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We are building a house, and our builder has offered us a $5,000 credit for painting the interior ourselves. This is a 3500 square foot house, with a 2-story foyer, and the first floor has 9 foot ceilings. Would we be crazy to paint this ourselves? We have a lot of painting experience, but we’ve only done a few rooms at a time? How long would it take us to prime & paint the ceilings and walls of this monster?
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Bill,
I don't know if anyone here can help you with this question.
It's kind of like "How long will it take to eat a Big Mac and fries?"
Some folks eat faster than others.
Sorry,
Ed. Williams
*Bill,I got to feeling bad about my last post. I'm not tring to be a "smart mouth" but some here may disagree with that.I just want to to know what you're getting into with painting a whole 3500 sq ft house. It's not at all like re-painting your bed room blue.Do you own a spray rig and know how to use it? If not are you going to brush and roll the whole house? Is there any stain and seal work? Can you do that too? Do you know how to get rid of the paint spoil by EPA standards? Is there a lot of prep work? Is the house "paint ready" or did the drywall people and trim and cabinet carpenters leave you a nightmare? (It does happen). Do you have to take off work? Did you factor that into the cost? Can your wife and you still be friends after this is over? Are you going to buy Pratt and Lambert paint or whatever Home Depot has on sale?I'm not trying to talk you out of DIY, but you need to know what you're getting into.$5000 is not a lot to have someone else who does this all the time spare you the headache and trouble.Good luck,Ed. Williams
*Bill;Ed hits alot of the points you should keep in mind. When I get bids for "interior paint" this includes all cabinets, trim, stain, lacquer and latex wall paint.Just walls, seal/prime/ 2 coats spray and backroll...sure $5k is worth it for 5 days work. if you need to finish stain grade cabinets and trim, thats is alot of work. Even if you have paint grade trim, it still needs fill and sanding, masking, separate finish operations. (gloss/semi gloss trim versus flat/eggshell walls)Can't tell you which way to go, but I'd make sure you know what you are agreeing to if you take the 5k!P.S. I did it....once, years ago!G' luckAdam
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Bill,
The credit sounds a little stingy. I'm not sure where you live but $5,000 wouldn't get the 1st floor painted here in CT! I considered this a while back when I was looking into building a house. (I ended up walking away from the entire thing, but that's another story.) I was a painter when I was in college so I'm sure I would have given it a go.
If you decide to do it, I'd recommend you buy or rent one of those fancy roller/spray combo tools. These things are big time savers. You spray on the paint with one side of your roller wand and roll it on with the other. No dipping. Most importantly, it saves time "cutting in" rooms. That's normally the most time-consuming part of painting, especially for a DIY. At the very least, consider buying one of those Wagner sprayers to cut in.
Good Luck.
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$5,000 wouldn't cut it. I'd have the contractor paint it for that price. I couldn't match it.
We paint by wall area, not square footage of floor. So there is some missing data.
What kind of job? It this was a first house, and you're not particular, why not just tape the living daylights out of everything, rent a sprayer, but some cheap Home Depot interior sealer and go for it! Navaho white for days. You could do the whole place in a weekend. Then in a couple years, start working on all the individual rooms like you really want them.
*If you go at it yourself, consider using an 18" roller. It goes much, much faster. Also, for the trim, a high-quality properly sized brush will give you better, faster results, and in the end still be cheaper than several less expensive disposable brushes.A good quality extension pole, the 18" roller head and the paint bucket will run you around 125-150 USD. Don't cheap out on the paint. Cheap paint will look cheap, and you'll be looking at that cheap paint and regretting it until you give in and repaint using quality goods.The walls and ceilings are the easy part, it's the cutting in and wood trim that will slow you down.A paint store can help you estimate the material costs. Figure if your labor is worth the $$ that are left over. If it's something that you really want to do, then the self-satisfaction of a DIY job should be worth a few points somewhere in the equation.
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Bill
Let me give you a few words of advice, your builder is giving you a 5,000$ credit for a reason: 1.) it is going to cost more than 5k, 2.) painting is a tough hot and dirty job, especially if you do not know the tricks of the trade per se, 3.) If he will let you, ask hime to give you a higher credit but use this to hire your own painter if you have to.
I would never think of letting my customers paint and stain their home, especially after having beautiful woodwork, cabinets, doors, and windows installed.
If you have the money to build a 3500 sf custom home then pay to have it professionally finished, it is worth the money.
Gerard
*My wife did 3 coats on our 3100 sf house. Took about a month and a half. Ours sounds similar to yours - 9' ceilings, 2 story foyer and great room. Get one of those power rollers that pumps paint to the roller direct from the bucket.As for all the advice of getting a "pro", well in this market, a "pro" is anyone who can occasionally show up on the job. They don't even have to know how to tie their shoes. I've seen "pros" spraying exteriors in 32 degree weather with the snow falling, insides that looked like they diluted one bucket to do the whole house, and other stuff my kids do better. Sure, looks good for the closing, but within 2 years, you'll be doing the whole house all over again. And I'm not talking el cheapo's here, these houses sell for $400 thou plus.
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We are building a house, and our builder has offered us a $5,000 credit for painting the interior ourselves. This is a 3500 square foot house, with a 2-story foyer, and the first floor has 9 foot ceilings. Would we be crazy to paint this ourselves? We have a lot of painting experience, but we've only done a few rooms at a time? How long would it take us to prime & paint the ceilings and walls of this monster?