Author Topic: Paint house myself or hire?  (Read 2858 times)

ricelife

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Paint house myself or hire?
« on: June 15, 2022, 08:35:19 AM »
Talk me out of hiring someone to paint our house.

Reasons why I want to hire:
Have a baby under 1 year old. Would need to find babysitter to take care of him while painting (out of the house)
Will also need to leave house for 1-2 days to let paint dry.
I’ve got one of those vaulted ceilings where the stairs are. Not sure how to paint up there
Last time we painted (Sept 2020) it took way too long, and then I had killer back pain for 1 week after


Reasons why I want to DIY:
Save money of course

innkeeper77

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2022, 08:50:48 AM »
Is this a new house? Because I might be confused, but paint should stay good a LOT longer than two years. What is wrong with it? Wanting a color change? Did you use flat paint and then wear it out by cleaning? If that's the case, paint with something with more sheen that can take the abuse of cleaning. Eggshell, semi gloss, or etc.

dcheesi

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2022, 08:58:34 AM »
Is this a new house? Because I might be confused, but paint should stay good a LOT longer than two years. What is wrong with it? Wanting a color change? Did you use flat paint and then wear it out by cleaning? If that's the case, paint with something with more sheen that can take the abuse of cleaning. Eggshell, semi gloss, or etc.
This, plus that baby will reach prime wall-drawing age before you know it. Anything you paint now will likely be dinged, smudged, hand-printed, etc. in a few years time anyway.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2022, 09:38:07 AM »
Yeah, more info is needed here.

We are about to paint the interior of the house next week, and we've painted the inside of a house before with young kids.  Here are a few thoughts:
1) hiring someone is going to be really expensive, especially in today's market.  We have a lot of walls to paint, and the quote we got for walls and trim was something like $8k.  We figured the materials cost for us is going to be about $2k, including Sherwin Williams paint.
2) why would you need to leave the house for a couple of days while the paint dries?  Do you have a sensitivity to the fumes?  Latex paint dries in a couple of hours, and by all accounts isn't hazardous.
3) why do you need to exile the 1-year-old?  There are lots of ways to manage kids so you can paint, without hiring a sitter.
4) high ceilings over stairs are indeed a challenge.  I plan to build a platform that screws into the (carpeted) stairs, on which I can put a ladder, in order to reach the top of the wall.
5) being in good (or even "reasonable") physical shape will help tremendously, particularly core strength.  If you don't currently exercise, I'd recommend taking steps to improve your tone, so that you don't suffer as much after you paint.

GreenQueen

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2022, 10:02:06 AM »
Is this a new house? Because I might be confused, but paint should stay good a LOT longer than two years. What is wrong with it? Wanting a color change? Did you use flat paint and then wear it out by cleaning? If that's the case, paint with something with more sheen that can take the abuse of cleaning. Eggshell, semi gloss, or etc.
This, plus that baby will reach prime wall-drawing age before you know it. Anything you paint now will likely be dinged, smudged, hand-printed, etc. in a few years time anyway.

Jumping on this. Unless you absolutely must paint the house, can you wait? We have small people and will not consider a decent new couch and floors until the youngest is 5 most likely.

That said, DIY will be a nightmare with a 1-year-old. I helped my good friend paint her entire house (3 stories, high ceilings) and it is quite an undertaking in the best of times. Plus, setup and cleanup are time consuming and you need someplace to store all your gloppy paint supplies until you are done.

getsorted

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2022, 10:04:44 AM »
3) why do you need to exile the 1-year-old?  There are lots of ways to manage kids so you can paint, without hiring a sitter.

This person knows their kid. My kid could climb out of a play yard at 9 months (three entire months before he could so much as toddle), and broke every kind of baby-proofing gear we ever tried. I once left him in a playpen for a quick pee and when I came back, he was sitting in the kitchen sink. Containment/exile is not an option with some kids! 

Babysitters are much cheaper than painters, though.

Sibley

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2022, 10:53:41 AM »
I would DIY most of it. I am not capable of safely painting the stairwell, so I hired a painter to do that in my house, along with the exterior windows. Heights are a problem for me.

However, I agree with the others. I don't know why you have to vacate for a few days, and I don't know why you're painting after 2 years, especially with the kid just coming into prime wall-smearing age. I think you need to elaborate on the challenges here. As for getting kid out of the way - family, friends, or paid babysitter of some sort.

Also, you don't have to do the entire house all at once (if you do need to repaint). I do one room at a time, it's a weekend job assuming you're not doing crazy prep work. One day to prep and do first coat, do the 2nd coat the next morning, then that evening put the furniture back so the room is functional. I rehang pictures, etc the next weekend so the paint cures well. Yes there's downsides but painting is a luxury item. No one will die if the walls are the wrong color.

BudgetSlasher

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2022, 04:34:11 PM »
Wait, does everyone else here DIY paint their entire house all at once?

We've a room almost every year for the last 8 years, and I expect there are several more years to paint inside before we have to deal with outside trim. And it always takes longer because our walls need a good bit of repair work.

I would DIY it, but for us kids are not a consideration and we somewhat enjoy doing it ourselves. With kids my time would probably have a different value and I would at least get a quote for a pro.

