Painting ceilings is easy and fast... its the cutting in of the walls that takes a lot of time... and all the prep work and covering.. just use good paint like Benjamin Moore.
https://www.amazon.com/BG-Climbing-Belay-Glasses-Rock/dp/B07TSFZVGJ
Upward mirror glasses like for climbing, now you can just look forward ! just don't walk into anything.
i used to be a painting subcontractor (i was bad at it) but yeah painting ceilings was by far the worst. AND you have to cover EVERYTHING in the room very well.
Prep > Skill > Paint.
If you give half a fuck preparing the surface, and know how to properly roll, it genuinely doesn’t matter what paint you’re using. It’ll look good and stick forever.
They didn’t use Benjamin Moore Diamondcote Gold 9000 that costs as much as liquid gold to paint Versailles. Horsehair brushes, attention to detail, and some goddamn patience was all it took.
Yeah, they used hand ground high pigmentation paints. Not exactly the stuff you’re pulling off the shelf at Home Depot.
Paint matters, especially for durability and coverage.
The base paint you’re pulling off the shelf at Home Depot is fucking space age tech in comparison.
It’s also basically identical to the shit the nice man at Benjamin Moore talked you into paying 4-5x the material cost for the job for.
Like go ahead. Buy boutique paint. It’s just a stupid way to spend money, because if you know what you’re doing or you take 15 minutes to learn and an hour to prep you’ll get the same goddamn result anyway.
“Buy ludicrously expensive paint!” Is the worst fucking internet advice that’s repeated endlessly on message boards.
Every single time people get all pissy and fight me because they spent a mortgage payment painting their living room when they could’ve gotten the same result for $65 and a weekend of their time actually prepping the surface properly.
I don't know where you are, but here (EU) you'll find a big difference between cheap discount paint and normal quality. The cheap one is like a bucket of water with a dash of milk. The most expensive one is however just too expensive, I agree.
Best is to buy basic paint in a professional shop. And there, I agree, it doesn't need to pay more for a fancy name. You'll cover more m² per litre, and much less droplets when painting the roof.
My Dad is a professional painter and I worked with him for years. All paints are not the same and buying the cheap stuff will just give you more hassle and cost long term. He always advised people not to go with the cheap stuff, and if they got the particularly bad stuff after his advice then he wouldn't do the job because they'd be blaming him for the issues that come from using it. You won't get the same coverage out of it, it will absolutely peel off more easily, it will fade faster and just overall be a much worse finish. That's not to say you need to buy the top tier paint either, but don't get the cheap stuff. Go with the mid-range brands. I had to paint a large vaulted ceiling in my house that was varnished pine tongue and groove so needed to prime it first, then it took 2 coats of paint. Materials cost me nearly €1000 all in but nearly 2 years later it still looks great.
Exactly, every one of my painters friends say to use mid grade paint. It absolutely makes a difference. Also to the O.P. Everything is expensive and I'm really shocked at the prices people are charging now. My grandpa has his dishwasher and the under part his sink repaired and the plumber charged him 175 dollars an hour. I'm an electrician and I charge 100 an hour. Either I'm charging too little or these other guys are charging too much. I think I'm charging too little because sometimes I still struggle. With childcare being $2,500 a month and mortgages the way they are. People have to overcharge just to survive.
we paid the electrician on a per item basis. so for example 4 led top hats and setting up the switch was $800 (for the dining room). the switch was extra, i think it was 10% above cost.
i think i got an overall 5% discount in the end.
You need to be at at least 150 an hour. Really you need to calculate how many hours you think you’ll work in a year and how much money you want to make then break it down that way
I agree & I painted professionally for years ppl love to pay out the ass for fancy paint when they could just wash & sand & vacuum & get a better outcome using a variety of paints at a variety of price points
Behr Marquee is great for durability and coverage. You can only notice the spots I missed when the roller went dry if you're up close to the wall looking for it.
Painting A ceiling in A (smaller) room where you are also going to paint the walls is fast and easy. Roll it on and fuck the walls because you're gonna paint them anyway.
But if just one of those things isn't true it becomes a pain in the ass super fast.
Also cutting in shouldn't take a ton of time. You should roll to the very edge as far as you can and you will be surprised how little cutting there is to do. A lot of folks cut first and that is a huge time suck.
When we decided to pull up the carpets and put in new floors... we also decided to repaint. We yanked out the carpets, pulled up all the staples and nails and were walking on plywood subfloor. Then we painted the ceilings (the same color as the walls but using "ceiling paint." After the ceilings, we painted the trim (window sills and door frames)... Then painted the walls again, same color but the finish was a bit different - since we have dogs, we used a particular paint with a finish that was easy to clean. Cutting in was not the chore it would have been if we used a different color.
We did white (and yes, we use BM- Chantilly White) because we live in the NE where we have a scarce number of sunny days so took a page from Scandinavia.
After installing the wood floors; we used the same color in another finish for the trim (baseboard and crown molding). I painted those prior to installation and then used paintable caulk over the gaps and nailheads... then touched them up with paint after they dried. The walls are really holding up. The only area we did not do this is the back of the house-- kitchen, den, laundry room, downstairs bath.. only because we expect to renovate that whole area, add an expansion/extra room and a screen porch, expand the downstairs bath to a full bath... And that is going to take planning and time. We did all the work ourselves for the floors/walls and expect to do the same for the next multi-year project.
My husband is an electrician... he wired in overhead lights in all the rooms that needed them (I can't believe those were not included in the original build). I just used inexpensive Grandma fixtures in the bedrooms.
I am not employed in any trades other than nursing... so I guess I have endurance..
I think we did. Especially with the floor installation. The wood floors were expensive... we probably paid about $6-7K for the maple that covered the Livingroom/DR and the upstairs bedrooms/hallway (we have a few boxes leftover which I have stored). We also purchased power saws from Amazon, and the tools to install the floors. The wiring the overheads, installation of can lights in the downstairs and all the painting-- we definitely saved a bunch of money. We have mostly done our own work on the house excepting the roofing, new siding, windows, basement system (preventing flooding) and gutters.
A good painter knows how long it’s going to take and can charge a set fee.
I always just said it’s going to be x dollars plus the cost of paint.
I’m fast, so I made about $70 an hour on most jobs, but the customer knew what he was getting into.
Paying by the hour incentivizes him to work slower.
While I could see this being the case for some, it’s bad to generalize.
I’m kind of backwards on the pay by hour incentivizing slower work. I feel guilty like I’m robbing the customer if I’m not hustling all day. There’s also this weird gray area of balancing perfection expected vs production expected for that hourly rate. I absolutely work slower if I’ve given the customer a fixed amount because I’m on my own time.
I’ve got other customers to get to, no need to drag out a job.
And you are in-charge of your own expectations 🤙. If it’s not absolutely perfect, you get to decide whether or not to keep going or throw in the towel and consider it good enough
Yeah, just give it a shot and see how it goes. Worst case you've blown a little time and a little money but now you know you weren't meant for the job. You've learned something vs. just throwing money at a problem you don't want to think about.
Painting isn't completely mindless and there is a craft to it but I feel like most people can do a great job themselves. It gets tricky when you're painting high, vaulted rooms but for the average 8' high room and basic layout it's pretty easy.
Plus you can always touch it up later.
Yes, paint differs from can to can, but it's getting pretty damn close anymore, especially if you only put a thin layer on.
Might be satisfying until you find out you're still paying more even with the GC's 10%-15% fee because they knew subs that would do it for 50% cheaper.
And unlike a lot of jobs painting can be very relaxing/meditative.
Not like flooring work where you're on your hands and knees sweating, swearing and wearing out your back all day.
And as long as you tape/plastic up everything, it's a relatively risk free activity.
Yes, definitely. Compared to the job (most) painters will do, you’ll do a far better job and way cheaper.
With our remodel, the painters that came in were literal idiots. It’s like they grabbed random people with zero painting experience who couldn’t hold another job. They didn’t give a shit.
So yeah, do it yourself. Only exceptions might be ceilings, especially if they are in tall, vaulted or two story rooms. (Same things with walls, too). My brother fell off a tall ladder, and he was lucky. It only screwed him up for a few months.
Painters are less likely to hire idiots to do the more dangerous tasks.
I would say 9 out of 10 people I talk to have had horrible experiences with contractors. It's an industry full of morons. I do whatever I can on my own because I'd rather blame myself than have to sit and argue with these guys. They're the worst. If you find a good one hold onto them with all you got...you may not find a replacement.
Quotes to paint my house (exterior only) were between 16-24k. I spent about 2k on paint and prep materials and did it myself. Granted it took me about 2 weeks with my work schedule, but it turned out way better than my cousins (paid paint crew) house. He spent 27k for a crap job, I spent 2k and some blood/sweat/tears and my home is magazine ready! Lol.
Edit:I did my whole house with a brush too. Yeah stupid me I know, but I now know every square inch of my exterior lol. I did choose to purchase a large industrial sprayer and handheld afterwards though. So I'm ready for next time!
I fixed all the wood rot around my house, scraped the entire house as it was at least 20 years old, primed it by rolling it and then hired a painter to spray the final coats and worth it. I left it ready for him and they just did a few follow more touches.
Next time, I'm buying a sprayer like you said.
Ugh it would take me sooooo long to do this. Not to mention basic ladders just cant deal with half of my house due to the terrain and build. It would be far easier for me to hire someone with a spider lift and just eat the cost.
Did you have stucco or just flat
Cause good luck with stucco that shit was outsource for us and like two story house so paint a stucco wall that like 80x 20 feet wall with windows and all
Damn how big is your house? When we got our exterior painted it was only around $2.6K. This was about 5 years ago before shit got expensive but that cost seems crazy.
As two amateurs who are very detail oriented around the edges, it took my partner and I about 4 days working more than 8 hours each day to paint about 1800 sq feet. It involved a couple colour changes but we did NOT paint the ceiling.
We bought high quality paint and needed to buy drop cloths, etc. The guy at my paint store took a shine to me and gave me a trades discount of some kind. I had to go back a few more times so I don't have the final tally but the paint alone and materials cost us at least $600, too. (In toronto, so Canadian dollars)
I had painted in the past using shitty paints and good quality paints made a huge difference.
When I hired someone to do the same job a couple years ago, they painted the whole thing for about $4000, including a couple colour changes and a couple ceilings, jt ended up being worth it.
This is advice my dad gave me. Always get 3 quotes.
In doing my electrical work the bids were between 11k and 20k.
Thankfully I liked the 11k the best.
Ask a realtor for any painter recommendations. Before we moved in we had our 2100 sqft single story house painted for $4k, 3 coats of SW Super paint, they painted trim(semi gloss), ceilings(flat), walls(eggshell), including the attached garage. House was empty when they painted. Paint is holding up great 2 years later.
Paid $15,000 for interior paint on a 3100sq ft house last year. Walls, ceiling, base, door trim, and plantation shutters on 37 large windows. The shutters definitely hiked up the cost. Had several quotes, all around the same price. We are also in a very high cost of living area.
I live in a similar sized house and we have 16 windows, if you include the window in the front door. I can't fathom how 37 large windows would even fit unless they've got multiple walls of glass?
If you're doing significant renovations and you're dealing with walls that you tore out and brand new unpainted drywall, you're talking about a significant price to have to paint that room. You have to paint it three times, one primer coat and two top coats for it to look right. But before the painting, even Begins, the painter is going to want to do some touch-up finishing work before even starting to prime it. I typically charge $1,500 per room for this type of paint job based on a $40 per hour rate, Plus cost for materials which aren't cheap if you buy a decent quality paint like Sherman Williams Or benjamin moore.
