cost for exterior paint job

[clarkfan1979]

I painted a rental house myself. I'm trying to estimate how much money I saved from hiring it out. The rental house is in Hawaii on the island of Kauai. Labor costs are typically around double of mainland.

I occupied the home for 45 days while the rental was in between tenants. The paint job took 25 days. I averaged 4 hours days of painting. The last 10 days, my wife helped about 2 hours/day. I estimate my time of around 100 hours and my wife's time of around 20 hours.

The house is 2450 sq. ft. with a 2.5 car garage. It's a single story with a walk-out basement in the backyard. I ended up using 13 gallons of the base paint and 3 gallons of trim. I did 2 coats of the base paint and 3 coats for the trim. The actual paint cost me $1075 (including test samples). I probably spent another $125 on rollers and brushes and tarps. Total cost around $1200.

By occupying the home for 45 days, my cost in lost rent and utilities was around $5,000. I never got any bids, but I'm guessing most bids to paint the house would have been around $5,000-$10,000 to paint the exterior of the house.

[gooki]

$5-10k sounds about right.

[TrMama]

Our house is a similar size, but is a 2 story with walk out basement. There's one giant gable on the front that's 3 stories tall. We live on the south coast of BC and labour is pretty expensive here too. We had exterior paint quotes in the $8-10K range, 4 years ago. Instead, I did 85% of the painting myself over about a week. Last summer I hired out the final section because that wall required an extension ladder and I'm not good with heights. I rented a 40ft lift (cherry picker) to do the other two 2 story walls. The 4th wall is only 1 story so that side was easy. With paint, lift rental and hiring out the one tricky section I spent about $3K. It was well worth the effort.

[Cranky]

We were quoted $8000 for a paint job this summer.

We’re thinking about doing new siding, though I’d personally rather have it painted because I prefer the look.

[lutorm]

I'm curious whether you had any weather problems. At some point I want to repaint our roof here on the Big Island but given that the weather is basically either:

• Sunny, in which case it's too hot to paint.
• Raining, in which case it's too humid to paint (even if you're not painting the roof)

Given you basically invested a month of your time doing this, I assume you took care to actually do the job correctly. But painting here and staying within the manufacturer's recommended environmental conditions seems almost impossible.

[Dicey]

You almost certainly did a better job. Time=money, so most painters only do what they have to do. You worked at such a leisurely pace that it almost sounds like painting the house was your entertainment for a month, so additional savings there.

There is about to be a paint shortage and costs are spiking. Sounds like you chose an excellent time to get this project completed.

[justinramani]

Considering the cost of your time, lost rent and materials- you likely didn’t “save” any money. That said - you probably did a much better job than some blow and go contractor would have done. Did you enjoy the process? If so - it’s a win in my opinion.


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[jpdx]

I've had four bids to paint my house, ranging from 4k to 25K. Quite a range there!

[Sibley]

You almost certainly did a better job. Time=money, so most painters only do what they have to do. You worked at such a leisurely pace that it almost sounds like painting the house was your entertainment for a month, so additional savings there.

There is about to be a paint shortage and costs are spiking. Sounds like you chose an excellent time to get this project completed.

Paint shortage?!? Source please? Parents still need to paint 3 rooms...

Edit: googled it. Interesting, I haven't seen any evidence of shortages when buying paint this summer. Of course, I'm also not pulling cans off the shelves to do the color mixing, the staff is. So I'm not in the stacks much. And most of the primer I've needed to buy was oil based, which is much less popular.

[chemistk]

You almost certainly did a better job. Time=money, so most painters only do what they have to do. You worked at such a leisurely pace that it almost sounds like painting the house was your entertainment for a month, so additional savings there.

There is about to be a paint shortage and costs are spiking. Sounds like you chose an excellent time to get this project completed.

Paint shortage?!? Source please? Parents still need to paint 3 rooms...

Edit: googled it. Interesting, I haven't seen any evidence of shortages when buying paint this summer. Of course, I'm also not pulling cans off the shelves to do the color mixing, the staff is. So I'm not in the stacks much. And most of the primer I've needed to buy was oil based, which is much less popular.

I was getting paint from Sherwin-Williams a couple days ago, and their shelves were almost completely bare. They were out of anything 1gal+ in all but their most popular lines.

