Helps! How to paint the exterior of a house without spending a fortune? (washer, windows)
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My husband and I have been painting our exterior for the last few months (we got slowed down by weather). You can save a lot of money DIY but it is not easy! First you have to prep the surface - whether that's pressure washing or scraping old paint. You need ladders and or scaffolding depending on how high you need to go. You can rent those if need be. I advocate using a premium paint - it costs more but does a better job protecting the surface and will last longer.
The paint/stain we are using is about $31 a gallon. You can also buy in 5 gallon containers and save money. We also purchased a sprayer which has worked well for large areas. All in all, we've spent about $650 on everything - we have one more side to go. The last quote I got from a painter a few years ago was $2400. I think if you are willing to do it yourself you can save a lot of money.
DIY is the only real way to save money. Being up close yourself means you can inspect everything yourself too. Siding/trim coming loose? Flashing needs resealing? Nails walking out? For me, that meant finding a lot more termite damage than what the seller's termite company inspected (and spot treated), but it's better knowing now than finding even worse damage years from now.
Hired help typically falls into the "you get what you pay for" adage. There are exceptions, but sadly, they are rare. Even if you went with a specialized painting contractor, they're just hired for painting, not repairing.
You will need ladders; a 22' Little Giant is a VERY good investment if you don't have an arsenal of step and extension ladders already. You will want a pressure washer, as this will speed up the cleaning process considerably. Sprayers are great when dealing with large expanses. Both can be rented, but buying one, using it for the project, then reselling them on craigslist or such can work out to be even cheaper.
Priming before painting is well worth the extra cost and work, as it helps the new coat bond to the surface. Above all, don't skimp on the paint ... the stuff that normally goes for like $10 or less a gallon is cheap for a reason. That's not to say you can't score a deal (oops, mistints, or at like Habitat Restores), however. In the grand scheme of things, though, the cost of paint and primer is still going to be way less than any labor cost, even when DIY.
Thank you guys for your suggestions. I think I will hire some helps. I am only good what I do on my job. I need to ask people I know to recommend some good painting contractors.
The only way to get a quality job done cheaply is to go to church and pray vigorously, because you are asking for a miracle. There is no way to get a quality job done cheaply. Even a relatively small house with wood siding and offset clor trim will cost $10,000 or more.
If it is done right, it costs a fortune. there is a reaon for this, the prep work involves a huge amount of labor and the materials are expensive. painters generally do not make a huge profit. One of my closest friends is a really good house painter. He owns the business and eomployes between 2 and 8 people at any given time. He is far from wealthy.
The painter brings in a crew of anywhere from 3 to 8 people and they will work on your house for weeks, possibly months. Those people have done the work before and know how to do it efficiently. Further, they work straight through without taking time out to answer the phone, take out the trash, cook, meals, greet neighbors, etc.
If you quit your job and worked every day for ten hours a day, you might get it done by yourself in two months. If you just work on it every weekend, then you will end up taking at three to five years to finish. This assumes that you do not make any mistakes.
If you desperately need to get it looking better, you can do a cheap power wash and spray with minimal prep work, but you will end up with a rather crummy looking job that will not last long.
You might be able to save some money by doing some of the stripping yourself. We bought a machine called the "Paint Shaver" It works great on lapped siding once you get the hang of it. You will still have some sanding and hand work to do, but it works pretty quickly on the siding. The trim is another story. There is no shortcut for stripping the trim, just hundreds of hours of hard labor.
Our plan is to do most of the stripping ourselves and the leave the painter to come in and do the final stripping, especially the more difficult trim bits, complete the preparation work and prime and paint. You can paint yourslef, but that cost is not huge and there are a lot of mistakes that can be very very costly.
The best price we were quoted was $50,000 to prep and paint the entire house. Obviosuly, that is not practial, so we will strip much of the the front ourselves and get the best priced guy to finsih and paint it. We will have him power wash and spray the sides and back for now, and the slowly work on stripping and priming/painting those areas ourselves. We are hoping that we can get this done for about $20,000. It is a huge problem with no easy solution.
The good news is that if you get a really good paint job and then meticulously maintain it, you will never have such a big expense again. You wil;l be able to just power wash and spray a top coat to freshen up the paint every 10-15 years. If it is done right with good materials, the liklihood of it needing to be stripped down completely again in your lifetime is slim.
One other note. If you have old lead based paint, the paint shaver can be hooked up to a vacuum to capture the paint bits and avoid contaminating your property.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 10-22-2009 at 08:26 AM..
I live in AZ. The house I am gonna pain has stucco wall, I think I only I need to use water to wash it. Then, paint it. The cost should be around 3-4k.
I live in AZ. The house I am gonna pain has stucco wall, I think I only I need to use water to wash it. Then, paint it. The cost should be around 3-4k.
Holy crap.
I just painted a rental house this summer. Split-level, 3 bedroom, 2,000 sf, single garage.
I did all the work myself.
Cost:
5 gallons of tinted primer: $78.00
5 gallons of paint at $28 per gallon: $140
Brushes, rollers, supplies: $75.00
TOTAL: $300.00 (just under, actually)
THIS is why I do everything myself. In addition, I know that the job is done right.
5 gallons of tinted primer: $78.00
5 gallons of paint at $28 per gallon: $140
Brushes, rollers, supplies: $75.00
TOTAL: $300.00 (just under, actually)
THIS is why I do everything myself.
Well, there are opportunity costs involved too. Dollar cost, while a big driving factor, shouldn't be the key reason ...
Quote:
In addition, I know that the job is done right.
This is the real reason to go DIY instead of a contractor that you've never dealt with before. Granted, one has to know what they're doing first, but painting isn't rocket science. In this day and age, a simple search on Google yields an answer to practically anything.
Fast, Cheap, Good ... pick any two.
Fast and good = the expense of a good crew that knows what they're doing.
Fast and cheap = hiring a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none-hope-it-comes-out-well-because-I'm-only-here-for-two-days sort of guy.
Cheap and good = DIY, and since you know you aren't going to have entire days at a time to work, you'll take things slow and do the right thing instead of shortcuts.
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than what the seller's termite company inspected (and spot treated), but it's better knowing now than finding even worse damage years from now.
