull a board and probe the joists before we quote anything. Sometimes the frame is sound and a resurface really is the right answer at a fraction of a rebuild, and we'll tell you that when it's true.

Free deck inspection, and the findings are yours whether you hire us or not. mach4homes.com or (425) 583-7295.

Two years in, the north wall goes chalky. That's when you find out what the cheap bid left out.

The low number isn't cheaper. It's smaller. What comes out of it is always the same: the wash, the scrape, the sand, the caulk, the primer, the second coat. None of that shows in a photo of a finished wall, so it's the easiest thing in the world to leave off a number and still call it painting.

In this climate the north side is the test. That's where it chalks and starts lifting first.

When we quote, prep is written down as its own line so you can see what you're buying. If another number comes back lower, compare the prep — that's where the difference lives. And if you want to take something out to bring the number down, you can. You'll just be doing it on purpose, with the trade-off in front of you.

Ask for the prep in writing. From anyone, not only us.

mach4homes.com or (425) 583-7295.

Four contractors, and every one of them was waiting on the other three.

That's the version of a remodel most people have lived through. The trim guy can't start until the drywall's done, the drywall guy needs the windows in, nobody's talking to anybody, and six weeks of your project goes to scheduling.

We're set up the other way now. Ten trades in house — painting, drywall, trim, doors, siding, windows, roofing, decks, minor concrete, and kitchen and bath. One contract, one invoice, teams ready to go to work on your home, and I'm on every job alongside the crews: I scope it, sequence it, help on it, and check the work.

No commissioned salesperson. No discount that expires at the door.

So if you've got a list rather than a single job, that's the whole reason we're built this way.

Free estimate, written scope, no sales pitch. mach4homes.com or (425) 583-7295.