A $3,700 Paint Change Order on a Wine Country Project

The owner of a custom house under construction in Wine Country signed a contract with a general contractor in winter 2025. The contractor assigned a dedicated project manager to run the job for the owner.

The painting bid

The painting subcontractor bid the job at $79,700, covering labor and materials together, in a proposal dated August 26, 2025. That proposal names no paint products and no sheens, and it sets no terms for price increases. The contractor carried the figure into the contract’s cost exhibit, dated December 22, 2025, at the $79,700 quote.

The change order

On June 25, 2026, the project manager emailed the designer that the painter had reported a material price increase “especially with the sheens.” She wrote in the same email that “given the changes in what you have spec’d out” the increase would be $3,700. She added that she would send the change order, and the painter was scheduled to start on Monday, June 29. On June 26 the owner’s representative told the contractor not to start the painter and wrote that the change order was not approved.

On the morning of June 29, the designer emailed to ask how a change in sheen could raise the price. She wrote that moving interior walls from eggshell to matte, and exterior surfaces from flat to matte, should cost the same or less. The project manager replied the same morning and quoted the subcontractor as saying matte “for some reason is double the cost for the material.” The project manager wrote that she was passing along what the subcontractor had told her. She also cited tariffs, fuel, and rising material and labor costs, but her reply contained no price check of her own. No independent validation of the subcontractor’s claims. Keep in mind, the designer and owner’s rep hired the GC to represent the interests of the owners. And theirs. So due diligence on behalf of the client is expected.

The call to the painting supplier

Knowing the claim lacked merit and the change order an attempt at padding, the designer contacted her rep at the paint supplier. He confirmed that costs had risen just 7% over the past year. The representative also told her that eggshell and matte paint cost the same. Additionally there was a current promotion, discounting the chosen product by 30%. The designer emailed those findings to the project manager and the contractor’s team the same day. She wrote that, with the promotion, the paint would cost about 25% less than it had a year earlier. The owner rejected the change order.

The owner’s position

“If they are representing our interests, which is the whole basis our relationship, they would validate the [subcontractor’s] claim,” the owner’s representative said of the contractor. He said the project manager “could have written an email to us that would have fostered appreciation and loyalty.” In the email he described, she would have reported that the painter “wanted a price increase, off claims I disputed.” It would have said the price “didn’t increase 100%, just 7%,” and that she had found a 30% discount. “What she did is treat us as a buyer beware customer ... and then forced us to do her job,” he said. He said precision matters with a pool service billing for chemicals and with landscapers who do not show up. The same goes for a contractor giving “bogus change orders,” he said. “The difference is money destined for the actual project, versus someone taking it from you on false pretense. You think I’ll be in a rush to hire this GC for another job?” he said.