Painting a House

Painting a House

Based on the size of the project, your schedule, and whether it’s an exterior or interior painting job, your answer could be different. Let's try to help you see what choice is the best for you. Painting is a key step of the home ownership/moving process. When your home or rental property needs of a fresh coat of paint, you’ll have to choose. Do you hire a professional painter/painting company or get the ladder, purchase the exterior paint and do the work by yourself?

Options: Hiring a Painter vs. DIY

When deciding whether to hire a professional painter/painting company or take on a house painting job by yourself, there are things to think about. Depending on the circumstances. Think about your painting needs and see how the following situations apply to you.

Size

Size has one of the biggest impacts on deciding whether to hire help or do it with your own hands. Think if this is a realistic task to take on yourself. Does your house has multiple stories or is a townhouse? Do you just want to paint the Living Room or the entire interior? Once you factor in the time it takes to do the prep work and apply multiple coats of paint, a DIY paint job can get troublesome. If the house painting job is extensive, you may want to leave it to professionals.


New Drywall vs Previously painted Walls

Working in a brand new project with smooth surfaces reduces the prep work. On the other hand, if you’re painting an old home with damaged walls, it’s going to take a lot longer. When deciding focus on the condition of the walls. If you’re not up for the challenge of scraping and sanding for hours, you should hire help to get the best results.


Interior work vs. exterior work

An exterior paint job tends to be more complicated. Indoors, you will not deal with the weather. When painting the exterior of a home, however, you have to think about the difficulty to reach places. If you just want to repaint your front door, we trust that you’ll be able to do it yourself. Contrarily, a full exterior project requires professional help.


Option A: Professional Painters

If you’ve decided you don’t have the time or expertise to paint your house by yourself, it’s time to hire someone. Here’s how to proceed when hiring professional painters:

Get a quote/painting estimate/request references

Before hiring a painting company, you should get an quote from them. This should include costs for labor, materials, paint, quality of paint and the timeframe of the project. Bringing these details upfront will prevent problems from emerging later on.

When you hire a professional, you need to play a small role in the process.

Payments

You want to avoid companies that makes you pay in full upfront. Painters may request a down payment of 20% to 30% of a job’s total cost. All terms of the payment schedule should be written out in a contract, detailing the exact cost based on materials and labor.


Option B: By Yourself

Paint Buying Guide

You may be tempted to purchase the cheapest kind of paint you can find, Let me remind that you want the paint to look good and last. If you haven’t chosen a color, there are a great number of apartment design apps out there to spark inspiration. Then you’ll have to choose what kind of paint you want.

Latex paint

Water-based paint, the most popular and environmentally friendly paint. Since latex paints provide great color retention, they’re ideal for interior/exterior walls that face a lot of bad weather. Additionally, latex paints dry way faster than oil-based.

Oil-based paint

Are more durable. Oil-based paints should be used on surfaces where you want the finish to last for a long time. Has a stronger odor and takes long time to dry, its durability is unmatchable. The strength of oil-based paints makes them a great choice for moldings and trims.

Estimating how much paint you need

Paint is expensive. Buying too much paint will be frustrating since paint stores won’t refund a tinted gallon. First buy around 80% of the estimated paint then purchase the remainder when you’re almost finished. Things like square footage, surface, and quality of paint all play into how much paint you’ll need

The Paint Finish

Dull to high gloss/lacquer finishes, paint comes in several different finish. Glossier finishes tend to be more durable and washable. But will show defects on the walls. Flat paint, on the other side, is better at hiding surface imperfections. Pearl and eggshell lusters fall somewhere in the middle, as they are more washable than flat paint and partially hide irregularities.


Make a Plan


  1. Scrape/Remove loose/peeling paint

  2. Remove or replace any rotten wood

  3. Sanding Process

  4. Tape and cover doors, windows, and hardware

  5. Apply Primer

  6. Apply Caulk

  7. Paint the trim

  8. Apply a second coat on trim

  9. Clean walls

  10. Tape and spread drop cloths

  11. Prep your walls

  12. Apply primer and sand

  13. Paint Walls

  14. Clean