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About how many hours would you estimate that it takes to power wash and brush and roll a two story, 2100 square foot house? We have been going back and forth on wheather or not to paint our house ourselves or hire someone. Right now I am leaning towards hiring someone to spray it, but having a hard time coming to terms with the cost. Curious about your thoughts.
The time required depends on the quality of the job. A cheap job will just paint over a simple wash and scuff using cheap paint. It should last a few years.
A quality job will wash, crape, sand, reprime and recoat using good quality paint.
Doing it yourself will result in a poor job where you start and a decent job near the end as you learn how to paint. Painting is not easy even for the pros.
We just got an estimate on ours and it was $3K...We ended up not having it done, but did have it powerwashed for $250 and since it looked so good we skipped the paint, for now. It took them several hours to powerwash, so I would imagine it would take several days to actually paint it. When we do have it painted (unless we replace the siding, that is) we will hire someone to do it. I don't want to mess with all the prep work and trim that will be involved. Plus I don't want to take a chance of one of us getting hurt-We need hubby to work and we need me to watch the kids, lol! (I am assuming you are talking about the exterior of a home)
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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I am about to buy a sprayer to do the exterior of my house. The cost of hiring out the work is prohibitive and when it really gets down to it, painting is absolutely something that anyone can do. The difference between a professional crew and you is that you actually care about how the house looks and if the job was done right.
Then again, if my house was 2 story I would be much much more likely to let someone else hang his butt in the breeze at the top of the ladder.
I had 7 estimates (for a two story 3000 ft house) from $3100 to $6000 but most were about $3500. Be sure it includes washing and states the type of paints used. Also insist the contractor is insured and bonded. It took four days, 1 wash, 1 prep, 2 paint and cleanup and cost me $3600.
We had quotes from $8K to 10K. We just can't spend that.
DH will be spray painting it himself. We are on our 4th fixer upper so he has done this before and knows what he is doing. The basic problem we have with this fixer is that he now has less time than he had with the other 3.
I painted our 1,700 sq ft(Total surface area around 2,000 sq ft minus windows.) split level in about sixteen hours over a weekend using a brush and roller. Pressure washing took around eight hours but we have aluminum siding so I took extra care with my surface prep. I used a house wash, rinsed, then scrubbed it with a soft brush on the end of the pressure washer and rinsed again. Just washing probably would have taken half that. Bear in mind it's best to wait awhile after washing to make sure the siding and sheathing is dry underneath.
It might not have taken quite as long but I had a lot of obstacles around the foundation. Many bushes, gates on both sides to the backyard, swimming pool, central air. There was a lot of maneuvering and fiddling with my ladders.
I only did one coat but it covered well and I put off doing a second coat until I confirm it will make it through the winter without peeling.
I am sorry, but I'm falling off the chair reading these kinds of estimates. That would motivate me to paint myself.
I have painted two smaller houses (one was 1000 sq.ft., the other 1,500 sq.ft.) by myself. One was a very tall two-storey, so yes, I was the brave one to climb the ladder, not hubby.
Since then, we purchased staging (scaffolding, 10 squares), and a contractor doesn't have a chance here.
On one house we used a Dutch Boy paint and every gallon lasted forever - we bought something like 15 gallons, and had 6 gallons left. Good quality paint is more expensive, but seems that you need less of it. Cheaper paint will last less longer, but it's cheaper?!
Time painting - about 2 weeks while having a baby and a toddler, and about 5 days unencumbered by kids.
Lets see, if a train leaves Cleveland at 8am traveling 90mph and a train leaves Chicago at 9am traveling 80mph, when will they.... oh, wait wrong question.
Pressure washing time has a lot to do with the material washed and how bad of shape it's it.
Once it's washed, then there might be a lot of other prep work, or not. You could spend a day alone caulking recessed nail holes if you have hardboard siding.
The painting part depends on the material being painted, the quality of paint used, how it's applied, the experience of the person doing the painting, how many times do they have to move the ladder, or tie back shrubs, or mask off things you don't want painted. Then there's the trim to deal with.
Then it also boils down to how good of a job you are going to do. If painting was as simple as a lot of people think it is, then I wouldn't see so many really BAD paint jobs out there.
I have seen so many "100 foot paint jobs" it's not funny (looks great from 100 feet). People that think a quick paint job will make their house sell faster, and want save a pile of money, but lack the skill or initiative to do a good job.
I look at houses for a living, and I have seen a bunch of paint jobs that were just a plain waste of paint and time.
But to the original question....pretty hard to estimate time when some of the pieces are missing. I would say you could get it done in a week by yourself, less if you have help, more if you haven't done it before........
The answer to the train question......... BIG CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pressure washing time also has a lot to do with the size of the pressure washer. They will all do about the same job cleaning the difference is how long it will take. It's a function of pressure (PSI) and volume (gallons per minute GPM). Think of it like a hammer PSI id how hard you swing it, GPM is how big the head of the hammer is.
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