Conversely,Lowe's/Home Depot's shelves are completely stocked with Valspar/Behr/PPG, and the local Benjamin Moore store seems to have a robust availability, so I think it's really variable by region.

As for OP's question, my new neighbor actually used to paint houses professionally (mostly him and a couple hired hands). Since it's impossible to ballpark something without seeing it, he told me that he'd typically pull about $100/hr profit after materials - but that would also vary depending on how much help he had. 

He'd do at least a coat a day on a house, maybe two depending on the size of the house and the climate conditions. I have no idea how to forecast how much time it'd take him total but if you invested 120ish person-hours, a pro with a sprayer and a hired hand could probably do it in 25-50 hours, I'd guess. So with cost of materials and targeting $100/hr, you'd probably be in the $5k+ range like you estimate.

[Dicey]

Apparently it's a combination of supply chain issues for raw materials and lack of manpower due to Covid. DH purchases for his firm and books/preps well into the future, so he's seeing it in a big way. Anecdotally, my cousin's condo complex is being prepped for repainting. Their order is for 2500 gallons of Sherwin Williams paint. They were just told last week it's going take six months to get it and the price went up significantly. WTF? Even a six week delay is going to be an expensive pain in the ass.

Conclusion: the problem may be less apparent if you only need a gallon or two. @Sibley, tell your parents to grab their paint and supplies asap. Paint keeps for a long time when stored correctly.

[Sibley]

Apparently it's a combination of supply chain issues for raw materials and lack of manpower due to Covid. DH purchases for his firm and books/preps well into the future, so he's seeing it in a big way. Anecdotally, my cousin's condo complex is being prepped for repainting. Their order is for 2500 gallons of Sherwin Williams paint. They were just told last week it's going take six months to get it and the price went up significantly. WTF? Even a six week delay is going to be an expensive pain in the ass.

Conclusion: the problem may be less apparent if you only need a gallon or two. @Sibley, tell your parents to grab their paint and supplies asap. Paint keeps for a long time when stored correctly.

They're using Pittsburg, available from Menards. I use Sherwin Williams from the actual Sherwin Williams store, but don't have any need to buy paint right now. Luckily. However, with what they have left to paint (2 bedrooms and the dining room), and I have no idea what colors they'll pick, the risk of getting the wrong base is pretty high. They should only need about 3-5 more gallons for the inside, we got everything else done already. We'll hopefully be ok. And they can switch types if necessary.

Exterior isn't until next year, so hopefully the supply issues will be worked out by then. I'm not going to worry about it at least.

[clarkfan1979]

I'm curious whether you had any weather problems. At some point I want to repaint our roof here on the Big Island but given that the weather is basically either:

• Sunny, in which case it's too hot to paint.
• Raining, in which case it's too humid to paint (even if you're not painting the roof)

Given you basically invested a month of your time doing this, I assume you took care to actually do the job correctly. But painting here and staying within the manufacturer's recommended environmental conditions seems almost impossible.

In reference to weather, I think the trade winds are too strong for a sprayer. The house is on a hill with an elevation of 500 ft. Maybe someone who is super skilled and knows how to paint a sprayer in the wind would be ok.

I've painted enough to know what I like and what I don't like. I just created a painting plan that worked for me. I don't like to be rushed and I don't like painting more than 4 hours per day. I only painted in shade, which dictated the time of day on some days.

My wife said it wasn't that bad and she actually enjoyed herself. The weather was good and we had a nice breeze. She doesn't really like painting inside.

[PMJL34]

I didn't know this forum existed until today. Hi everyone!

Clark, I don't think you saved any money.

However, I'm sure you enjoyed your visit to the island and did a better job than a cheap painting could would have done.

If saving money was your only goal, then hire the painters next time because time is indeed money.

[clarkfan1979]

I spoke with my Kauai neighbor about two weeks ago. We were talking about my new paint job. He voluntarily told me that he paid $10,000 to have his house painted 8 years ago.

His cost of $10,000 does include the cost of the paint. I spent $1075 on paint and another $125 on supplies. However, it wouldn't be unreasonable to spend $2500 on paint if you go with a more expensive brand, especially if you are buying it from the painting company and not the store. They probably have an up-charge fee.

Our houses are similar size and design.