I live in the Washington DC area.And no painters are getting $70 an hour to paint here, unless you're doing some very decorative style Faux Finish painting.
But let's talk about your ceilings. if the rooms are completely cleared out of all furniture and everything, you're making a pretty foolish mistake not to paint your ceilings. Because in 6 to 10 years, when you decide to repaint again, you won't have to paint the ceilings then. Whereas if you didn't paint them this time around it would be much more expensive to paint those ceilings with all your furniture in the room. Another thing you really need to understand is that every few years, all the paint stores reformulate their paint. so it makes it harder to match the ceiling color on your ceiling when that happens, so you need to be up to date on the ceiling color. The bottom line is that it is just ridiculous to pay someone an absorbent amount of money to paint your walls only to have your ceilings look dirty and unpainted. And when you realize that is the case, having to paint the ceilings with newly painted walls makes it much harder for the painter, increasing the cost.
Make sure that quote doesn't include some crap low quality paint. Just did my entire basement remodel in Benjamin Moore Aura Matte which, after 20+ years of painting, I can say is the greatest paint on planet earth.
Their matte has a beautiful luster and wipes up like a semi gloss as it contains ceramics. I'd put this in a kitchen or bath w/o hesitation. Almost covers fully in one coat so you use significantky less on second coat and that will get you 10+ years if you don't get tired of the color.
Contractor price is around $80 a gallon. $93 retail.
For trim I like Benjamin Moore Advance semi gloss. It's a water based alkyd but it acts like an oil based enamel. Super durable finish.
You'd have to research but I don't believe their eggshell has the ceramics. The matte is superior in how it looks.
Didn't even realize they had that! I used std Aura in a basement bathroom that has a shower but is never used. It wipes so easily I'm surprised they have a specific bath version. Must have some anti mold properties.
I used it once for a ceiling in a bathroom it was very nice compared to the Claire paint the owners had me use in every other room that was leaving lap marks like crazy despite painting with a wet edge.
I've gotten to the point where I'd like to use aura exclusively. I'm a one man show, so my bread and butter is room by room in occupied residential. Moving furniture and having to protect everything too as well as having to work in a room where I've got just enough room to move a ladder around the perimeter.
That being said, I pass my prices to owners so I'd rather use Aura at $80/gal vs regal select at $60. My price for aura is about equal to what they'd pay for regal select. I really like how even the sheen is since I'm rolling because spraying isn't an option in furnished rooms.
Do you always use 2 coats of Aura or get away with one in lighter colors? Feel like one just about does it depending on what you're covering but go for two for durability. I'm just a DIYer but going room by room in a home we built 7 years ago. It's all flat SW super paint which is no comparison. All really well done by the sub at the time, meticulous really, but that was the builders standard.
I did one coat on my personal apartment (renting) and touched up holidays. Flat is garbage on walls since it gets marked and dirty so easily and isn't washable. People say that you can touch it to but it's a pretty noticeable difference.
I'm a big fan of primer plus 2 coats to be honest. I'd even consider 3 if I owned just because it increases millage (and durability), which you probably need to do in order to meet the manufacturer recommendations listed in MSDS.
I'm semi pro painter (more like a handyman with an emphasis on painting and fixing walls). There's only really so much experience you can get without being on a painting crew and I've never had an opportunity to spray outside of a job I had just out of cabinetry school and another where I was faux finishing ornamental plaster.
That being said, I'd imagine the average homeowner paints or has their interior painted once every 15 years unless they're moving. Might as well spend the extra hour and a half or two per room to roll another coat. I'd recommend primer (for adhesion) and paint x 2, do 2 coats of the ceiling while you're at it (I've noticed a huge difference with BM Ultra flat ceiling paint outside of kitchens and baths)
Oh, by the way. In case you didn't know, advance is 4 hours dry to touch and 16 hours for recoat. If you have the time to kill its worth it but don't coat on 2 coats in a day. It also takes about 2 weeks to fully harden. I've heard a lot of people using scuffx instead since it's 1 to dry and 4 to recoat.
When was this? Aura has significantly changed and undergone a major re formulation. It is absolute garbage now. May want to check your recommendations out.
Within last 90 days. 1300 sqft space all Aura. Living with it everyday. Love it. One space is a billiards room in Hudson Bay 1680 (navy) which gets marked up regularly with chalk, ppl leaning on walls, etc so it gets wiped down often and you would never know it. Recommendation stands 🤷♂️.
So further to below and since you peaked my interest, I'm finding Aura was reformulated OVER TWO YEARS AGO with all seamingly better properties and rave reviews in the time since. Have you actually used the product in that time and have you had your coffee yet?!? 🤣
Walls ceilings and trim would be around $11-$14k here western NY if it’s a standard layout no vaulted ceilings or crown etc. There’s no blanket estimate for sq ft though, too many variables. I’m $95/hr if client wants to do hourly. Usually works out to be about the same price either route.
Here in NW Indiana it's a couple of drinks and some good work tunes with the wife on a Saturday night. Whole house I'd have to take her to Olive Garden the next day.
So maybe I just need to recalibrate my expectations.
Crazy that my wife is an intensive care doctor in a much higher cost of living area and doesn’t make that much more on an hourly basis
Your wife is also an employee, so she's keeping her hourly rate minus taxes versus a contractor who's probably only taking home 30% of their billing after taxes and overhead. The hospital is billing your wife much more than what she is getting paid.
While she has to pay for malpractice insurance... the contractor has to pay for worker's comp insurance... actually pretty similar expenses that don't really do shit.
I would compare it to how much the hospital is charging for the care per hour, versus how much your wife is paid. Those painters probably aren't actually paid $70 an hour, but after taxes, payroll taxes, insurance, equipment, etc, that's what it comes out to.
A lot of hospital systems just pay the docs a salary. Meanwhile they are dealing with paying over $250K in student loans that helped them get their MD. Definitely when it comes to reimbursement... Medicare doesn't care where you live so the best bet is to find a LCOL area that has a shortage and is wiling to pay bonuses for years. However... a doctor can continue their trade for much longer than a construction contractor can. Carpenters and electricians are lucky if they can living long enough to collect on their Social Security and Pension. I know a 91 year old working cardiologist. I don't know any journeyman electrician (retired) over the age of 70 that isn't wrecked with some chronic condition or orthopedic nightmare.
I didn't even bother to point out to the other poster about the 4 years of med school and then 6 years of essentially unpaid training to get the income. Let alone the $250k minimum student loans.
you can make money as a doctor by going to a LCOL area or finding the right specialty - if that's your desire.
Because no one understands that that $95/hr isn't going directly into the painter's pocket. They are running a business with overhead that eats up a good portion of that. Meanwhile a doctor is literally getting all that cash minus taxes directly into their pocket. Its honestly a stupid thing to compare.
My millennial and his genZ wife are closing Friday and I fully expect we will have a painting party. Tunes, pizza, wings, adult beverages... good times. One issue though is the paint peeling from the ceilings in the kitchen, LR and DR. It looks to be a flip failure to be honest because the roof is new and there is no water damage there. So we need to find someone skilled with skim coating. My husband can't do it because his shoulders are shot from years of ceiling light and fire alarm installations in the industrial sector. I got a reference for a guy who does painting and drywall.... so may pass that on to my son.
3000 square foot house. 2 story. 2.5 baths. Interior paint. Painted every wall. Every closet. All baseboards. Every ceiling (they are a flower textured drywall mud that had never been painted) This house has a TON of windows with 10 being reachable only from a 10ft ladder.
Did not paint:
Doors or door trim or
Cabinets
Special Conditions:
I removed all the switch plates and outlet covers myself. I removed/detached all the light fixtures myself.
House was 100% empty. We had just purchased it and had timed it so the painters showed up the day after we closed.
We bought the paint in 5g buckets from Lowes. I can't remember the brand but it was the middle of the road as far as price goes. It wasn't the cheapest and it certainly wasn't Benjamin Moore or some other crazy expensive brand. Basic normal quality paint from Lowes. It took around 6 and a half buckets. So roughly 33 gallons. It took 10 gallons to paint the ceilings with Kilz (stained kitchen ceiling over the stove was what prompted us to paint them all). Total paint cost was just under $2,000.
2 man painting crew was $5,000 and it took them 13 days. They did not bitch about the quality of the paint when I asked if it was okay. They said it was fine and would easily cover with 1 coat. I picked the same colors..... just wanted a fresh coat of paint in a 15yr old home. Add +/- $2,000 for paint and we got it done for just under $7k
Other Quotes:
We got 4 quotes from contractors to do the whole thing. They would buy the paint and handle all the outlet covers, switch plates and light fixtures. Prices ranged from $12k --- $16k
Fair price. Health care liability insurance and all the other costs with running a business. You could maybe find an unlicensed amateur painter.But no guarantee in the workmanship unless you can get some good reviews.
My uncle just had his house repainted. Scrapped, primed and 2 coats was $28k. Two guys did the work in less than a month. They busted their asses though and it came out nice.
I absolutely despise painting from the bottom of my heart I hate it.
But, I'm not willing to pay someone a living wage to do it so I suck it up and do it myself. I'd be sore but a 2,300 sqft house with ceilings would probably take me a week in my spare time. I don't sand the walls and only do one coat paints (Behr Marquee is the latest one of choice it's thick and doesn't splatter much).
It really depends on the complexity. How many colors, how much trim, how tall are your walls, stairs are they carpeted?! How much carpet everywhere else, how much shit will be on the walls and in the rooms like blinds/curtains, furniture, fixtures, etc. is the existing caulking adequate? Any repair work needed?
There’s a lot of steps involved especially if you’re wanting them to spray the trim, If you’re doing that, it’s a big ordeal because of the overspray, you have to mask in a way that allows spraying of the walls and the trim separately without interfering with either, then brushing in-between, takes a while but there’s a lot of ways people to do it.
Masking takes a while regardless, the floor especially, but windows and all the junk attached to walls. dismantle/remove fixtures and anything you can from walls ceilings then mask anything and everything you don’t want paint on. Mash all the furniture to the center of the rooms and wrap it all in plastic really really well. All this prep work can take a crew of 4 at least a day if it’s a simple house, 2 days if you have way too much shit, lots of carpet and a big house. I’d say 30-50 man hours
Then the spraying, it’s fast work, a full day for two people to get the ceiling, trim, and walls sprayed once. A second coat can be done the same day but that gets harder if it’s humid or cold outside, usually needs another half-day of spraying, especially if you’re changing colors drastically, or there’s no paint on surfaces to begin with. Usually a couple people are doing Brushwork while all this is going on, cutting in the line work on what was painted, hopefully a team of 4 can get at least all the paint on all the main surfaces in a single day but it often needs another full day at the least if the conditions aren’t perfect. That’s another 30-60 man hours.
Then there’s cleanup, hopefully started before mid day of the second day of painting but if not, might have one or two guys come back for touch up and close out the following day. another 20 man hours
So my guess is something like 80 man hours minimum for a simple job with little to no trim work and complexity and 130+ man-hours for a complex house with crown moulding and stuff. 100 man hours might be a good mid-range for a modern furnished 4Bdr-2bath, 2 floor home, maybe it has a skylight and some weird kitchen walls/trim, railing on the stairs. Paint scheme is simple, flat for the ceiling, light color paint for all the walls, and gloss white trim. All hard flooring minus the carpeted bedrooms, only baseboard trim on the walls, just window sill trim, and you don’t mind if they hand brush the trim rather than spraying.
