Shaker Heights was planned as a garden suburb and it still runs like one: exterior changes on most homes go through the city’s Architectural Board of Review, and the color choices come from an approved historic palette. Homeowners sometimes hear that as a burden. We read it as a spec. It tells us what the house is supposed to look like, and a painter who works to a spec has fewer surprises. Here is how we approach a Shaker exterior, and what each part costs.
Check what needs approval before the first sample goes up
Repainting in the existing colors is usually not a review item. Changing the body or trim color, painting previously unpainted brick or stone, or altering trim, sash, or shutters generally is. Before anything else, confirm the current rule with the city’s planning department — the form and the palette are on the city website — and bring the approved color chips to the first meeting. We sample two or three candidate combinations on the least visible elevation, in the actual products, and photograph them at morning and late-afternoon light. A chip in the hand is not a color on a north-facing wall.
Keep the original windows; the board and the house both prefer it
Shaker’s Tudors, French eclectics, and center-hall colonials were built with wood sash, divided lights, and wood storms, and replacement windows change the face of the house in a way the review board notices. Restoration keeps every profile exactly where it was: sash scraped to sound wood, re-glazed, primed, two coats brushed by hand in the approved trim color, storms and screens refinished off the house and reinstalled square. Window condition also decides the price, so walk the north and west sides first.
- Repaint window, sound paint, one color: $75; two colors (sash and frame different): $150
- Restored window, sash and trim: $506
- Storm window or screen, refinished off the house: $75 per piece — $225 for the usual two storms and a screen
- Complete restored unit, sash plus three storm pieces: $731
Half-timbering, stucco, and the painted parts of a brick house
Most Shaker exteriors are brick or stucco with painted wood: half-timbering on the Tudors, eave lines, dentil and crown, porch columns, shutters, doors. That is trim work, and it is priced by the foot and the piece rather than by the wall. Stucco itself is usually a wash and a masonry coating, priced by area; we will tell you which tier it is after we see it.
- Soffit, fascia, half-timbering, and trim runs, scraped, primed, two coats: $150 per linear foot in two colors, $125 in one — dentil and plain profiles the same
- Storm door refinished: $300
- Painted wood siding or shingle, sound paint: $281 per 100 square feet; peeling to bare wood: $2,700 per 100 square feet
- Whole-house pressure wash, first on every job: $1,500 flat
- Materials at cost on top of every line; lift for three-story work billed at cost
The order of work on a Shaker exterior
Wash, then full dry time. Scrape and sand everything that is failing. Rebuild or replace rotted trim to the original profile — we trace and cut brackets and returns in our shop when stock does not exist. Re-glaze and prime the windows. Caulk. Two finish coats, brushed on trim and sash, sprayed and back-brushed on large runs where the product allows it. Storms and screens go back on last. Three owner quality checks along the way: after prep, after primer, and a final walkthrough with you and the approved chips in hand.
Get the number before the meeting
Count your windows by condition, your trim in feet, and whether you have painted siding, and the instant estimator on this site will give you a range in about two minutes using the same unit prices above. Or send photos of the north elevation and your approved colors to 440-382-5701 — most Shaker Heights estimates are back within 24 hours, and the price will match what you just read.
More guides on the Cavelli Painting blog, or explore our services and service areas.