Painting the exterior of a home in April.

[Solere]

Originally Posted by observer53

My DE exterior paint job is 15 years old. (How time flies) It still looks good.

Wow! That's a long time. What has caused it to last so long?

[observer53]

Originally Posted by Happs

Wow! That's a long time. What has caused it to last so long?

Don't know. Maybe just lucky. North exposure to front, patios on south side, but west side gets baked and has held up well. The painters did a good job of power washing and prepping, which I'm sure helped. I did not watch very much of the actual painting.

[kell490]

I have a wall and side of the house faces south sun 365 days a year gets 100% sun throughout the day. I have used DE, SW, and Behr all of the highest quality they sell they all faded in 2-3 years no water added. I haven't seen any difference between the brands I only buy the highest grades from each. I'm sure the lowest grade would last less time. I will say DE, and SW high end grades do cover better in less coatings then Behr. The east facing part of my home I can go 10 plus years I see a difference where the sun hits it. I just spray, and roll back that one side it matches the east facing every 3 years not fun chore. For years I had been using a cheap wagner airless I got back in the 90's at garage sale it died last year. I borrowed my neighbors $1300 graco sprayer wow what a difference. I only needed half the pressure to get the job done I could put a much larger tip on really put the paint on heavy. I'm wondering if that was some of the issue with fading paint going on thinner I used about 20% more paint this year then past with the cheap sprayer.

[jnojr]

Originally Posted by Gixxer1K

If you're in the west valley I can give you the name of someone who I highly recommend. He power washes,caulks and scrapes everything and he gives a 5 year warranty on all his exteriors as long as you use SW paints.

I want to find this guy in the East Valley!

[Ponderosa]

I painted my own twice in the last 20 years. Once to brighten it up and the next time to change color. It's easy - on a single story anyway. Gonna do it again next winter.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I painted my own twice in the last 20 years. Once to brighten it up and the next time to change color. It's easy - on a single story anyway. Gonna do it again next winter.

For starters, I am jealous of your energy! Obviously, you don't mind painting and must enjoy it. i.e. it's therapeutic.

I have a bigger, tall, 2 story. When I bought it, I touched up the trim on a couple of areas that had darker paint. That wasn't too bad. Since I'm cheap, I told my wife I was going to paint a wall here and there to save $$'s. She aligned me and said it was bad ROI, so I hired it done. But I remember it took the contractor several man hours just to prep it (power wash and tape/paper it off including masking the pavers for over-spray, etc). I calculating the man hours: There were always 4 workers on site (one was a grunt) and it took them 3.5 long, 10 hour days of work. The details (brush work, masking, moving scaffolding) consumed their hours.

Mathematically, I remember working out their hourly at a little more than $20/hour assuming $1000 for materials (they used the best SW paint; retail $75 a gallon and the contractor paid $38/gallon). There were multiple 5 gallon of empty buckets galore plus some wasted matching gallons that didn't work. I paid around $3800 total for the job (I would have to look up the exact amount) or around $3Kish for labor.

After I did the math, I felt like a genius hiring it done. 3 1/2 days total at 10 hour work days times 4 people == 140 hours with all of the right equipment. Considering they are infinitely faster than I am (better skill, younger, and the best equipment), I would have to worked a lot longer than three and a half straight weeks of full time painting or 140 hours of my labor. All that work to save $3K?? For me, smart money was to focus my energies on doing what I do. See https://work.chron.com/much-interior...our-19464.html . The national average of wages is $18 for a painter. There was a lot of Spanish being discussed. So my contractor who has 20 total painters is making profit on the workers. The way to save more would be to have a crew moonlight (which I've done on several projects; not the painting). I digress...

I'm also ignoring the fact that the contractor has incredible buying power on the paint making the savings of me painting my own home equal even less. Still, not all square footage is equally as difficult. Added hours included having three colors, the house was all "cut up" with angles, bump outs, masking areas over shingles, etc. I could imagine it taking a lot less time with a more basic layout and especially a single story home.

When you get to painting your home, it would be interesting to know how many hours you have in your project. Hours need to include going to the store to buy the supplies, clean-up drips, and rollers, matching colors, etc. If I would have started mine, I would have given up on the 2nd or third day. As I said, I admire your energy.

[Hal Roach]

One of my college housemates flew for the Blue Angels, the other one was already on his way to running a painting business. I can remember him saying 35 years ago.."try using a brush.". Still true, today. And a brush can work perfectly on many of the stucco finishes. Good point about accounting for time....start counting the time they are dinking around with their compressor or rig..... Nothing wrong with adding a small amount of water to water based paint..but it won't fix a badly worn or malfunctioning rig.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

For starters, I am jealous of your energy! Obviously, you don't mind painting and must enjoy it. i.e. it's therapeutic.

