What does the contract say? All interior doors?

Paint it yourself for $15 and forget it.

Never assume anything, that's what contracts are for. They protect both parties.

The contract says nothing about interior or exterior, just that doors and trims will be painted.

You mention the contract for the interior doors and trim. Was this a mistake in your original post?

Not to sound offensive, but this is exactly why there are misunderstandings when everything isn't spelled out correctly.

The contract does not mention interior or exterior doors. He replaced all interior doors and the front entry door, plus the exterior trim on front door. The contract just says paints doors and trim. Why would he wait til the job is almost finished to tell us there is an extra charge for the exterior door?

Your contractor has underbid and is losing money every minute he's on your job. He is the last guy on earth you want working for you. Offer him a bump to finish or cut him loose.

Fortunately he is at the end, we hope. We will be checking everything on Monday except of course for the front door. What recourse do we have?

I suggest you make sure he has the important stuff done right, and paint the door yourself. It's not worth the hassle to try to get him to include it, or the aggravation of paying him more (how much?) to do something so simple.

really, what would it cost? $40? $50 maybe?
just get it painted and be done with it

He never said what it cost and we were taken by surprise that he wanted more money for painting the primed outside of the front door and trim he installed. The total job was close to $20,000 and was all spray painted and we want the same quality for the exterior of the front door.

Well, if you don't feel capable of spraying a door yourself, it sounds like you'll probably have to pay him. If it would have been done when everything else was, it might not have been much of an extra cost, but now he will have to pay a painter to come back out with spray equipment. If he wants a huge amount, then you may be more receptive to spraying it yourself. You can go to a quality paint store, get the custom color you want, and have them load it into spray cans for a modest additional cost (about $10 a can at my paint store).

For pete's sake. Your contract says paint doors & trim. He did not qualify for any exclusions and even replaced the exterior door. What, he had planned on leaving it unpainted? Of course that makes no sense whatsoever.

$20,000? You are a good paying customer. That he has rework is his fault, not yours. That is a heck of a lot of money for him to be getting stingy with you, especially if, as others are saying, it is no big deal. It is a big deal for a customer to have to paint a door or finish a job they have paid someone else to do.

I see no reason to feel sorry for him.

I'm with snookums...the contract says he'll paint the doors, he needs to do so.

I don't get everyone saying "it's no big deal, just let him off the hook/paint it yourself/he underbid/pay him extra." Your contract is clear, hold him to the contract. End of story.

IF the contract is to INSTALL all these doors etc, including both exterior door and interior doors in the SAME contract, and THEN on the SAME contract it says to PAINT the "doors", I would interpret that to mean ALL the doors. If the exterior door was installed at a different time/contract then it would not be included. I would use the term "courtesy" and tell him you will provided the paint in whatever form he would like it.

We didn't paint our fiberglass door for quite a while after we installed it. I don't think there's a rush at least.

So now when our contractors don't want to do something they contracted for, we are just supposed to suck it up and do it ourselves?

I think he should have painted it. However, given that he thinks it's not covered and wants more pay to do it, you have to decide how much time and aggravation you're willing to expend on a minor task like this, or whether it would be easier to "suck it up" and just do it yourself. If you take this to small claims court and win, will your cash and psychic investment have been worth it?

I wanted to let you all know that the contractor has agreed to paint the exterior of the door and trim. If this had been our only problem with him, we probably wouldn't have been so unhappy.

Thanks for the followup. Way too often questions get asked, and the OP disappears. Good to hear there was a happy ending.

Yes, thanks for the update. I'm sure if he'd been diligently doing a good job, you'd have paid him extra for the under-estimated amount of work or for his having taken his time to do a good job! But quality issues and then being asked for more money doesn't sit too well. Totally understandable! I hope it looks good when it's done.