Painting

Hi All,

Has anyone paid for a painter to paint all of the interior walls on a new house (including sealing the walls and then 2 coats of paint). How much did you pay?
If you did it yourself, how long did it take and was it worth it?

Cheers

Our neighbours paid a painter $7000 to do there house! The other neighbour did it themselves over 2 weekends - with lots of helpers!! We are going to do it ourselves so hopefully it won't take to long

Hi,

Last place I finished about 12 months ago (investment/rental) I had a painter to do all the interior walls, sealing + 2 coats. I used 3 different colours throughout the house.

Painter charged $4100, which included the paint. He also came back after all the trades had finished (particularly the floor & carpet layers) and tidied up the paint work. There were 2 painters working and all up it took them a week and a bit.

House was 250sqm, 4 bed, 2 bath, theatre, study & activity room.

If I had to do it by myself I reckon it would take me 4 weeks of my holidays, plus probably $1000 in paints, brushes, etc, etc, not to mention all the aches, pains & physio/chiro.

Was it worth it? Definitely! I live 4 hours away in the country, so would also have to accommodate myself, travel to and from home, etc. Even if I lived in the city, I would probably still use the painter and save my holidays & weekends for relaxing. That said, first house I built, wife & I painted it all first time ourselves as we were struggling first home owners. Now that we are at about number 5 or 6, it's much more affordable.

Regards,

Wrexy.

I was talking to my painter friend about this just last night when we were out at dinner. He said he charges about $3000 (approx) for sealer plus 2 coats for a 200sqm house (my builder quoted over $5k for the same). He's booked up till Christmas (and I want him about April / May!) but I can give you his details if you PM me. This was just an approximate quote in a general conversation, so don't hold me to it. He runs his own business. I'm thinking of getting him to do the sealant coat, because he was saying (and his partner was agreeing wholeheartedly after doing their own house!) that the sealer is the trouble layer that makes you pass out if you don't wear a mask and needs to be done well.
He can show me how to do the top coats properly and I'll try it myself to save a bit of money. Or maybe I'll reconsider at a later date and get him to do the lot so it actually looks good!

Thanks everyone.

Wrexy - was that painter from the country too or was he from Perth?

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

The painter is based in Perth. I have used him to numerous times to paint 3 or 4 different houses in Perth and even had him go to Albany to paint a house earlier this year. He is one of those rare tradies that turns up when he says he is going to turn up, e-mails you a quote usually within 48 hours of doing a site inspection and lets you know progress every day on your own place and every 1-2 days on vacant investment rentals. He is also one of the rare tradies that I've used him enough times to be happy to leave him in my own house during the day while I am at work.

If you want me to PM you his name & number let me know.

Regards,

Wrexy...

Its important to have it professionally done, OR have a good enough idea to be able to atleast not ruin it. When home owners paint a home they tend to have the thought of put wall paint on walls ceiling paint on ceilings and seal everything etc, In a very basic fashion this is true but the differance between a professional job and a novice job is can not only be noticeably different looks wise but more importantly theres a chance you will ruin the surfaces your painting, when a professional painter paints a new home for instance all internal fixtures etc must be removed most of the time a buidler wont have them on until after the painting is done but if you take a home from the builder un painted then I am assuming they will be on, the doors must be removed as with hinges etc, then sealers have to be applied to all surfaces , different sealers to different surfaces i.e oil based primer to pine architraves plasterboard wallboard sealer to all plasterboard etc, this is as with all acrylics quite harmful to breath in heavy vapours, painters use respirators while spraying, it is important that alot of those coats are sprayed, spraying gives a more even finish these paints become quite textures if rolled etc. Afterwhich your home is broken down into subsections and painted accordingly, painters can and do this different ways according to there experiance etc but generally ceilings first architraves and doors and skirts before walls, this is how you get those perfectly straight lines everyone likes etc. Materials to purchase if your not a contractor with an account with dulux etc, are massively inflated to use an example a drum of low sheen may cost retail appx $180.00 for a premium paint, a contractor depending on his buying power may pay as little as $100. when you consider that a new home of 300sq/m (area sq's not floor) will consume around 300 litres of paint the difference can be upto 1000$.
Painters will also during the final stage of a build repair basic plasterwork and carpentry work alot of the time, something a homeowner may have trouble with (may not also pretty basic ) during the coarse of the painting of the home.

