Painting a House, Advice? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Szott]

So this summer our house is likely to need a new coat of paint. It makes sense too as many of the windows are 13 yrs old and taking condensation damage, so we'll be replacing those anyway.

Any advice from members on making this job easier/faster?

I've painted decks, rooms, whatever before but not a house exterior (by chance mostly.) Our place is 2 stories, so an extendable ladder or something will be needed for the upper areas.

Is it best to use rollers just like inside, or are paint sprayers easy and reliable? Anything you all have found useful in the past is welcomed, thanks.

 

[Leila Dougan]

Ack! Sounds like a huge PITA. I've never painted the outside of a house, but personally I think I'd just hire someone to do it. Sounds like too much time and effort that could be better spent doing something I'm more proficient at.

But I'm sure you wanted advice on how to actually go about doing the painting yourself, so feel free to ignore me

 

[Ron-P]

Yeah, hire someone. Just make sure they don't water down the paint. My neighbor is a painter, he painted my house for free a couple years back all I had to do was the prep work and buy the materials. Next summer I'm going to paint it again. I want a darker color, the tan I have is too light.

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

Get the local university or college painters to do it. I worked on one of those crews for a summer and I think we did a good job.

The more experience painters will do the sills and cuts, the others will typically use big ass extension rollers (10' - 15' jobbies) to get a nice swath of paint on the house.

By yourself is going to be a HUGE PITA.

 

[Mort Corey]

Single story..no problem. Two story...many problems. can you imagine yourself lugging paint and supplies up and down a ladder?

I had mine done (two story) and they sprayed the large swatches and cut the trim by hand. Four guys..two full days. The cheapo Wagner sprayers aren't worth the trouble. If you want to spray, it'd be better to rent decent, professional, equipment. The stuff is pretty expensive to purchase outright.

If you decide to do the job yourself just make sure you're medical insurance is paid up to date.

Mort

 

[SteveLa]

No kidding. My boss was painting the outside of his place last year and fell 7-8 feet off a ladder and severely f***ed up his back.

 

[Drew Bethel]

I'm also painting our 1.5 story stucco house this summer. I out sourced the prep work (blasting, sanding, etc) to College Pros for about $1000. Once they're done all I'll need to do is slap on two coats of paint.

 

[Craig]

I talked with a guy who heads up a really good crew here in Atlanta. He said they always put a coat of primer on, and then two coats of paint. Of course they were kinda pricey, but the guy seemed to know what he was talking about. They usually put in at least a week working on a single story house with wood siding, depending on the condition. He was very serious about putting on a coat of primer and said that was the secret to a good paint job.

I'd definitely recommend that if you do hire someone, that you don't pay anything until the job is complete. If they don't have the money to buy paint and supplies, then you don't want to do business with them.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

my brother and i work for my dad in the summer, who is a self-employed painter. you are the type of homeowner we run far, far away from. any reasonable agreement with a painter should include fair installments of payment, and any reputable painter will agree to that.

CJ

 

[Colton]

Boy, do I have a story for you. Got some time? When my wife and I bought our two-story house the first thing that it needed was a paint job. I called and got lots of quotes and found a guy who gave me the best price. Looked through his palette book for our pick of base and trim color. Very nice guy through and through and did all the work himself - including repairing/replacing bad boards/trim, scraping old paint, power washing, priming and adding two coats. Miracle worker, eh? He started in May and still wasn't finished until October. He would show up once a week and do alittle work and then disappear until next week. We had to call him to see what the problem was - he was taking small jobs on the side and leaving our house unfinished for six months! It was only after I gave him a warning that he either finishes our house or I will hire someone who will finish the work and pay him the difference of the cost. Needless to say, he finished the house that week.

- Colton

 

[Joe Szott]

I'm probably going to do this myself, PITA and all. I've reroofed sections of houses and worked in lumber for a number of years, so I'm not afraid of the effort. I don't expect this to be a weekend project, I fully expect to sink time all summer to complete the project.

But college painters sounds like a decent idea. No way can I pay a pro $5-10K to paint my house for me (don't ahve that kind of bread), but $2K for a couple of college kids would be doable to handle some of the 'heavy lifting'.

Any other adivce on actually doing the job? Paint sprayers vs. rollers, equipment to have around that I wouldn't think of, etc?

 

[Colton]

Whoever paints your house - college kids or freelance painter - make sure they are insured. If someone falls off the ladder and breaks a leg, neck, back, etc ... you will be responsible for their injuries if they aren't insured. Protect yourself!

My father-in-law had a contractor come out to do some house repair and the guy fell off the roof. He wasn't insured and the medical cost went directly to my father-in-law.

- Colton

 

[Bry_DD]

i'll say get a good sprayer cuz it'll be easier instead of roller.. also sprayer will be faster. just make sure it's now windy when you're doing it..

good luck.

 

[MarkHastings]

For that price, I'd look into siding.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

a couple summers ago, my brother and i, along with my dad, painted a 12,000 square foot house, if that price scares you, i'd hate to say what we got for it not that we got rich from it, but on paper it seems like a lot. for the local guys who know what kind of houses are in duxbury, it was a new house built, and is now the biggest in the town. from one end of the main hallway, you can see 95 feet down to the other end, before it takes a turn. it was big.

CJ

 

[Patrick Sun]

I spent the summer of 1998 painting my ranch house on weekends and some weekday evenings. I doubt I'll be doing it again. Most of it was hand-painted, or roller-painted, no spray.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

You'll spend more time scraping the old paint with a paint remover than you will applying primer/paint. I'd check into hiring college/highschoolers for the scraping, its pretty mindless and they work cheap.

 

[Joe Szott]

I'm going to look into College Pro as that seems like a good option. Decent pricing, good work, and help out a bunch of yound folks who are willing to work for a buck. Motivated college kids are good workers, I'd trust them to do the job.

After working in a lumberyard for years, the painters I knew were like the construction workers I knew: 2 out of 5 were good, hard workers. The other 3 seemed to need just enough cash to get drunk between jail stints or other f'ups.

Apologies if anyone here is in construction/painting, but I'm sure you're on the 2 of that 5.

PS - $10K is probably a little high, but if cleaning, priming, and 2 coats doesn't run at least $5K, I'd be shocked.

 

[Colton]

Cleaning, priming and two-coats on my 2,219 sq. ft. house (two-story) was < $2,000. It just took six months.

- Colton

 

[Drew Bethel]

http://www.collegepro.com/