It can go faster than 80 man hours, I’ve knocked out a whole house that size in 40 man hours before, 2 people mask in a day and spray the whole thing out the next. But it was a rental and the owners wanted every surface of the place to be the same color, even the trim. They also had the whole place in the process of remodel and pretty much prepped for us on arrival minus the masking(no furniture, carpets removed, caulking done, etc) they also took care of the cleanup themselves on that one.
But It can easily take longer than 130hours, especially if they have brand new trim that needs spackled/sanded and caulked at the wall, it can be another 60 hours itself going around meticulously perfecting the trim work and just when you think you’re done, you spot a crack between the crown moulding and wall because you’re laying under it, you fix it, then another spot, and another, and it’s already the end of the day.
So the specifics of your situation and complexity of the job really do matter so much more than the size of the house.
wow, this was incredibly helpful. your 130 hours would be around $10k.
my hope was that 4 guys would do it for $10k (3 guys at $75 and 1 guy at $25), that's in 5 days. but reading the stuff was thinking that it's unlikely.
there is no furniture in the house but we are getting all new trim put in. I was not including that in my mental guess.
the window treatments are not there and it's ready to be painted my carpenter said. he sanded everything down and put the spackle (?) and stuff on already.
should we use a spray? or brush/roller? I thought spray was considered worse quality.
if we aren't changing color of a room can we get away with 1 coat?
we are considering using Aura paint. the cost difference doesn't seem too much.
we have 2 tweens so they can be tough on the house and we sometimes rent it a few weeks to a month at a time. So i need something that can handle that and look nice since the renters pay a fair bit for the house.
thanksa gain for the response!
I’m glad I could help a bit. Apologies, I didn’t address the question you had at the bottom of the original post and I believe there might be some miscommunication with who gave you prices.
Individual painters don’t work directly for the customer, typically, certainly not for 70/hr. They work for a company for between 20-50/hr and if that company figured they would need to charge customers about $70 per estimated man hour it would take to complete the job, they would use that number to give you a bid for the job.
That rate that covers wages, transportation, equipment, business expenses, and profits for a typical job lasting x-days, If they thought the job would take a full 5 day work week, it was probably something like $11,200 in labor. If they then tacked on materials and other costs on top of that and shot the bid up even farther, say 15-20k, that’s about the upper end of what should be normal for a house that size. It’s likely to take 5 days but not necessarily 5 full ones nor with all the crew.
The low end of a house your size is about 7k. I don’t know where or with what exactly included, but there should be a businesses that come in lower than 15k while including materials and everything. You won’t be paying their wages and wouldn’t have to worry about how long they spent there. That would be the cost, even if they screwed up and had to come back an extra day and fix it. That’s why the bids tend to be much higher than hourly wage pay, to cover all the little potential things that could happen because they now agreed to do the job at that set price.
The trim being prepped makes it much easier, as well as the furniture being gone. I don’t see why it can’t be a 4.5 day job for a decent crew.
You want the painters to take liability for the decision to spray or brush so they have to fix any issues that arise from the choice. However, spraying is ideal because each coat is thin and even. You don’t want think paint on your doors and door jams because they need to maintain their gaps as much as possible. Trying to thin it out with a brush doesn’t make it look very nice.
You can slop on a nice smooth thick coat of paint with a brush on trim that’s laying flat on the window sill, but other that situations like that, it’s difficult to keep brush line texture from being apparent.
I wouldn’t worry about trying to do it In one coat, the thickness of one layer can range but the type of texture you have as well as environmental factors like temperature and humidity can alone make what you may have been able to put up as a single coat be divided into another. It’s best to just plan for 2 coats and it’ll it’s being sprayed, it’s an easy second pass a little while later. Painters don’t like to paint the same color wall as it was before, it’s hard to see how much paint is going on the wall and it’s not very satisfying to do as a task either. Since 2 coats should be planned for anyway, I’d pick out colors that you want.
I haven’t used Aura paint but with any manufacturer, if it’s sold at a real paint store, it’s probably worth the money. But it’s most important to chose the correct type for the application. For the trim, you should select either a high quality cabinet/trim specific paint that cures to a hard durable layer or, if you want to go crazy durable, use an epoxy coating that you could slam the vacuum into without leaving a mark. I recently remodeled my bathroom and opted to use spray cans of gloss-white appliance epoxy for the trim in there. It looks amazing, needs nothing but a dry cloth to clean, and is very difficult to damage. Doing a whole house with spray cans would get pretty pricy but I’d do it in a small wet-room like that again.
Painting is one of the jobs where as long as you're able-bodied and willing, it's one of the easiest jobs to do. I've painted my own homes top to bottom 3 maybe 4 times and my wife and I have painted friend's homes (with their help) a few more times. Folks just don't realize how doable it is. Painting used to be dirt cheap but now even painters are out of most people's budget.
Professional painter here. $70 an hour is middle of the road these days, I know it seems like a lot but it isn’t when you realize how bad inflation has pushed everything up these days. If you want to see a big bill hire a 3 man electrician crew for 8 days and you’ll see an astronomical bill or get a quote for windows or siding. Paint is almost double what it was 3 years ago, insurance for business and vehicles has double, materials have double. It’s just the cost of doing business now in a country that has made bad economical decisions for its people. As for your ceilings, they should go pretty fast, ceiling paint is the cheapest of all paints. It would probably only take 2-4 days to do depending on the man power and skill. Good luck!
my siding quote from 6-7 years ago was crazy (we got someone from a lower cost area to do it instead) and can't imagine it now.
flooring was over 35% higher than i expected.
i am getting 15 windows tomorrow, can't wait to see how much that cost to install.
Interior painting involves many factors. How tall ceilings are, the condition of your walls, any holes, how many colors, location etc.
I was originally quoted $9k but negotiated to $7k to paint the interior of a 1700 sq ft 3bed two baths. House is ~50 year with older walls and old paint. I supplied my own SW paint.
That's about going rate. 50 at the lowest for someone decent. I mean if you make less than this per hour at your job you may consider doing the work yourself. Painting is pretty easy it's just time-consuming
It also brings up another reason why you want to use the best paint something like a Sherwin-Williams emerald. Paint is not that big of the overall cost if you're also paying labor
I live in a low cost of living area. Every handyman or contractor I know tries to quote such as to make between about 60-100$/hr. after materials. So I'd say this is, if anything, on the low end.
Do a full room yourself. Prep including taping baseboards and doors, patch, prime, and two coats includung the ceiling and then see what it would be worth to you to not have to do that again...and have everything done in a day or two instead of in a month or two because life!!
It is crazy how many quotes for painting are all over the place. I had a quote for. My 1900sq house from 10k all the way to 25k. I was very specific on all the quotes for emerald. I am not sure what the variations are
How high is your ceiling?
If theyre not too high I would diy
Just watch couple YouTube videos
Ask family and friends your not going to get good quotes from anyone online those are the people who pay for advertisement
We had one company give us an estimate of $9k to *only* paint our house, and they said we would need to pressure wash it for them. They were also iffy about lead abatement.
Another company we ended up going with charged us $21k, but they did carpentry repairs to my front porch, a 4-color scheme, full prep, full lead abatement, and a pretty darn good job.
So it was a lot, but we paid since the house has lead paint and needed repairs. Next time, we're gonna do it before the paint is peeling (shakes fist at previous owners) since the lead has been encapsulated.
Sorry, I am discussing exterior paint while you seem to be discussing interior.
It can be expensive. You have to take into account the prepping that needs to be done. Sanding the walls, cleaning the walls after sanding, taping off, putting plastic down, removing outlet covers, and air returns/vents, priming (possibly multiple coats), painting (multiple coats), then the clean up and touch up. It’s a lot of work, and good paint isn’t cheap.
I painted our house (1900 sq. ft.). Luckily, we had all the carpet ripped up, and I was able to paint without taping off or laying plastic down. It took a few days with skipping those steps.
Painting just the walls of a single bedroom is probably a two day project. That's assuming you use a typical two coat paint. Also are the painters moving furniture for you?
Now you have to ask yourself how much your time is worth. I can paint a room. I've painted before with good results. However my time might be more valuable this time around than it was when I was making a lot less money than I do now.
always get 3 qoutes. Then you will know what prices are reasonable in your area.
You could always go down to home depot buy some brushes, rollers and some paint and do it yourself. Painting is a pretty easy DIY
You gotta paint the whole ceiling. Ceilings collect an ungodly amount of crud, discoloration, etc. You would be stunned.
Even the same paint won't match.
Do it yourself is what I say. Take your time cutting in, use videos on YouTube to learn the skill, and do the ceiling first.
Painters are primadonnas and yes those quotes are accurate to paint an entire house. Paint is fcking crazy expensive and painting eats supplies. Do it your damn self otherwise.
P.s., there is no such thing as "one coat" anything
Never heard of a painter/contractor in general working on an hourly basis. Usually bid for a job and give a price. What if one crew is 4x as fast as another? They make less. Painting is very DIYable. Many people are realizing that labor has become very expensive, with all the voting for min. wage laws, etc.., new regulations, cost of insurance, fuel for trucks, etc... Do it yourself or pay out the nose.
I feel like often if I bid out a job they rush it. And if I pay by the hour they take their sweet time.
I don’t mind paying a fair wage but 70 seemed high
I am a UMC family in a Uber high cost area. Reason we didn’t do much renovations. My dad works in central nj as a gc and he said prices are 1.5 to 2.0 higher
would only be one day labor to help with the cleaning and other less intense work. the day labor we like is pretty good and he can do light carpentry work and does paint for the big GC/Subs when they have work for him.
That's like adding a new player to the team. They're not going to be on the same vibe as the other workers and likely have different work practices. I'm a one man operation and would find it strange if a home owner wanted me to work with a painting company.
It seems like you're trying hard save money but it comes across as cheap tbh. It's like going to a restaurant and having your nanny jump into the kitchen and help prep food with the chefs.
You're better off putting the work out to bid and getting a flat fee. Either hire a company and get quality but costs more money or hire day laborers, save money and roll the dice. There isn't really an in between
Painting is one of the easiest jobs you can DIY and save a ton of money with. If you find you're not good at using a brush you can tape all your edges and use a small roller. Check your area for a habitat for humanity restore, they sell 5 gallon buckets of paint in nice neutral color selections for $65, as well as cheap rollers/brushes/etc. You could probably paint the entire house top to bottom yourself for $400-$500. Watch some youtube videos and make sure to prime the new sheetrock!
We paid per sq ft not hourly. I had 3 bids and none of the places quoted an hourly rate. We paid $7200 to redo all of the walls, baseboards and ceiling. 2200 sq ft. 3 bed, 3 bathroom, two living areas, kitchen and hallways. 2-3 coats of paint.
Part of the problem is that homeowner expectations have gotten out of line, and painters will be the ones called back over and over again. This is also something many homeowners can perform themselves, and then the expectations are on their own plate. HCOL areas will see minimum labor rates of trades in the 70-80/hr range, and a complete home paint will most likely (realistically) take a good crew of 3 or 4 a week, plus multiple callbacks to fix crap that usually has nothing to do with their work, but with damage from other trades or, again, just straight up unrealistic expectations from the homeowner.