Why do you need to leave the house for a day or two, is someone chemical sensitive? I've never had an issue with staying inside with the water based low VOC paints.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #8 on: June 15, 2022, 06:07:33 PM »
Why are we painting the whole house at once?  Well, it's not the *whole* house.  The three kids' bedrooms have been painted since we moved in 11 years ago, and we just finished the basement a few years ago, so that paint is still fresh.  But the rest of the house is showing the wear and tear of 11 years x 6 kids.  It doesn't help that the existing paint is flat.

Sibley

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2022, 09:17:58 PM »
Why are we painting the whole house at once?  Well, it's not the *whole* house.  The three kids' bedrooms have been painted since we moved in 11 years ago, and we just finished the basement a few years ago, so that paint is still fresh.  But the rest of the house is showing the wear and tear of 11 years x 6 kids.  It doesn't help that the existing paint is flat.

That makes sense though. You've done the kids-destroy-the-walls phase, now it's time to get a fresh coat of paint on the walls. It just happens to be a good chunk of the house. I would split it up though by room, you just run into where do you put everything issues. And older kids for sure can help. Moving stuff, covering what's left, washing walls, small spackle jobs, etc. Depending on how old, have them actually paint too (there's a minimum size basically, and also factor in maturity).

ricelife

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #10 on: June 15, 2022, 09:32:12 PM »
OK sorry I don't think i was clear!!

This is an older house but we bought it a few years ago and didn't paint it in the initial move. Paint is a hideous and dark colour and because we had to fix a few things in the house we have various patched walls that are an eyesore. Paint is also 10+ years old and has taken a bunch of abuse.
We painted the 3 bedrooms and the basement ourselves pre-baby in 2020 so those wouldn't be included. What we need painted now is the hallway (which runs from 1st to 2nd floor including that vaulted stairs thing I mentioned. Plus the living room. So I can't really just do one room at a time - this is sort of one large room.
Want to leave the house because of chemical sensitivies - even when I painted with the zero VOC paint I had issues with my asthma and got hives/rashes from the dang fumes. I painted wearing a half mask respirator fitted with a VOC cartridge. Unfortunately,  I worked in manufacturing for a long time (in paints) so I now have chemical sensitivities to solvents and pigments.
Exile the baby because if I leave him in the house while painting he will only cause more problems.
I had a rough pregnancy/birth so I haven't been able to get back into shape. Husband also having some 'old man' fitness problems

Can I wait? Yes. Do I want to wait? No....I'm so impatient! hahaha

Maybe I should wait. Baby is less than 12 months old and we might have another. We are in peak wall destroying years.

gooki

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2022, 01:09:40 AM »
Not a whole house, and can probably be done by a painter in a single day. So yeah I'd happily go get a couple of quotes.

BudgetSlasher

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2022, 05:16:20 AM »
If I had chemical sensitivities to paint, I would definitively get quotes for having it professionally done. Once you have the quote you'll have to decide whether the cost is worth it.

My observation is that kids can be a destructive force for much more than a year or two, plus if there is a second the timer starts all over again. From your description of the walls being a hideous dark color, I personally would not wait for the kids to be older to change the color. It is amazing how much nicer a room can be just by getting rid of a bad color.

Sibley

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2022, 08:42:16 AM »
That additional info makes way more sense.

Get quotes. Decide if you're willing to pay that amount. If you do most of the prep work yourself and move furniture out that may reduce the quotes a bit.

sonofsven

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #14 on: June 16, 2022, 08:43:13 AM »
To paint the high areas you use a combination of ladders (and/or staging platforms) and planks.
I use ladders every day but I don't like to work from a ladder, it's much better to work from a plank.

CNM

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #15 on: June 16, 2022, 01:11:10 PM »
Everyone can punch me in the face, but I would hire this out.  This is what we did when we did a large interior paint project. 

Here is why: (1) we moved away (stayed at my parents' house) for the few days it was being painted (2) because we have kids and they cannot be trusted with living in an ongoing paint project.  And (3) while none of have sensitivities per se, we wanted to give the house a day or two to air out. I should also say that unless we hired a babysitter, one of the two of us would have been occupied watching them.

Why didn't we wait until our youngest (a toddler) was out of the wall drawing days?  Because (1) our walls also had a lot of patch work done and were an eyesore and (2) with the new paint, we could match it/use leftovers if touchups were needed.

ricelife

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #16 on: June 19, 2022, 09:31:56 AM »
Thanks so much everyone! I’m going to get some quotes and see how it goes

Yaaa…i just felt like it wasn’t so easy for me in my situation to paint myself. Even though diy painting would be the more frugal way to go about things

clarkfan1979

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #17 on: June 19, 2022, 09:46:04 AM »
I painted the exterior of a rental last summer. We were stayed at the rental for vacation for 6 weeks. Total time for painting was 3.5 weeks about 4 hours/day. My abs were sore from reaching with a paint brush. I lost weight.

Cost me $1200 in materials and my time.

