Painting House - How "Good" A Job Should You Buy?

[jyl]

My neighbor next door had his house painted by a Chinese contractor, a family business, who did it fairly quickly - I recall the prep and paint took less than a week. I believe it cost $7-9K.

My neighbor across the street had his house siding burned to bare wood and carefully prepped, which took two weeks or more. The crew had a nice trailer, lots of tools. The bare house then sat all summer ("drying out", he explained), then this month it was painted. The painting alone took most of a week. I believe it cost in the neighborhood of $25-30K.

These are both fairly traditional, two story, wood siding homes, in the Pacific NW climate. Both houses look terrific from 10 feet away, I haven't given them the close-up inspection and never will - heck, I don't even look that closely at my own house.

Anyway, my wife and I were wondering which approach we'll take when it's time to paint our house - which I suspect is 3 to 4 years from now. (It was last painted around 2000. Not an expensive job, I'd guess.)

She says the across-the-street guy got a much better paint job. I say sure, but is it going to last 3X longer than the next-door guy's paint?

Wisdom? Advice? Thoughts? Stories?

[pwd72s]

Your neighbor who paid $20K plus is a fool. Paint ages...no matter the skill of the application, in our climate, 7-10 years is about all you can expect, using a good quality latex. Doesn't matter who applies it...(edit) I'd suggest you look carefully at yours. If it's checkering, it's time.

[jyl]

Mine is still fine on 3 sides. The southern side is getting noticeably weathered.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by jyl

Mine is still fine on 3 sides. The southern side is getting noticeably weathered.

That's my experience to...the south and the west sides...these are the sides that take the brunt of the "souwesters" during the winter. Frankly, I don't understand the logic of burning off all the old paint...maybe it was really ancient lead based? Today's latexes are pretty good...

[DavidB911]

Supply the paint and ladder and I would do it for like $2k. The only house I've known of that needed painting was my dads and he just painted a side of the house every year (there is a room that jaunts out).

[herr_oberst]

How long are you going to live there?

[TheMentat]

You only need to burn off the old paint if it is starting to "alligator" or split from too many layers.

It's hugely labor intensive, and at a certain point, you might want to consider re-siding the house!

[911mnypt]

I just repainted my house for under 1k...this includes prep work and new shutters. The work is in the prepping the house and cutting in the trim. I used an airless sprayer, took my time and it turned out great IMO. You should be able to have someone do a good job for 3-5k...

Like pwd72s said, paint will fade over time especially in harsher climates...

[jyl]

I'm here for a good while, unless work intervenes (as in, forced to move for work).

I actually know another guy who had his old paint burned off. Just that cost like $15K. Then the top quality prep and paint cost a bunch more. Yes, his paint is smooth as a baby's butt. Yet last time I visited, there was a place where the paint was coming off in large strips. The painters were going to come out and repair it - 1 year warranty - but that seemed ominous.

[kaisen]

Ask Denis (Speeder)

He may know a thing or two

[LWJ]

Hey John,
Given the neighborhood you live in, those houses CAN need to have the paint removed to look right. I had a home in NE Portland and burned off 85 years of trim paint one summer. (Think lead poisoning!) Unless the substrate is all lumpy / alligatored, go with a cheaper paint job. If your house is a three color or has lots of involved trim, the 7-9k price is probably reasonable. If not as detailed, prices are much less. Oh, and by the way, I have a good cheap painter to refer as well.
Larry

[jyl]

Thanks Larry. Nice seeing you last week, hope we do again soon.

I should ask Dennis but I fear I am a lot cheaper than the folks he usually advises . . . considering some of the pics he's posted.

[HardDrive]

$25k-$30k?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

WTF? Is your neighbors house 10,000 sq/ft, 4 stories with wood shake siding on every surface? If the answer is no, then tell him about some lovely swamp land in Florida you would like to sell him....dear lord. He got raped....no worse than raped.

[red-beard]

I painted the front of my 4 story "townhouse", 1870 brick city house. I used a heavy duty paint scraper on each and every square inch, to knock off any loose paint before painting. I think it was 22-23 feet wide, and about 50 feet high. I was able to scrape it and paint it in a weekend, 2x14 hour days plus a couple of hours monday, on some of the low parts of the walls.

The rear took a bit less, since it had a deck for the first 3 stories, and a regular extension ladder was enough to do the top 2 stories above the deck. I also ended up re-painting the decks, and then using a silver roof coating on the roof. I think I spent 3 extended weekends doing the whole place, with just one person. Call it about 4500 sq feet of painting, plus all of the trim. Cost was under $1000 plus my time, about 75 hours.