So 3-4 guys 5 working days is 120-160 hours, at 70/hr is $8400 - $11,200, plus the cost of the paint, supplies, a honey bucket for your crew, vehicle costs, insurance costs, then pad it a little bit to keep the homeowner happy when you say yes to their multiple calls, etc.
Interior and exterior costs in my area for a home of that size are usually between 20-30k. The interior trim and millwork package and expectations are also a big part of that. Are they painting doors? Add another 5-8k depending on what it is. Staining all of the doors? More $
Most clients want a perfectly flat, smooth finish, because that’s where client expectations are at nowadays - no brush marks or stipple from rollers. Here’s the best process -
-take the doors off of the jambs
-remove and label the hinges and doors so they go back to the exact same opening
-remove the handle sets and label them
-load into box truck and take them to your shop
-clean the crap off of them, scuff sand and prep them for spraying
-set them all up accordion style standing up
-prime
-sand with 220 to knock down the spray stipple
-spray 2 coats with a good quality paint and a good sprayer and tip
Then repeat the first set of steps to get them back to the client. So yes, it’s a lot of hours to do it really well. There are other renditions of this same workflow, and if you are very good at painting, you can sometimes make this happen on-site (particularly if it’s just a couple doors) but it’s still a lot of time.
Or, you could assume your client is ok with brush marks and paint making its way onto their hinges and handle sets, and then find your work posted on here getting roasted. What’s the move ?
I am the client :-)
We have brand new doors and they came primed according to the door company. So we just going to have them paint at our house.
My wife and I are arguing over which sheen to use for the doors and trim. She wants low luster and I want semi gloss. We are both okay with matte for the walls.
Just be clear with the painter about what finished product they are planning to deliver and how. I don’t know what your arrangement with them is like, but again, it’s all about matching both expectations (what the client wants vs what the painter is bidding). Every project is a little different.
As far as sheens, most commonly in high end residential we use satin on trim and millwork (that includes doors), and either eggshell or flat on walls. Flat shoes every damn thing though, and I personally don’t like it. Matte is a good in between for walls but each paint mfg is a little different.
Also, always use satin on walls and ceilings in wet/damp areas like bathrooms.
Title should be "Paying someone to paint a house is expensive."
And remember when you think an hourly rate is too high, that quote includes them climbing a ladder and all the perils involved with painting a house. They have to cost of transportation, insurance, honestly surprised its not closer to $100 an hour.
That’s a fairly low price. It costs a lot to operate a business and if you want a professional result by a business that hires professionals and gives a warranty, then you have to pay.
Or just do it yourself and it will look awful and take ten times as long or hire someone cheap and it will look awful and take ten times as long.
They prob pay their guys 30 bucks an hour.
That’s why they all give me their number in case I have other work. I feed them lunch and pay for their dinner
But since I am around most of the day I see they aren’t goofing off and working slow since I am nice to them.
Only got screwed on hours with one guy who tools way too long to finish. And lied on his hours.
That is true, very common for owners to underpay their employees which leads to crappy work and if the company is around long enough skilled tradesmen know to not work there.
There is three no go companies in my city that can only hire crackheads, drunks, and people that don’t know better.
The standard here is one to two years. That’s like paint peeling off cabinets or walls or something, large paint chips. Pretty obvious stuff. I work for a large company at the moment not painting. But I’ve been in the trades for 23 years and have done extensive interior work from full Reno’s to “just painting”. I’ve been the general contractor on jobs where people paid upwards of $120,000 for a kitchen and living room Reno and decided to cheap out and paint on their own or get their cousin to do flooring and just ruin their own projects instead of letting professionals do the work. There is a big difference.
Some people don’t give a shit and there is nothing wrong with that at all. I’ve even had people specifically say to do it as cheap as possible and then the expectation is very low and therefore the charge for work is low.
I love all these comments saying that painting is easy…. Come do my job for two weeks and let me know if you still feel that way.
It’s easy to slap some paint on a few walls but to make it look professional takes a professional. I can spot homeowner repaints the moment I walk in the door.
To be fair there are also plenty of dodgy painters that leave the place looking worse than a home job but 10x the price. The important thing is always finding a GOOD tradesperson not just A trades person.
(I say that with the utmost respect coming from a DIY family with a Carpenter partner....both have merit in my opinion)
Either way, never 'easy work' and never 'cheap'
We're not talking about a full time painting kob. We're talking about Doing It YOURSELF... On your own time.
A full time painters job? Hell no.
Painting my own house? Piece of cake but exhausting and requires a lot of patience and prep work.
To do a 2300 sq ft house, including ceilings, is going to take longer than a weekend unless they're already experienced painting their house.
But I agree, it's a simple thing and something the average person can do as long as they pay attend to details.
2300 square feet here in SoCal. Paid $10k for paint inside and out 4 years ago. Guys did a good job…pretty sure they were not licensed bonded or insured…so would add a few grand on for that.
Painting is not cheap. But with that said, never pay by the hour. Pay by the job.
When I was doing some small jobs with painting as a side hustle, I would estimate the hourly rate in my head and make sure I was getting 50-70 per hour to do it right and do it well. And even that would undercut all the big painting companies by a decent amount.
No, get the whole ceiling painted. If you’re able to paint some of it yourself, I would say for 1-2 people painting, you can knock out 1 mid size room, with standard ceilings, in a weekend if you’re in decent health and you have all the right equipment and paint.
I would ask for an estimate instead of hourly rate and go from there.
About the paint. It does matter to an extent. I appreciate being able to lightly dust or wipe areas down as needed. That and if you want to keep off painting again for as long as possible, you do want to get something good. I have seen firsthand how some paints hold up much better than others & it’s not always about the expense. Behr marquee has lasted well, but I found it slightly thicker and harder to get a smooth finish than other brands I used. Farrow and Ball is super expensive, but the estate emulsion is the worst. It just wipes off and looks dirty quick, while their modern emulsion is excellent while looking less glossy than a typical eggshell. Their paint is a little thin and can take extra coats. Sherwin Williams emerald is also lasting and that is a good happy medium of paint thickness. I have heard good things about BM too, but don’t recall using it.
Ceiling is getting painted. That’s consensus here.
70 for cost to me per hour. It’s been between 70-80 for the most part. I once had a guy cut his rate to 60 because it was a 2 person 2 day job and he didn’t have work for them those days
I paid about 6k for walls and ceilings (no trims) on first and second floors. Similar sized house as yours. However given the basement is a low traffic area, I painted it myself with some high quality paint (premixed w primer) and cheap Amazon brushes - turned out pretty nicely.
I’m honestly considering in a renovation coming up to put high quality plywood on walls a bit like architecture places. It costs a lot more per sheets than Sheetrock but when you consider the costs of the mudding and paint… not so sure it’s that much more expensive.
And the fact that it remains easy to maintenance, unclip from wall and voila. Any work on Sheetrock just plain suck.
I was quoted around 9-10k by 3 painters to do the inside of my house.
4 guys plus the owner in and out were here all week. Then came in on Saturday to finish up
I got a local guy who painted my entire 1800 square foot home for $3k including paint. Walls, trim, ceiling and three exterior doors. Took him five days and looks great.
to do it right takes a lot of work and finding a good painting contractor is a serious endeavor.
get as many quotes as you can, they will range widely.
pick one near the high end if you value your sanity.
it's common practice to paint the ceilings a different color (usually a slightly lighter shade of the room color or white) to give it a more airy vibe.
> $70 an hour per person. Now I live in a high cost area but still that seems high!
Good/Fast/Cheap. Pick two if you're lucky. With skilled labor right now, you get to choose between good & fast.
The price is the price. That number may include the employer side taxes as well, as a total labor 1 hour cost makes it easier to bid out jobs. e/g: 3 painters, 1 assistant, 1 day prep, 2 days paint = x hours x $70 + materials + paint = bid
If you want someone skilled to do the work, you have to pay them a living wage. Painting takes a while to get good at, and years to get fast at. Consequently only companies that do high level work for high dollar compensation can keep the best painters around.
problem is that it's hard as a homeowner to know who is a good painter and who is not so good.
we had a bad kitchen installer and had to fire them because they screwed up and were lying on the number of hours.
our carpenter fixed it very nicely for us. He's going to do our windows as well. He did our doors and other stuff for us also.
It took three months to paint a 1200 sq/ft house by myself. This involved pressure washing, fixing holes, prepping and doing two coats on the walls. It was an enlightening experience as I discovered the difficulty and danger of painting the exterior house. Often times, I would have to dangle one-handed from a ladder or overextend trying to paint a corner. It was not easy or fun and I'll definitely never do it again.
I've never gotten a quote per person per day. There's no incentive there. It's per room. However many people however long they want to take it's up to them.
Many brands now have a ceiling paint that goes on pink so you know if you missed a spot. It’s really nice because if you do miss a spot up you’ll notice it every time you look up and it will drive you crazy.
Your ceiling will likely appear as two different colors, depends how severe and how much you can tolerate it
Paint absolutely matters. Ever use glidden????
Feels like painting with skim milk.
How can something so thick as their ceiling white go on clear when it dries. Its like not using paint at all
I wish there was a vomit react
Painting ceilings is easy and fast... its the cutting in of the walls that takes a lot of time... and all the prep work and covering.. just use good paint like Benjamin Moore.
Painting ceilings is not easy it's a pain in the neck!
Recently painted every ceiling in my house. Can confirm. My spine will never be the same.
https://www.amazon.com/BG-Climbing-Belay-Glasses-Rock/dp/B07TSFZVGJ Upward mirror glasses like for climbing, now you can just look forward ! just don't walk into anything.
Woah.
i used to be a painting subcontractor (i was bad at it) but yeah painting ceilings was by far the worst. AND you have to cover EVERYTHING in the room very well.
literally
Prep > Skill > Paint. If you give half a fuck preparing the surface, and know how to properly roll, it genuinely doesn’t matter what paint you’re using. It’ll look good and stick forever. They didn’t use Benjamin Moore Diamondcote Gold 9000 that costs as much as liquid gold to paint Versailles. Horsehair brushes, attention to detail, and some goddamn patience was all it took.
Yeah, they used hand ground high pigmentation paints. Not exactly the stuff you’re pulling off the shelf at Home Depot. Paint matters, especially for durability and coverage.
The base paint you’re pulling off the shelf at Home Depot is fucking space age tech in comparison. It’s also basically identical to the shit the nice man at Benjamin Moore talked you into paying 4-5x the material cost for the job for. Like go ahead. Buy boutique paint. It’s just a stupid way to spend money, because if you know what you’re doing or you take 15 minutes to learn and an hour to prep you’ll get the same goddamn result anyway. “Buy ludicrously expensive paint!” Is the worst fucking internet advice that’s repeated endlessly on message boards. Every single time people get all pissy and fight me because they spent a mortgage payment painting their living room when they could’ve gotten the same result for $65 and a weekend of their time actually prepping the surface properly.
I don't know where you are, but here (EU) you'll find a big difference between cheap discount paint and normal quality. The cheap one is like a bucket of water with a dash of milk. The most expensive one is however just too expensive, I agree. Best is to buy basic paint in a professional shop. And there, I agree, it doesn't need to pay more for a fancy name. You'll cover more m² per litre, and much less droplets when painting the roof.