My father in law told me that I probably saved $3000. It was his polite way of saying "you should have paid someone" My response was, "Well what ever you think painting a house cost last year, double it for this year 2021" He didn't believe me, but now he does. He got a letter from his HOA saying that he has to paint his house within 6 months. He is paying $9,000 and it doesn't include staining the deck. He decided to do that himself to save money. This is in Colorado.

I spoke to my neighbor near the rental. He paid $10,000 (8 years ago). His house is similar size and design. This is Hawaii. 

lutorm

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #18 on: June 27, 2022, 07:14:59 PM »
We've been painting our house for a decade. The painting is a tiny, tiny part of the job, the prep work is the painful part. If the existing paint is in good shape and you can just TSP it, then it's fast. But if it's cracking/peeling etc and needs to be scraped, dings be repaired, sanded, etc, then I don't think there's any way you can do a good job on a whole house at once and still do a good job. It least if you live there.

The problem with hiring someone is that they can do shoddy prep work and you won't be able to tell until the paint starts peeling after a couple years. I'm sure there are reputable painters that don't skimp on this, but all my prior experience says that "Joe's painting" who gives you the cheapest bid won't.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2022, 07:17:36 PM by lutorm »

Metalcat

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #19 on: June 28, 2022, 06:43:26 AM »
We've been painting our house for a decade. The painting is a tiny, tiny part of the job, the prep work is the painful part. If the existing paint is in good shape and you can just TSP it, then it's fast. But if it's cracking/peeling etc and needs to be scraped, dings be repaired, sanded, etc, then I don't think there's any way you can do a good job on a whole house at once and still do a good job. It least if you live there.

The problem with hiring someone is that they can do shoddy prep work and you won't be able to tell until the paint starts peeling after a couple years. I'm sure there are reputable painters that don't skimp on this, but all my prior experience says that "Joe's painting" who gives you the cheapest bid won't.

This is why I always do all of the prep work myself. I don't trust painters and the ones I do trust are heinously expensive.

I just hired a painter for a rental property, but we did the work together. I did all of the prep, he did the main open-concept space and I did all of the bedrooms. This was a smoke-remediation job, so I needed help.

In my prep I also meticulously tape down drop sheets on all floors. This dramatically speeds up the process.

I will never, ever use a ladder for painting, not worth the risk. I bought a small scaffold unit for $150. Larger scaffold can easily be rented.

If I had chemical sensitivities, I would hire out the actual painting job to someone who charges hourly, but I would do all of the prep myself, including drop-sheet/taping, and then just have them hammer it out quickly.

patchyfacialhair

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #20 on: June 28, 2022, 06:50:46 AM »
We had almost the entirety of our house painted very recently. Everything minus 3 of the bedrooms upstairs. Was like $5500, and that included the ceilings. We left our house for the week and stayed in hotels. So while the whole week was very expensive, it was awesome. I didn't have to worry about my kids messing up taped off areas. I didn't worry about living in a smelly house. I just left, and came back, and it was all done.

Would I have done this if I didn't have kids? Probably not. Would have DIYd it. But with kids, it was priceless, and I'd 100% do it again.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #21 on: June 28, 2022, 07:42:04 AM »
Last weekend, we had a bunch of family join us, and in three days, we painted almost the entire interior of the house.  Painting is definitely an 80/20 thing.  Big walls take hardly any time to paint.  Trim takes forever.  Prep takes a long time.  We had lots of dings in the walls to repair, but Easy Sand 45 dries quickly, as does primer, so it wasn't a huge deal.

I had originally planned to use our extension ladder to get the top of our two-story family room, but then learned that Menards will rent you scaffolding for super cheap.  Seriously.  We rented a scaffold tall enough for us to reach the 18-foot ceiling, for three days, and it cost a grand total of $44.  Worth.  Every. Penny.

ricelife

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #22 on: August 04, 2022, 05:44:00 PM »
So I got a quote and am hiring a guy! Holy cannoli it is expensive but I feel it is worth it.

So I’m in Canada (Toronto area) and will be getting 1 door replaced, paint all doors, new door hardware, paint hall/upstairs hall/living room. It’s $3500 ish over a 2-3 day job. I told him I will do some of the prep work like filling in holes

affordablehousing

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #23 on: August 08, 2022, 10:06:22 AM »
That sounds like a bargain. Great job finding a cheap deal!

Just Joe

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #24 on: August 09, 2022, 01:56:18 PM »
Yeah for that price I'd hire it out too.

fraylock

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Re: Paint house myself or hire?
« Reply #25 on: August 17, 2022, 05:05:45 AM »
Unrelated to OP's question, but on the same basic topic - This summer I decided to paint the exterior of our house myself by hand (with a brush), and thus far I am really enjoying the process.  Exterior feels much easier and less tedious than interior, and the nice thing about doing it myself is I can do small section at a time when I have an hour or two here or there.  I have two kids <4 but do small chunks of painting when they are napping etc, and will listen to podcasts while painting.  A couple of times I let the 4yo help, though as you might expect that gets messy.  I'm buying premium paints but despite that should be able to complete the house for <$350.

No judgement on those who choose to value their time by hiring this kind of work out, for me this has been a fun little project over the course of the summer.