[Looking_for_911]

It's been my experience - having painted by myself three houses - that "professional" painters will often times "size up" their prospective clients, much like mechanics, and others, and when they feel they've got a "live one" on the line the amount of Hocus Pocus goes up as does the price!
Never let 'em know you got a the P-cars, never let them think you won't have to borrow the money to pay 'em.
It's nice to be the Big Shot at times, but not when asking for estimates and hiring painters, contractors, etc.
For what it's worth......

[Bill Douglas]

I've painted dozens of houses.

I don't remove the old paint. I go over it with a paint scraper and anything that can come off I scrape off. If it stays on it's fine.

Get the house really clean with a house prep/house wash product from a good paint supplier. If the house is not clean the new paint won't adhere as well as it should and needs to.

Use a really good quality paint. NO discount or a name you have neaver heard of. Just premium qualaity stuff and make sure the painting contractor doesn't use "contractor" quality.

Spot prime the bits where the paint has been scrpaed off, then two coats of gloss house paint.

If you wash your house once or twice a year with a mild detergent type wash and rinse, the paint can last 20 years instead of the usual 10.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

How long are you going to live there?

Exactly.

As much as I try to encourage a life-cycle cost mentality, there's little incentive for an owner to pour extra money into property that will outlast their expected length of stay or that they'll never realize through returns - be it paint, finishes, mechanical systems, insulating values, etc.

Personally I prefer stained natural wood or prefinished systems like aluminum siding to painted surfaces (personal preference) but the general rule-of-thumb with finishes (including paint) is that the quality of the labor is more critical than the quality of the product. It's easy to make a finish material look poor and it's difficult to make one really look good.

I've seen way too many houses out there have paint just "glommed onto" the surfaces and it's pretty glaring to a discriminating eye. It can look beautiful if done properly, but there are an AWFUL lot of places that just look plain ugly because of sloppy "half-assed" installations. Some of the products out there are quite good though and can hold up a long time (they have superior UV resistance and are quite good at resisting mold, bird droppings and other types of organic hazards). They do have to be applied correctly however, and that's where a lot of the failures occur. Paint crews (IMHO and professional observations) are quite often bottom-of-the-barrel. If you've ever painted a house yourself, you know it's very labor-intensive and sort of mindless work. Not the kind of trade that often attracts very quality-oriented individuals. There are some out there, but in general paint work is unskilled, "grunt" labor and it attracts pretty low-quality workers who just want to get through the day and collect their paychecks. Little incentive to do more than the minimum - lots of "slap-it-on-and-onto-the-next-job" mentality.

Regardless of what grade of product you select, find a GOOD paint contractor with a lot of recommendations and go look at some of their work. Pay particular attention to corners, eaves, areas around window/door frames and other openings, etc. Look for evidence of soft spots and brush marks (meaning it was glopped on too thick) or dry spots (meaning it was applied too thin/skimpily). Look for evidence of paint "getting on" adjacent surfaces (sloppy workmanship).

Even a mediocre quality product applied by a very good crew will last a long time and look great. A fantastic product applied by an indifferent or sloppy crew will look terrible, be prone to premature failures and ending up costing you a lot more in the long run. I've seen both cases.

[john70t]

The prep(scrape, powerwash, caulk) is important, but the quality of the paint is essential. I'm a firm believer of oil-based paints outside.

What happened to teenage summer jobs?

$25K seems a bit high in this day and age.
The previous owner re-sided our house(14K sq) with metal siding for $18K. You'll get insulation benefits when siding is used with foam, and the stuff has a factory finish with a 10 year warranty. There may be insurance benefits as well.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

$25k-$30k?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

WTF? Is your neighbors house 10,000 sq/ft, 4 stories with wood shake siding on every surface? If the answer is no, then tell him about some lovely swamp land in Florida you would like to sell him....dear lord. He got raped....no worse than raped.

He's a Seattle transplant. Is really into getting "top-quality" stuff for his house. I don't mind, he is a very nice guy and I get to look at it. Good for the economy too.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by kaisen

Ask Denis (Speeder)

He may know a thing or two

Or three. Denis came to my house in Maryland and did an amazing interior paint job for a very reasonable price.

And I got to know him, which was also reasonable...and informative and fun. Ask Speeder