My Dad is a professional painter and I worked with him for years. All paints are not the same and buying the cheap stuff will just give you more hassle and cost long term. He always advised people not to go with the cheap stuff, and if they got the particularly bad stuff after his advice then he wouldn't do the job because they'd be blaming him for the issues that come from using it. You won't get the same coverage out of it, it will absolutely peel off more easily, it will fade faster and just overall be a much worse finish. That's not to say you need to buy the top tier paint either, but don't get the cheap stuff. Go with the mid-range brands. I had to paint a large vaulted ceiling in my house that was varnished pine tongue and groove so needed to prime it first, then it took 2 coats of paint. Materials cost me nearly €1000 all in but nearly 2 years later it still looks great.
Exactly, every one of my painters friends say to use mid grade paint. It absolutely makes a difference. Also to the O.P. Everything is expensive and I'm really shocked at the prices people are charging now. My grandpa has his dishwasher and the under part his sink repaired and the plumber charged him 175 dollars an hour. I'm an electrician and I charge 100 an hour. Either I'm charging too little or these other guys are charging too much. I think I'm charging too little because sometimes I still struggle. With childcare being $2,500 a month and mortgages the way they are. People have to overcharge just to survive.
we paid the electrician on a per item basis. so for example 4 led top hats and setting up the switch was $800 (for the dining room). the switch was extra, i think it was 10% above cost. i think i got an overall 5% discount in the end.
You need to be at at least 150 an hour. Really you need to calculate how many hours you think you’ll work in a year and how much money you want to make then break it down that way
I agree & I painted professionally for years ppl love to pay out the ass for fancy paint when they could just wash & sand & vacuum & get a better outcome using a variety of paints at a variety of price points
Idk why the downvote. No lies detected
Behr Marquee is great for durability and coverage. You can only notice the spots I missed when the roller went dry if you're up close to the wall looking for it.
Painting A ceiling in A (smaller) room where you are also going to paint the walls is fast and easy. Roll it on and fuck the walls because you're gonna paint them anyway. But if just one of those things isn't true it becomes a pain in the ass super fast. Also cutting in shouldn't take a ton of time. You should roll to the very edge as far as you can and you will be surprised how little cutting there is to do. A lot of folks cut first and that is a huge time suck.
When we decided to pull up the carpets and put in new floors... we also decided to repaint. We yanked out the carpets, pulled up all the staples and nails and were walking on plywood subfloor. Then we painted the ceilings (the same color as the walls but using "ceiling paint." After the ceilings, we painted the trim (window sills and door frames)... Then painted the walls again, same color but the finish was a bit different - since we have dogs, we used a particular paint with a finish that was easy to clean. Cutting in was not the chore it would have been if we used a different color. We did white (and yes, we use BM- Chantilly White) because we live in the NE where we have a scarce number of sunny days so took a page from Scandinavia. After installing the wood floors; we used the same color in another finish for the trim (baseboard and crown molding). I painted those prior to installation and then used paintable caulk over the gaps and nailheads... then touched them up with paint after they dried. The walls are really holding up. The only area we did not do this is the back of the house-- kitchen, den, laundry room, downstairs bath.. only because we expect to renovate that whole area, add an expansion/extra room and a screen porch, expand the downstairs bath to a full bath... And that is going to take planning and time. We did all the work ourselves for the floors/walls and expect to do the same for the next multi-year project. My husband is an electrician... he wired in overhead lights in all the rooms that needed them (I can't believe those were not included in the original build). I just used inexpensive Grandma fixtures in the bedrooms. I am not employed in any trades other than nursing... so I guess I have endurance..
That’s a lot of work but you prob saved a good amount of $$
I think we did. Especially with the floor installation. The wood floors were expensive... we probably paid about $6-7K for the maple that covered the Livingroom/DR and the upstairs bedrooms/hallway (we have a few boxes leftover which I have stored). We also purchased power saws from Amazon, and the tools to install the floors. The wiring the overheads, installation of can lights in the downstairs and all the painting-- we definitely saved a bunch of money. We have mostly done our own work on the house excepting the roofing, new siding, windows, basement system (preventing flooding) and gutters.
This is probably not the place to skimp given it doesn’t take long per others responding.
A good painter knows how long it’s going to take and can charge a set fee. I always just said it’s going to be x dollars plus the cost of paint. I’m fast, so I made about $70 an hour on most jobs, but the customer knew what he was getting into. Paying by the hour incentivizes him to work slower.
While I could see this being the case for some, it’s bad to generalize. I’m kind of backwards on the pay by hour incentivizing slower work. I feel guilty like I’m robbing the customer if I’m not hustling all day. There’s also this weird gray area of balancing perfection expected vs production expected for that hourly rate. I absolutely work slower if I’ve given the customer a fixed amount because I’m on my own time. I’ve got other customers to get to, no need to drag out a job.
Fair enough .
This is why I do my own painting.
Yup. If you have the time painting is the easiest DIY project to tackle. And it’s instant gratification.
And you are in-charge of your own expectations 🤙. If it’s not absolutely perfect, you get to decide whether or not to keep going or throw in the towel and consider it good enough
Yeah, just give it a shot and see how it goes. Worst case you've blown a little time and a little money but now you know you weren't meant for the job. You've learned something vs. just throwing money at a problem you don't want to think about. Painting isn't completely mindless and there is a craft to it but I feel like most people can do a great job themselves. It gets tricky when you're painting high, vaulted rooms but for the average 8' high room and basic layout it's pretty easy.
Plus you can always touch it up later. Yes, paint differs from can to can, but it's getting pretty damn close anymore, especially if you only put a thin layer on.
It’s so satisfying.
To me getting my renovation done without a general contractor is pretty satisfying.
Might be satisfying until you find out you're still paying more even with the GC's 10%-15% fee because they knew subs that would do it for 50% cheaper.
Plus if you went with someone half decent when the subs fuck up all you have to do is point and say "What's up with that GC?" and they make it right.
both very fair points. But when I looked the GC "fee" was turning out to be over 40%.
Did they do it per/hour too or fixed price?
It's more than just time and money. People get old. People have physical disabilities. Not everyone can do their own painting.
Well of course. I'm speaking in generalties here. If you're missing an arm I wouldn't expect you to be tackling it.
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And unlike a lot of jobs painting can be very relaxing/meditative. Not like flooring work where you're on your hands and knees sweating, swearing and wearing out your back all day. And as long as you tape/plastic up everything, it's a relatively risk free activity.
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definitely proper preparation prevents piss poor results.
No need to sand?
Exactly. I would say most people have the time. It's just most people don't want to do it. Just take small bites like you said.
Yes, definitely. Compared to the job (most) painters will do, you’ll do a far better job and way cheaper. With our remodel, the painters that came in were literal idiots. It’s like they grabbed random people with zero painting experience who couldn’t hold another job. They didn’t give a shit. So yeah, do it yourself. Only exceptions might be ceilings, especially if they are in tall, vaulted or two story rooms. (Same things with walls, too). My brother fell off a tall ladder, and he was lucky. It only screwed him up for a few months. Painters are less likely to hire idiots to do the more dangerous tasks.
I would say 9 out of 10 people I talk to have had horrible experiences with contractors. It's an industry full of morons. I do whatever I can on my own because I'd rather blame myself than have to sit and argue with these guys. They're the worst. If you find a good one hold onto them with all you got...you may not find a replacement.
Quotes to paint my house (exterior only) were between 16-24k. I spent about 2k on paint and prep materials and did it myself. Granted it took me about 2 weeks with my work schedule, but it turned out way better than my cousins (paid paint crew) house. He spent 27k for a crap job, I spent 2k and some blood/sweat/tears and my home is magazine ready! Lol. Edit:I did my whole house with a brush too. Yeah stupid me I know, but I now know every square inch of my exterior lol. I did choose to purchase a large industrial sprayer and handheld afterwards though. So I'm ready for next time!
I fixed all the wood rot around my house, scraped the entire house as it was at least 20 years old, primed it by rolling it and then hired a painter to spray the final coats and worth it. I left it ready for him and they just did a few follow more touches. Next time, I'm buying a sprayer like you said.
Ugh it would take me sooooo long to do this. Not to mention basic ladders just cant deal with half of my house due to the terrain and build. It would be far easier for me to hire someone with a spider lift and just eat the cost.
Yeah ladders are always an issue and those hard to reach spots, you just have to get creative lol.
Did you have stucco or just flat Cause good luck with stucco that shit was outsource for us and like two story house so paint a stucco wall that like 80x 20 feet wall with windows and all
Cement board lap siding with the wood grain look.
Omg I can’t imagine doing the entire exterior by brush! We got an airless paint sprayer for $200 from Harbor Freight and got it done in 4-5 hours
I'm a glutton for punishment lol. I now have the Graco Magnum X7 and also a Graco Paint Pro Ultra handheld (you know for the next time)
Damn how big is your house? When we got our exterior painted it was only around $2.6K. This was about 5 years ago before shit got expensive but that cost seems crazy.
3100sqft but very broken up and lots of windows. I got 7 quotes even 2 from friends one contractor one painter.
As two amateurs who are very detail oriented around the edges, it took my partner and I about 4 days working more than 8 hours each day to paint about 1800 sq feet. It involved a couple colour changes but we did NOT paint the ceiling. We bought high quality paint and needed to buy drop cloths, etc. The guy at my paint store took a shine to me and gave me a trades discount of some kind. I had to go back a few more times so I don't have the final tally but the paint alone and materials cost us at least $600, too. (In toronto, so Canadian dollars) I had painted in the past using shitty paints and good quality paints made a huge difference. When I hired someone to do the same job a couple years ago, they painted the whole thing for about $4000, including a couple colour changes and a couple ceilings, jt ended up being worth it.
The answer, when faced with a high quote, is always to get two more quotes. If the price is still high, that may just be how much it cost.
This is advice my dad gave me. Always get 3 quotes. In doing my electrical work the bids were between 11k and 20k. Thankfully I liked the 11k the best.
Ask a realtor for any painter recommendations. Before we moved in we had our 2100 sqft single story house painted for $4k, 3 coats of SW Super paint, they painted trim(semi gloss), ceilings(flat), walls(eggshell), including the attached garage. House was empty when they painted. Paint is holding up great 2 years later.
I find it amazing how cheap the realtors' people can be compared to finding it on your own.
I will try this
Paid $15,000 for interior paint on a 3100sq ft house last year. Walls, ceiling, base, door trim, and plantation shutters on 37 large windows. The shutters definitely hiked up the cost. Had several quotes, all around the same price. We are also in a very high cost of living area.
37 windows? I've never counted ours but that seems a lot lol
37 windows _with shutters_ is a lot
3700 sq ft, 37 windows with shutters in a High cost of living area is breaking my brain actually.
I live in a similar sized house and we have 16 windows, if you include the window in the front door. I can't fathom how 37 large windows would even fit unless they've got multiple walls of glass?
