Exterior House Painting

[Rose Pink]

Anyone had this done by a professional lately? What were the costs? Did you like the job they did?

We have a brick home and so have not had to do this for a long time. My FIL's house is in need and I am just looking for ideas, suggestions, caveats, etc. TIA

 

[Big Matt]

I did this twice before switching to trim wrap. It looks great and you never need to paint ever again. It was about twice as much as painting, but for me, I'll be in my house for about 20 years and it was worth it. I was paying about $1200-1500 for the paint and $2500 for the trim wrap five years ago.

 

[swift]

There are a lot of variables to the answer to your question. A lot depends on how big the house is, how much prep work has to be done (this is a biggie), if you have a one story or two story home, are you going to put any additives in the paint, some painters charge if you have more than two colors, where you live.

We just had our house painted last year and it cost us $4,745.00. Before starting the job I got several bids. This one was not the lowest but not the highest either. Our home is a one story just under 2,000 sq ft. We had three colors put on and because of the amount of sun our house receives we had an additive put in the paint to keep it from oxidizing as quickly. And, yes I love it and recieve many complements on it. The additive also seems to make the color richer.

 

[Rose Pink]

Thanks for the info. My FIL's house is about 1500 sq feet give or take, single story but would require two colors--one for trim. It probably needs a lot of prep work, too. I was hoping to spend less than $1000 but I see I am way behind the times.

 

[Elan]

A friend in our neighborhood just had his house repainted. Roughly 3000sf, 2 story -- repaint of both body and trim. He told me it cost $2800, and that he had estimates as high as $4K.

 

[tompalm]

A lot of the cost depends on the prep. If all it needs is a pressure wash and a coat of primer, than it keeps the cost down. Make sure that they use a good primer and good quality paint. You should state which brand of paint you want and make sure they get it. Consumer Reports magazine has a review every year on which paints last longer. Also, make sure that they put on one coat of primer and two coats of paint. The second coat doesn't cost much more and it keeps the house looking better for a lot longer.

 

[geekette]

yeah, lots of variables.

We got an estimate maybe 10 years back for our little one-story ranch (~1200 sq ft) that was about $2000.

Last summer we got an estimate for doing our detached 2.5 car garage and house trim (we sided the house). Estimates were $2-4k, mostly because the garage was going to require a lot of prep, and a lot of paint.

We opted to do the work ourselves both times. Professional exterior painting projects are not inexpensive but can certainly be worth it.

You might see if they would do the prep (oh, how I hate scraping!) and maybe the primer coat, and you could take it from there? If you do go that way, see if you can piggy back on any paint discounts they might be eligible for that you are not.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Paint is a product where you get what you pay for. One criterion you should use to distinguish among contractors is the paint that they use. A contractor who has lower standards is probably going to quote using lower quality paint.

If a contractor uses lower quality paint you won't be able to tell the difference after painting is done; the difference will show in a couple of years. All paints chalk. You want them to chalk because that's how they shed dirt. Cheap paints generally have fewer paint solids, so they hare more likely to show through after some chalking. Also, cheap paints have lower quality carriers, which means the solids are bound less tightly to each other and to the undercoat. And that means that they chalk more heavily and they don't seal the surface as effectively.

We painted our house ourselves more than ten years ago. I used some of the highest quality paint I could find. I've been doing pressure washing cleaning the last couple of weekends, and after ten years of Northwest winters and summers, after a mind pressure wash it looks as good as it did when it was painted. No cracking or peeling, plenty of coverage.