The hardware required when painting can be expensive, a roller sleve of professional quality will set you back upto $30 if not washed out correctly will be ruined everytime leaving lines in your paint work, a proper roller sleve cradle is around $90, and around 80$ for a decent tray, while you can use cheaper variants it will cause issues most people wouldnt think of, the tray i speak of is a deep tray designed to encapsulate the paint it will stop paint splatters, the sleves are lambswool they are used to get an even spread rate of the paint and an even finish, it is near impossible to do the job correctly without these tools.
Personally I am a contractor that has repainted quite a few homes painted by homeowners......they are never returned to a proper state, ever. they can be made good to a certain degree but once you have paint all over the window frames noones going to sit there and scrape it all back properly for any sort of reasonable money.....

Thats only a quick basic insight. BEing a painter myself, if I was a homeowner who couldnt paint or had a non building profession, I'd get a professional and I'd spend the money and make it a good one....knowing the difference myself. You really do....get what you pay for.

We paid an extra $2000 (from the builder) for a 3rd coat of "scrubbable" on our walls, when I spoke to the painter himself he said that he gets an extra $1500 for it and has to pay for the extra paint and obviously his time, the builder just pockets the $500 !

Another Question:
Our ceilings have just been painted and most of it looks perfect but in the kitchen there is a very obvious "tape bulge" maybe it wasn't flushed correctly, I'll speak to him tomorrow and see what can be done, but I was curious to know if anyone else had had this experience.

I know my painter invoiced my builder approx $6000 for the internal and external painting of my 235m2 house. Dont know if undercoat was included? I have a feeling it was just 2 coats of paint. It took my painter 6 days. I think they started with 4, one painter broke both his arms on day 2, falling off a ladder, so I think 3 people painted it within the week.

Thanks Wrexy and Swarvy,

If you could pm the names of any painters that would be excellent (including yourself Swarvy if you work privately - really apreciated the advice you gave)

Cheers
Sarah

We have just one guy and he said he will take about 3 and a half weeks, I hope he doesn't break his arms!

For the most part a new home is built useing around a dozen trade contractors and then retail suppliers and fitters i.e Blinds cupboard sliders etc, A builders Job is to oversee the construction of the home, organise legal matters and timeframes and check work quality schedualling etc, They for the most part collect 100% of your money then for the fee margin of 10 - 20% usually handle the build then pass on the 80 - 90% to contractors for there services etc. (theres alot of services hired by builders , drafters,lawyers,accounts etc aswell, there margins are extremally tight even when there a big builder, Also being big buyers of services etc, the margin you can save by buying direct is small if any.)

Love to help you out but I am located in queensland, Only advice I can give you is to hire a truely professional tradesman, Its hard to know if they are or not so I'd look for things like -

Itemised quote, The quote should not just say "premium paint" ask for the specific paint type, personally i recommend a three coat system with 2 coats hand cut and rolled on walls useing dulux wash and wear low sheen, its important that both two coats are cut and rolled as that paint is designed to be applied that way, and usually painters will spray the sealer and the first coat of low sheen then only cut and roll the last coat. (very important).
preferrably if the painter your hireing is useing dulux paints look for the use of the "professional range" i.e professional full gloss enamel, or professional tintable ceiling flat, these are the professionals range of paints dulux sells to contractors , very good paints. And alittle pricey your quote should reflect this.

Ask that the doors/window frames door frames etc Not be sprayed finish, stipulate that no enamels will be sprayed (the paint used on your doors/architraves & window frames.) spraying enamels causes the enamel to dull, also enamels when sprayed tend to float in the air and become dry airbourne while the bulk ofthe enamel hits the target door or frame the air surrounding it will have airbourne paint particles that will settle onto the wet paint, this will cause a roughish feel to surfaces. (also why a quick painter is not better then one that proceeds professionally and puts in the hard work of finishing it by hand).

Don't under estimate the quality of the undercoats and sealers used also , The difference between the cheapest undercoat and the best undercoat is quite substantial, most people only ever see homes painted with cheaper sealers undercoats etc, but I can assure you the difference is amaizing.

Hope that helps somewhat I could go on for hrs.