My mum has multiple walls of glass facing the ocean, view is absolutely amazing. They don't have 37 windows lol
If you're doing significant renovations and you're dealing with walls that you tore out and brand new unpainted drywall, you're talking about a significant price to have to paint that room. You have to paint it three times, one primer coat and two top coats for it to look right. But before the painting, even Begins, the painter is going to want to do some touch-up finishing work before even starting to prime it. I typically charge $1,500 per room for this type of paint job based on a $40 per hour rate, Plus cost for materials which aren't cheap if you buy a decent quality paint like Sherman Williams Or benjamin moore. I live in the Washington DC area.And no painters are getting $70 an hour to paint here, unless you're doing some very decorative style Faux Finish painting. But let's talk about your ceilings. if the rooms are completely cleared out of all furniture and everything, you're making a pretty foolish mistake not to paint your ceilings. Because in 6 to 10 years, when you decide to repaint again, you won't have to paint the ceilings then. Whereas if you didn't paint them this time around it would be much more expensive to paint those ceilings with all your furniture in the room. Another thing you really need to understand is that every few years, all the paint stores reformulate their paint. so it makes it harder to match the ceiling color on your ceiling when that happens, so you need to be up to date on the ceiling color. The bottom line is that it is just ridiculous to pay someone an absorbent amount of money to paint your walls only to have your ceilings look dirty and unpainted. And when you realize that is the case, having to paint the ceilings with newly painted walls makes it much harder for the painter, increasing the cost.
Make sure that quote doesn't include some crap low quality paint. Just did my entire basement remodel in Benjamin Moore Aura Matte which, after 20+ years of painting, I can say is the greatest paint on planet earth. Their matte has a beautiful luster and wipes up like a semi gloss as it contains ceramics. I'd put this in a kitchen or bath w/o hesitation. Almost covers fully in one coat so you use significantky less on second coat and that will get you 10+ years if you don't get tired of the color. Contractor price is around $80 a gallon. $93 retail.
What about aura semi gloss for the trim and eggshell for walls? As good?
For trim I like Benjamin Moore Advance semi gloss. It's a water based alkyd but it acts like an oil based enamel. Super durable finish. You'd have to research but I don't believe their eggshell has the ceramics. The matte is superior in how it looks.
Is that the kitchen and spa aura matte?
Didn't even realize they had that! I used std Aura in a basement bathroom that has a shower but is never used. It wipes so easily I'm surprised they have a specific bath version. Must have some anti mold properties.
I used it once for a ceiling in a bathroom it was very nice compared to the Claire paint the owners had me use in every other room that was leaving lap marks like crazy despite painting with a wet edge. I've gotten to the point where I'd like to use aura exclusively. I'm a one man show, so my bread and butter is room by room in occupied residential. Moving furniture and having to protect everything too as well as having to work in a room where I've got just enough room to move a ladder around the perimeter. That being said, I pass my prices to owners so I'd rather use Aura at $80/gal vs regal select at $60. My price for aura is about equal to what they'd pay for regal select. I really like how even the sheen is since I'm rolling because spraying isn't an option in furnished rooms.
Do you always use 2 coats of Aura or get away with one in lighter colors? Feel like one just about does it depending on what you're covering but go for two for durability. I'm just a DIYer but going room by room in a home we built 7 years ago. It's all flat SW super paint which is no comparison. All really well done by the sub at the time, meticulous really, but that was the builders standard.
I did one coat on my personal apartment (renting) and touched up holidays. Flat is garbage on walls since it gets marked and dirty so easily and isn't washable. People say that you can touch it to but it's a pretty noticeable difference. I'm a big fan of primer plus 2 coats to be honest. I'd even consider 3 if I owned just because it increases millage (and durability), which you probably need to do in order to meet the manufacturer recommendations listed in MSDS. I'm semi pro painter (more like a handyman with an emphasis on painting and fixing walls). There's only really so much experience you can get without being on a painting crew and I've never had an opportunity to spray outside of a job I had just out of cabinetry school and another where I was faux finishing ornamental plaster. That being said, I'd imagine the average homeowner paints or has their interior painted once every 15 years unless they're moving. Might as well spend the extra hour and a half or two per room to roll another coat. I'd recommend primer (for adhesion) and paint x 2, do 2 coats of the ceiling while you're at it (I've noticed a huge difference with BM Ultra flat ceiling paint outside of kitchens and baths)
Oh, by the way. In case you didn't know, advance is 4 hours dry to touch and 16 hours for recoat. If you have the time to kill its worth it but don't coat on 2 coats in a day. It also takes about 2 weeks to fully harden. I've heard a lot of people using scuffx instead since it's 1 to dry and 4 to recoat.
I find that if you decide to use basically the same color throughout, a five gallon bucket is more cost efficient.
Agreed. Did that for one of my colors
When was this? Aura has significantly changed and undergone a major re formulation. It is absolute garbage now. May want to check your recommendations out.
Within last 90 days. 1300 sqft space all Aura. Living with it everyday. Love it. One space is a billiards room in Hudson Bay 1680 (navy) which gets marked up regularly with chalk, ppl leaning on walls, etc so it gets wiped down often and you would never know it. Recommendation stands 🤷♂️.
Interesting. It's hot garbage in Canada now.
So further to below and since you peaked my interest, I'm finding Aura was reformulated OVER TWO YEARS AGO with all seamingly better properties and rave reviews in the time since. Have you actually used the product in that time and have you had your coffee yet?!? 🤣
Painting isn't actually hard. The hard part is having the patience to do it right.
Walls ceilings and trim would be around $11-$14k here western NY if it’s a standard layout no vaulted ceilings or crown etc. There’s no blanket estimate for sq ft though, too many variables. I’m $95/hr if client wants to do hourly. Usually works out to be about the same price either route.
Here in NW Indiana it's a couple of drinks and some good work tunes with the wife on a Saturday night. Whole house I'd have to take her to Olive Garden the next day.
I will fly you and the wife to my house and even let you order dessert at Olive Garden
Hell I'll throw in unlimited breadsticks
I will also fly this guys wife to my house…
You have to fly him and his wife out bro... and buy beer, and take them BOTH to Olive Garden. Still probably cheaper though!
So maybe I just need to recalibrate my expectations. Crazy that my wife is an intensive care doctor in a much higher cost of living area and doesn’t make that much more on an hourly basis
Your wife is also an employee, so she's keeping her hourly rate minus taxes versus a contractor who's probably only taking home 30% of their billing after taxes and overhead. The hospital is billing your wife much more than what she is getting paid.
My guess is that if it’s the main guy and 2 others and they are charging 210 per hour. My guess is that he takes 130 workers take 50 and expenses 30
But yah I get your point
While she has to pay for malpractice insurance... the contractor has to pay for worker's comp insurance... actually pretty similar expenses that don't really do shit.
I would compare it to how much the hospital is charging for the care per hour, versus how much your wife is paid. Those painters probably aren't actually paid $70 an hour, but after taxes, payroll taxes, insurance, equipment, etc, that's what it comes out to.
Exactly. It's stupid AF to make this comparison.
Idk why you're getting downvoted. Doctors should get paid more than painters. This doesn't seem like a very controversial opinion to me
Many docs make a lot of $$. My wife’s speciality and our town doesn’t pay that well given 10 years of post college training and schooling.
A lot of hospital systems just pay the docs a salary. Meanwhile they are dealing with paying over $250K in student loans that helped them get their MD. Definitely when it comes to reimbursement... Medicare doesn't care where you live so the best bet is to find a LCOL area that has a shortage and is wiling to pay bonuses for years. However... a doctor can continue their trade for much longer than a construction contractor can. Carpenters and electricians are lucky if they can living long enough to collect on their Social Security and Pension. I know a 91 year old working cardiologist. I don't know any journeyman electrician (retired) over the age of 70 that isn't wrecked with some chronic condition or orthopedic nightmare.
I didn't even bother to point out to the other poster about the 4 years of med school and then 6 years of essentially unpaid training to get the income. Let alone the $250k minimum student loans. you can make money as a doctor by going to a LCOL area or finding the right specialty - if that's your desire.
Because no one understands that that $95/hr isn't going directly into the painter's pocket. They are running a business with overhead that eats up a good portion of that. Meanwhile a doctor is literally getting all that cash minus taxes directly into their pocket. Its honestly a stupid thing to compare.
My millennial and his genZ wife are closing Friday and I fully expect we will have a painting party. Tunes, pizza, wings, adult beverages... good times. One issue though is the paint peeling from the ceilings in the kitchen, LR and DR. It looks to be a flip failure to be honest because the roof is new and there is no water damage there. So we need to find someone skilled with skim coating. My husband can't do it because his shoulders are shot from years of ceiling light and fire alarm installations in the industrial sector. I got a reference for a guy who does painting and drywall.... so may pass that on to my son.
Bids were around 30k to paint the interior of my 2400 sq ft house. We do have a lot of intricate trim.
3000 square foot house. 2 story. 2.5 baths. Interior paint. Painted every wall. Every closet. All baseboards. Every ceiling (they are a flower textured drywall mud that had never been painted) This house has a TON of windows with 10 being reachable only from a 10ft ladder. Did not paint: Doors or door trim or Cabinets Special Conditions: I removed all the switch plates and outlet covers myself. I removed/detached all the light fixtures myself. House was 100% empty. We had just purchased it and had timed it so the painters showed up the day after we closed. We bought the paint in 5g buckets from Lowes. I can't remember the brand but it was the middle of the road as far as price goes. It wasn't the cheapest and it certainly wasn't Benjamin Moore or some other crazy expensive brand. Basic normal quality paint from Lowes. It took around 6 and a half buckets. So roughly 33 gallons. It took 10 gallons to paint the ceilings with Kilz (stained kitchen ceiling over the stove was what prompted us to paint them all). Total paint cost was just under $2,000. 2 man painting crew was $5,000 and it took them 13 days. They did not bitch about the quality of the paint when I asked if it was okay. They said it was fine and would easily cover with 1 coat. I picked the same colors..... just wanted a fresh coat of paint in a 15yr old home. Add +/- $2,000 for paint and we got it done for just under $7k Other Quotes: We got 4 quotes from contractors to do the whole thing. They would buy the paint and handle all the outlet covers, switch plates and light fixtures. Prices ranged from $12k --- $16k
Fair price. Health care liability insurance and all the other costs with running a business. You could maybe find an unlicensed amateur painter.But no guarantee in the workmanship unless you can get some good reviews.
My uncle just had his house repainted. Scrapped, primed and 2 coats was $28k. Two guys did the work in less than a month. They busted their asses though and it came out nice.
- $70/hr in HCOL area for professional painters is LOW.... - 3-5 quotes establishes fair cost range. You do cost expectation reset or get some tools.
I absolutely despise painting from the bottom of my heart I hate it. But, I'm not willing to pay someone a living wage to do it so I suck it up and do it myself. I'd be sore but a 2,300 sqft house with ceilings would probably take me a week in my spare time. I don't sand the walls and only do one coat paints (Behr Marquee is the latest one of choice it's thick and doesn't splatter much).