I have a bigger, tall, 2 story. When I bought it, I touched up the trim on a couple of areas that had darker paint. That wasn't too bad. Since I'm cheap, I told my wife I was going to paint a wall here and there to save $$'s. She aligned me and said it was bad ROI, so I hired it done. But I remember it took the contractor several man hours just to prep it (power wash and tape/paper it off including masking the pavers for over-spray, etc). I calculating the man hours: There were always 4 workers on site (one was a grunt) and it took them 3.5 long, 10 hour days of work. The details (brush work, masking, moving scaffolding) consumed their hours.

Mathematically, I remember working out their hourly at a little more than $20/hour assuming $1000 for materials (they used the best SW paint; retail $75 a gallon and the contractor paid $38/gallon). There were multiple 5 gallon of empty buckets galore plus some wasted matching gallons that didn't work. I paid around $3800 total for the job (I would have to look up the exact amount) or around $3Kish for labor.

After I did the math, I felt like a genius hiring it done. 3 1/2 days total at 10 hour work days times 4 people == 140 hours with all of the right equipment. Considering they are infinitely faster than I am (better skill, younger, and the best equipment), I would have to worked a lot longer than three and a half straight weeks of full time painting or 140 hours of my labor. All that work to save $3K?? For me, smart money was to focus my energies on doing what I do. See https://work.chron.com/much-interior...our-19464.html . The national average of wages is $18 for a painter. There was a lot of Spanish being discussed. So my contractor who has 20 total painters is making profit on the workers. The way to save more would be to have a crew moonlight (which I've done on several projects; not the painting). I digress...

I'm also ignoring the fact that the contractor has incredible buying power on the paint making the savings of me painting my own home equal even less. Still, not all square footage is equally as difficult. Added hours included having three colors, the house was all "cut up" with angles, bump outs, masking areas over shingles, etc. I could imagine it taking a lot less time with a more basic layout and especially a single story home.

When you get to painting your home, it would be interesting to know how many hours you have in your project. Hours need to include going to the store to buy the supplies, clean-up drips, and rollers, matching colors, etc. If I would have started mine, I would have given up on the 2nd or third day. As I said, I admire your energy.

I'm retired. I have more time than money. It took maybe three-four days of actual work to do it, but I worked in fits and starts. I did not really keep track of it. It was just a project like many I do. This kind of thing is my hobby. Did one wall, maybe another a week later. Painting the fascia on the roof was a pain because I did it with a brush. The "pros" (illegal labor from wherever) work 3 men to a house on others like mine. They are in and out in a day - maybe a day and a half. Painting same color is much quicker as it looks good without any back-rolling. I painted houses with my dad when I was in high school. I am comfortable around ladders, know/own the equipment etc. Still I doubt I would tackle a two story.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I'm retired. I have more time than money. It took maybe three-four days of actual work to do it, but I worked in fits and starts. I did not really keep track of it. It was just a project like many I do. This kind of thing is my hobby. Did one wall, maybe another a week later. Painting the fascia on the roof was a pain because I did it with a brush. The "pros" (illegal labor from wherever) work 3 men to a house on others like mine. They are in and out in a day - maybe a day and a half. Painting same color is much quicker as it looks good without any back-rolling. I painted houses with my dad when I was in high school. I am comfortable around ladders, know/own the equipment etc. Still I doubt I would tackle a two story.

I repainted my 1st house (1150 square foot) using a roller and brush. I suspect it took me 3-4 solid days but that was 30 years ago. The homes I have owned since they are 3.5x to 4x larger and always "cut up". The ramblers were always walkouts which was like a 2 story on the back of the house.

Some of the "pros" that bid the job bragged about being an all white crew. One rep said "no need to power wash". Well he wasn't a pro; rather a hack. Another said "spending more on better series of paint is a waste as it will all last the same time". I see why he went into painting. He must have struggled with chemistry. The guy I hired stressed how difficult it was to hire detailed and hard working painters. The local SW manager said he only works with the best paints because they are easier to work with and he has great buying power. I lectured him to bid the job right because anything shy of perfection would be a re-work. He delivered with just a couple of small critiques. I got him 5 more jobs in the neighborhood. He wasn't the cheapest but I would certainly consider the crew a pro (illegal or not but probably illegal). He ran his business professionally and he was always reachable. In this day and age, that is a rare attribute.

I will say, I mandated that he had insurance. I have several rooms with 14-20 foot ceilings on the 1st floor. It's a l-o-n-g way down if someone falls on parts of the house.

I wish I enjoyed house projects. It's always "pay to the order of ___________". I tackle electronic based stuff. Like home automation, security, theater, home lighting, etc. I guess I didn't play with enough Lego's when I was a kid because I got shorted on the mechanical side. Everything else it outsourced. Even the small stuff including cleaning, landscaping, car washes, oil changes etc.

Recently, I did paint a couple of interior bedrooms including the ceiling. It took me 8 hours of painting in each room with one of these https://www.homedepot.com/p/Wagner-9...0003/204151206 .I though that automated roller sped things up a lot; well worth the $20 bucks. All of the time added up in the details. It was a good reminder as to why I simply need to outsource because I hated taping off and the trim work.