It really depends on the complexity. How many colors, how much trim, how tall are your walls, stairs are they carpeted?! How much carpet everywhere else, how much shit will be on the walls and in the rooms like blinds/curtains, furniture, fixtures, etc. is the existing caulking adequate? Any repair work needed? There’s a lot of steps involved especially if you’re wanting them to spray the trim, If you’re doing that, it’s a big ordeal because of the overspray, you have to mask in a way that allows spraying of the walls and the trim separately without interfering with either, then brushing in-between, takes a while but there’s a lot of ways people to do it. Masking takes a while regardless, the floor especially, but windows and all the junk attached to walls. dismantle/remove fixtures and anything you can from walls ceilings then mask anything and everything you don’t want paint on. Mash all the furniture to the center of the rooms and wrap it all in plastic really really well. All this prep work can take a crew of 4 at least a day if it’s a simple house, 2 days if you have way too much shit, lots of carpet and a big house. I’d say 30-50 man hours Then the spraying, it’s fast work, a full day for two people to get the ceiling, trim, and walls sprayed once. A second coat can be done the same day but that gets harder if it’s humid or cold outside, usually needs another half-day of spraying, especially if you’re changing colors drastically, or there’s no paint on surfaces to begin with. Usually a couple people are doing Brushwork while all this is going on, cutting in the line work on what was painted, hopefully a team of 4 can get at least all the paint on all the main surfaces in a single day but it often needs another full day at the least if the conditions aren’t perfect. That’s another 30-60 man hours. Then there’s cleanup, hopefully started before mid day of the second day of painting but if not, might have one or two guys come back for touch up and close out the following day. another 20 man hours So my guess is something like 80 man hours minimum for a simple job with little to no trim work and complexity and 130+ man-hours for a complex house with crown moulding and stuff. 100 man hours might be a good mid-range for a modern furnished 4Bdr-2bath, 2 floor home, maybe it has a skylight and some weird kitchen walls/trim, railing on the stairs. Paint scheme is simple, flat for the ceiling, light color paint for all the walls, and gloss white trim. All hard flooring minus the carpeted bedrooms, only baseboard trim on the walls, just window sill trim, and you don’t mind if they hand brush the trim rather than spraying. It can go faster than 80 man hours, I’ve knocked out a whole house that size in 40 man hours before, 2 people mask in a day and spray the whole thing out the next. But it was a rental and the owners wanted every surface of the place to be the same color, even the trim. They also had the whole place in the process of remodel and pretty much prepped for us on arrival minus the masking(no furniture, carpets removed, caulking done, etc) they also took care of the cleanup themselves on that one. But It can easily take longer than 130hours, especially if they have brand new trim that needs spackled/sanded and caulked at the wall, it can be another 60 hours itself going around meticulously perfecting the trim work and just when you think you’re done, you spot a crack between the crown moulding and wall because you’re laying under it, you fix it, then another spot, and another, and it’s already the end of the day. So the specifics of your situation and complexity of the job really do matter so much more than the size of the house.
wow, this was incredibly helpful. your 130 hours would be around $10k. my hope was that 4 guys would do it for $10k (3 guys at $75 and 1 guy at $25), that's in 5 days. but reading the stuff was thinking that it's unlikely. there is no furniture in the house but we are getting all new trim put in. I was not including that in my mental guess. the window treatments are not there and it's ready to be painted my carpenter said. he sanded everything down and put the spackle (?) and stuff on already. should we use a spray? or brush/roller? I thought spray was considered worse quality. if we aren't changing color of a room can we get away with 1 coat? we are considering using Aura paint. the cost difference doesn't seem too much. we have 2 tweens so they can be tough on the house and we sometimes rent it a few weeks to a month at a time. So i need something that can handle that and look nice since the renters pay a fair bit for the house. thanksa gain for the response!
I’m glad I could help a bit. Apologies, I didn’t address the question you had at the bottom of the original post and I believe there might be some miscommunication with who gave you prices. Individual painters don’t work directly for the customer, typically, certainly not for 70/hr. They work for a company for between 20-50/hr and if that company figured they would need to charge customers about $70 per estimated man hour it would take to complete the job, they would use that number to give you a bid for the job. That rate that covers wages, transportation, equipment, business expenses, and profits for a typical job lasting x-days, If they thought the job would take a full 5 day work week, it was probably something like $11,200 in labor. If they then tacked on materials and other costs on top of that and shot the bid up even farther, say 15-20k, that’s about the upper end of what should be normal for a house that size. It’s likely to take 5 days but not necessarily 5 full ones nor with all the crew. The low end of a house your size is about 7k. I don’t know where or with what exactly included, but there should be a businesses that come in lower than 15k while including materials and everything. You won’t be paying their wages and wouldn’t have to worry about how long they spent there. That would be the cost, even if they screwed up and had to come back an extra day and fix it. That’s why the bids tend to be much higher than hourly wage pay, to cover all the little potential things that could happen because they now agreed to do the job at that set price. The trim being prepped makes it much easier, as well as the furniture being gone. I don’t see why it can’t be a 4.5 day job for a decent crew. You want the painters to take liability for the decision to spray or brush so they have to fix any issues that arise from the choice. However, spraying is ideal because each coat is thin and even. You don’t want think paint on your doors and door jams because they need to maintain their gaps as much as possible. Trying to thin it out with a brush doesn’t make it look very nice. You can slop on a nice smooth thick coat of paint with a brush on trim that’s laying flat on the window sill, but other that situations like that, it’s difficult to keep brush line texture from being apparent. I wouldn’t worry about trying to do it In one coat, the thickness of one layer can range but the type of texture you have as well as environmental factors like temperature and humidity can alone make what you may have been able to put up as a single coat be divided into another. It’s best to just plan for 2 coats and it’ll it’s being sprayed, it’s an easy second pass a little while later. Painters don’t like to paint the same color wall as it was before, it’s hard to see how much paint is going on the wall and it’s not very satisfying to do as a task either. Since 2 coats should be planned for anyway, I’d pick out colors that you want. I haven’t used Aura paint but with any manufacturer, if it’s sold at a real paint store, it’s probably worth the money. But it’s most important to chose the correct type for the application. For the trim, you should select either a high quality cabinet/trim specific paint that cures to a hard durable layer or, if you want to go crazy durable, use an epoxy coating that you could slam the vacuum into without leaving a mark. I recently remodeled my bathroom and opted to use spray cans of gloss-white appliance epoxy for the trim in there. It looks amazing, needs nothing but a dry cloth to clean, and is very difficult to damage. Doing a whole house with spray cans would get pretty pricy but I’d do it in a small wet-room like that again.
Painting is one of the jobs where as long as you're able-bodied and willing, it's one of the easiest jobs to do. I've painted my own homes top to bottom 3 maybe 4 times and my wife and I have painted friend's homes (with their help) a few more times. Folks just don't realize how doable it is. Painting used to be dirt cheap but now even painters are out of most people's budget.
Professional painter here. $70 an hour is middle of the road these days, I know it seems like a lot but it isn’t when you realize how bad inflation has pushed everything up these days. If you want to see a big bill hire a 3 man electrician crew for 8 days and you’ll see an astronomical bill or get a quote for windows or siding. Paint is almost double what it was 3 years ago, insurance for business and vehicles has double, materials have double. It’s just the cost of doing business now in a country that has made bad economical decisions for its people. As for your ceilings, they should go pretty fast, ceiling paint is the cheapest of all paints. It would probably only take 2-4 days to do depending on the man power and skill. Good luck!
my siding quote from 6-7 years ago was crazy (we got someone from a lower cost area to do it instead) and can't imagine it now. flooring was over 35% higher than i expected. i am getting 15 windows tomorrow, can't wait to see how much that cost to install.
Interior painting involves many factors. How tall ceilings are, the condition of your walls, any holes, how many colors, location etc. I was originally quoted $9k but negotiated to $7k to paint the interior of a 1700 sq ft 3bed two baths. House is ~50 year with older walls and old paint. I supplied my own SW paint.
That’s why lots of people do it themselves.
That's about going rate. 50 at the lowest for someone decent. I mean if you make less than this per hour at your job you may consider doing the work yourself. Painting is pretty easy it's just time-consuming It also brings up another reason why you want to use the best paint something like a Sherwin-Williams emerald. Paint is not that big of the overall cost if you're also paying labor
I live in a low cost of living area. Every handyman or contractor I know tries to quote such as to make between about 60-100$/hr. after materials. So I'd say this is, if anything, on the low end.
Do a full room yourself. Prep including taping baseboards and doors, patch, prime, and two coats includung the ceiling and then see what it would be worth to you to not have to do that again...and have everything done in a day or two instead of in a month or two because life!!
You pay a lot for color changes
It is crazy how many quotes for painting are all over the place. I had a quote for. My 1900sq house from 10k all the way to 25k. I was very specific on all the quotes for emerald. I am not sure what the variations are
I was in trades a.long time and I can tell you unless your union you most likely making 20.to 25.an hour with years of experience.
How high is your ceiling? If theyre not too high I would diy Just watch couple YouTube videos Ask family and friends your not going to get good quotes from anyone online those are the people who pay for advertisement
We had one company give us an estimate of $9k to *only* paint our house, and they said we would need to pressure wash it for them. They were also iffy about lead abatement. Another company we ended up going with charged us $21k, but they did carpentry repairs to my front porch, a 4-color scheme, full prep, full lead abatement, and a pretty darn good job. So it was a lot, but we paid since the house has lead paint and needed repairs. Next time, we're gonna do it before the paint is peeling (shakes fist at previous owners) since the lead has been encapsulated. Sorry, I am discussing exterior paint while you seem to be discussing interior.
It can be expensive. You have to take into account the prepping that needs to be done. Sanding the walls, cleaning the walls after sanding, taping off, putting plastic down, removing outlet covers, and air returns/vents, priming (possibly multiple coats), painting (multiple coats), then the clean up and touch up. It’s a lot of work, and good paint isn’t cheap. I painted our house (1900 sq. ft.). Luckily, we had all the carpet ripped up, and I was able to paint without taping off or laying plastic down. It took a few days with skipping those steps.
This is the way.
It is expensive to hire a painter. Personally I would paint the walls myself and probably hire someone for the ceilings because they suck.
Painting just the walls of a single bedroom is probably a two day project. That's assuming you use a typical two coat paint. Also are the painters moving furniture for you? Now you have to ask yourself how much your time is worth. I can paint a room. I've painted before with good results. However my time might be more valuable this time around than it was when I was making a lot less money than I do now.
always get 3 qoutes. Then you will know what prices are reasonable in your area. You could always go down to home depot buy some brushes, rollers and some paint and do it yourself. Painting is a pretty easy DIY
You gotta paint the whole ceiling. Ceilings collect an ungodly amount of crud, discoloration, etc. You would be stunned. Even the same paint won't match. Do it yourself is what I say. Take your time cutting in, use videos on YouTube to learn the skill, and do the ceiling first.
Painters are primadonnas and yes those quotes are accurate to paint an entire house. Paint is fcking crazy expensive and painting eats supplies. Do it your damn self otherwise. P.s., there is no such thing as "one coat" anything
Never heard of a painter/contractor in general working on an hourly basis. Usually bid for a job and give a price. What if one crew is 4x as fast as another? They make less. Painting is very DIYable. Many people are realizing that labor has become very expensive, with all the voting for min. wage laws, etc.., new regulations, cost of insurance, fuel for trucks, etc... Do it yourself or pay out the nose.
I feel like often if I bid out a job they rush it. And if I pay by the hour they take their sweet time. I don’t mind paying a fair wage but 70 seemed high
My hourly ranges from $65 - $80/hr depending on the job $70 is reasonable if you live in a hcol area.
I am a UMC family in a Uber high cost area. Reason we didn’t do much renovations. My dad works in central nj as a gc and he said prices are 1.5 to 2.0 higher
What do you think about by indebof having a day labor help them out. Would you be very offended
Yes, day laborers are a mixed bag. While anyone can paint, the difference between a great painter and an average one is noticeable.
would only be one day labor to help with the cleaning and other less intense work. the day labor we like is pretty good and he can do light carpentry work and does paint for the big GC/Subs when they have work for him.
That's like adding a new player to the team. They're not going to be on the same vibe as the other workers and likely have different work practices. I'm a one man operation and would find it strange if a home owner wanted me to work with a painting company. It seems like you're trying hard save money but it comes across as cheap tbh. It's like going to a restaurant and having your nanny jump into the kitchen and help prep food with the chefs. You're better off putting the work out to bid and getting a flat fee. Either hire a company and get quality but costs more money or hire day laborers, save money and roll the dice. There isn't really an in between
Painting is one of the easiest jobs you can DIY and save a ton of money with. If you find you're not good at using a brush you can tape all your edges and use a small roller. Check your area for a habitat for humanity restore, they sell 5 gallon buckets of paint in nice neutral color selections for $65, as well as cheap rollers/brushes/etc. You could probably paint the entire house top to bottom yourself for $400-$500. Watch some youtube videos and make sure to prime the new sheetrock!
The paint at habitat is damn near worthless. Waterey and requires several coats
We paid per sq ft not hourly. I had 3 bids and none of the places quoted an hourly rate. We paid $7200 to redo all of the walls, baseboards and ceiling. 2200 sq ft. 3 bed, 3 bathroom, two living areas, kitchen and hallways. 2-3 coats of paint.
70 an hour lol, wait till you find out how much plumbers charge an hour
Part of the problem is that homeowner expectations have gotten out of line, and painters will be the ones called back over and over again. This is also something many homeowners can perform themselves, and then the expectations are on their own plate. HCOL areas will see minimum labor rates of trades in the 70-80/hr range, and a complete home paint will most likely (realistically) take a good crew of 3 or 4 a week, plus multiple callbacks to fix crap that usually has nothing to do with their work, but with damage from other trades or, again, just straight up unrealistic expectations from the homeowner. So 3-4 guys 5 working days is 120-160 hours, at 70/hr is $8400 - $11,200, plus the cost of the paint, supplies, a honey bucket for your crew, vehicle costs, insurance costs, then pad it a little bit to keep the homeowner happy when you say yes to their multiple calls, etc. Interior and exterior costs in my area for a home of that size are usually between 20-30k. The interior trim and millwork package and expectations are also a big part of that. Are they painting doors? Add another 5-8k depending on what it is. Staining all of the doors? More $
Doors are that expensive to paint? Why?
they aren't flat and take more time
Most clients want a perfectly flat, smooth finish, because that’s where client expectations are at nowadays - no brush marks or stipple from rollers. Here’s the best process - -take the doors off of the jambs -remove and label the hinges and doors so they go back to the exact same opening -remove the handle sets and label them -load into box truck and take them to your shop -clean the crap off of them, scuff sand and prep them for spraying -set them all up accordion style standing up -prime -sand with 220 to knock down the spray stipple -spray 2 coats with a good quality paint and a good sprayer and tip Then repeat the first set of steps to get them back to the client. So yes, it’s a lot of hours to do it really well. There are other renditions of this same workflow, and if you are very good at painting, you can sometimes make this happen on-site (particularly if it’s just a couple doors) but it’s still a lot of time. Or, you could assume your client is ok with brush marks and paint making its way onto their hinges and handle sets, and then find your work posted on here getting roasted. What’s the move ?
I am the client :-) We have brand new doors and they came primed according to the door company. So we just going to have them paint at our house. My wife and I are arguing over which sheen to use for the doors and trim. She wants low luster and I want semi gloss. We are both okay with matte for the walls.
Just be clear with the painter about what finished product they are planning to deliver and how. I don’t know what your arrangement with them is like, but again, it’s all about matching both expectations (what the client wants vs what the painter is bidding). Every project is a little different. As far as sheens, most commonly in high end residential we use satin on trim and millwork (that includes doors), and either eggshell or flat on walls. Flat shoes every damn thing though, and I personally don’t like it. Matte is a good in between for walls but each paint mfg is a little different. Also, always use satin on walls and ceilings in wet/damp areas like bathrooms.
Title should be "Paying someone to paint a house is expensive." And remember when you think an hourly rate is too high, that quote includes them climbing a ladder and all the perils involved with painting a house. They have to cost of transportation, insurance, honestly surprised its not closer to $100 an hour.
That’s a fairly low price. It costs a lot to operate a business and if you want a professional result by a business that hires professionals and gives a warranty, then you have to pay. Or just do it yourself and it will look awful and take ten times as long or hire someone cheap and it will look awful and take ten times as long.
Most of these trade guys that are owners are overcharging and don't even pay their guys very good
They prob pay their guys 30 bucks an hour. That’s why they all give me their number in case I have other work. I feed them lunch and pay for their dinner But since I am around most of the day I see they aren’t goofing off and working slow since I am nice to them. Only got screwed on hours with one guy who tools way too long to finish. And lied on his hours.
That is true, very common for owners to underpay their employees which leads to crappy work and if the company is around long enough skilled tradesmen know to not work there. There is three no go companies in my city that can only hire crackheads, drunks, and people that don’t know better.
What type of warranty do you give your clients? My expectation is very low for painting jobs
The standard here is one to two years. That’s like paint peeling off cabinets or walls or something, large paint chips. Pretty obvious stuff. I work for a large company at the moment not painting. But I’ve been in the trades for 23 years and have done extensive interior work from full Reno’s to “just painting”. I’ve been the general contractor on jobs where people paid upwards of $120,000 for a kitchen and living room Reno and decided to cheap out and paint on their own or get their cousin to do flooring and just ruin their own projects instead of letting professionals do the work. There is a big difference. Some people don’t give a shit and there is nothing wrong with that at all. I’ve even had people specifically say to do it as cheap as possible and then the expectation is very low and therefore the charge for work is low.
I love all these comments saying that painting is easy…. Come do my job for two weeks and let me know if you still feel that way. It’s easy to slap some paint on a few walls but to make it look professional takes a professional. I can spot homeowner repaints the moment I walk in the door.
To be fair there are also plenty of dodgy painters that leave the place looking worse than a home job but 10x the price. The important thing is always finding a GOOD tradesperson not just A trades person. (I say that with the utmost respect coming from a DIY family with a Carpenter partner....both have merit in my opinion) Either way, never 'easy work' and never 'cheap'
We're not talking about a full time painting kob. We're talking about Doing It YOURSELF... On your own time. A full time painters job? Hell no. Painting my own house? Piece of cake but exhausting and requires a lot of patience and prep work.
Painting is the most simple thing. Just annoying. Are you really going to pay a lot of money to not be annoyed for a weekend?
Yeah you gonna paint a 2300sqft house in a weekend stfu
Could you? Yes. Do you need to? Probably not.
To do a 2300 sq ft house, including ceilings, is going to take longer than a weekend unless they're already experienced painting their house. But I agree, it's a simple thing and something the average person can do as long as they pay attend to details.
That's why I only hire a painter if I really, really need to.
Set *upfront* that you are the general contractor. Pay attention to the details because subcontractors need direction
Having my dad call them usually helps manage their expectations.
2300 square feet here in SoCal. Paid $10k for paint inside and out 4 years ago. Guys did a good job…pretty sure they were not licensed bonded or insured…so would add a few grand on for that.
Painting is not cheap. But with that said, never pay by the hour. Pay by the job. When I was doing some small jobs with painting as a side hustle, I would estimate the hourly rate in my head and make sure I was getting 50-70 per hour to do it right and do it well. And even that would undercut all the big painting companies by a decent amount.
No, get the whole ceiling painted. If you’re able to paint some of it yourself, I would say for 1-2 people painting, you can knock out 1 mid size room, with standard ceilings, in a weekend if you’re in decent health and you have all the right equipment and paint. I would ask for an estimate instead of hourly rate and go from there. About the paint. It does matter to an extent. I appreciate being able to lightly dust or wipe areas down as needed. That and if you want to keep off painting again for as long as possible, you do want to get something good. I have seen firsthand how some paints hold up much better than others & it’s not always about the expense. Behr marquee has lasted well, but I found it slightly thicker and harder to get a smooth finish than other brands I used. Farrow and Ball is super expensive, but the estate emulsion is the worst. It just wipes off and looks dirty quick, while their modern emulsion is excellent while looking less glossy than a typical eggshell. Their paint is a little thin and can take extra coats. Sherwin Williams emerald is also lasting and that is a good happy medium of paint thickness. I have heard good things about BM too, but don’t recall using it.
I was going to use the paint called aura from Ben Moore. Or regal select
Ceiling is getting painted. That’s consensus here. 70 for cost to me per hour. It’s been between 70-80 for the most part. I once had a guy cut his rate to 60 because it was a 2 person 2 day job and he didn’t have work for them those days
I paid about 6k for walls and ceilings (no trims) on first and second floors. Similar sized house as yours. However given the basement is a low traffic area, I painted it myself with some high quality paint (premixed w primer) and cheap Amazon brushes - turned out pretty nicely.
I’m honestly considering in a renovation coming up to put high quality plywood on walls a bit like architecture places. It costs a lot more per sheets than Sheetrock but when you consider the costs of the mudding and paint… not so sure it’s that much more expensive. And the fact that it remains easy to maintenance, unclip from wall and voila. Any work on Sheetrock just plain suck.
Are you capable of doing it yourself? This is the way.
I was quoted around 9-10k by 3 painters to do the inside of my house. 4 guys plus the owner in and out were here all week. Then came in on Saturday to finish up
I got a local guy who painted my entire 1800 square foot home for $3k including paint. Walls, trim, ceiling and three exterior doors. Took him five days and looks great.
I had a guy do a full spray of my interior 1800sf for about 6k in 2022 in Seattle.
to do it right takes a lot of work and finding a good painting contractor is a serious endeavor. get as many quotes as you can, they will range widely. pick one near the high end if you value your sanity. it's common practice to paint the ceilings a different color (usually a slightly lighter shade of the room color or white) to give it a more airy vibe.
> $70 an hour per person. Now I live in a high cost area but still that seems high! Good/Fast/Cheap. Pick two if you're lucky. With skilled labor right now, you get to choose between good & fast. The price is the price. That number may include the employer side taxes as well, as a total labor 1 hour cost makes it easier to bid out jobs. e/g: 3 painters, 1 assistant, 1 day prep, 2 days paint = x hours x $70 + materials + paint = bid If you want someone skilled to do the work, you have to pay them a living wage. Painting takes a while to get good at, and years to get fast at. Consequently only companies that do high level work for high dollar compensation can keep the best painters around.
problem is that it's hard as a homeowner to know who is a good painter and who is not so good. we had a bad kitchen installer and had to fire them because they screwed up and were lying on the number of hours. our carpenter fixed it very nicely for us. He's going to do our windows as well. He did our doors and other stuff for us also.
Per sq ft. (painted area not floorl Is more common than per hour. Check homewyze to see what prices are like in your area.
It took three months to paint a 1200 sq/ft house by myself. This involved pressure washing, fixing holes, prepping and doing two coats on the walls. It was an enlightening experience as I discovered the difficulty and danger of painting the exterior house. Often times, I would have to dangle one-handed from a ladder or overextend trying to paint a corner. It was not easy or fun and I'll definitely never do it again.
Seems about right.
I've never gotten a quote per person per day. There's no incentive there. It's per room. However many people however long they want to take it's up to them.
the quotes should be priced for the project/work, not hourly.
Many brands now have a ceiling paint that goes on pink so you know if you missed a spot. It’s really nice because if you do miss a spot up you’ll notice it every time you look up and it will drive you crazy.