Interior Paint DIY vs Hiring a Pro?

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ZeroLot

New member
I am willing to take the time to paint my entire house myself.  Yes I am!  I've painted my bathroom and my master bedroom before.  Now I am willing to paint my whole brand new Marigold house.

Here's my question, how much do I need to spend buying all the painting equipment?

If it's going to cost me $700 just to buy all the paint, paint brushes, painter's tape, etc ... should I just give the project to someone else??  Does all the supplies cost $700 for a 2000 square foot house?

Has anyone tried to paint their own house?  How much did it cost to buy all the painting supplies??

If you went with an outside contractor, how much does it usually cost?

Any tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.
 
for a 2K sq ft house ou can probably get it painted for about 3K is my guess? if you are already paying 700 for materials is it worth all the time/headache for $2,300? the fact that you are asking this question you are already wondering the same thing so i would just farm it out. get some quotes from the "list of contractors" folks and call it day.
 
qwerty said:
for a 2K sq ft house ou can probably get it painted for about 3K is my guess? if you are already paying 700 for materials is it worth all the time/headache for $2,300? the fact that you are asking this question you are already wondering the same thing so i would just farm it out. get some quotes from the "list of contractors" folks and call it day.

I did call for one quote and it's estimating round $3500.

I feel kind of stupid now not taking the IP Design Center price of $2000 to paint the house.

The reason I'm asking is I'm running out of money.  Between flooring, cabinets, window treatments, etc ... I had to trim the fat somewhere.  If it's going to cost me $700 to do it myself, I'll do it.  As long as I don't fall off the ladder, it's worth it.
 
ZeroLot said:
qwerty said:
for a 2K sq ft house ou can probably get it painted for about 3K is my guess? if you are already paying 700 for materials is it worth all the time/headache for $2,300? the fact that you are asking this question you are already wondering the same thing so i would just farm it out. get some quotes from the "list of contractors" folks and call it day.

I did call for one quote and it's estimating round $3500.

I feel kind of stupid now not taking the IP Design Center price of $2000 to paint the house.

2K is not bad at all. Wiliam Lyon want about 4,500 if i remember correctly for a 3K sq ft house. and the color had to be uniform throughout the house. couldnt do certain rooms in different colors, although i think this is typically the case with all builders.
 
bones said:
$2k for whole house or just the common areas (no bedrooms)?  Either way - pretty damn good pricing.  My builder is charging me $5k to do whole house.

Yeah but your home is ginormous!
 
bones said:
$2k for whole house or just the common areas (no bedrooms)?  Either way - pretty damn good pricing.  My builder is charging me $5k to do whole house. 

but those bastards price it just right.  its more than you would pay an outside contractor but not by enough where the inconvenience is worth saving 1,000-1,500.
 
qwerty said:
ZeroLot said:
qwerty said:
for a 2K sq ft house ou can probably get it painted for about 3K is my guess? if you are already paying 700 for materials is it worth all the time/headache for $2,300? the fact that you are asking this question you are already wondering the same thing so i would just farm it out. get some quotes from the "list of contractors" folks and call it day.

I did call for one quote and it's estimating round $3500.

I feel kind of stupid now not taking the IP Design Center price of $2000 to paint the house.

2K is not bad at all. Wiliam Lyon want about 4,500 if i remember correctly for a 3K sq ft house. and the color had to be uniform throughout the house. couldnt do certain rooms in different colors, although i think this is typically the case with all builders.

Wow $4,500!  But considering it's 3000 square foot I can see the price jump.  The one uniform color is pretty standard with all the builders. 

There were other factors I didn't go with builder:

1 - I was going to demo out the closet and pantry anyway and didn't want to damage the paint

2 - I was going to upgrade base boards to 5 /14 and didn't want that to damage the paint.

3 - I didn't know the quality or kind of paint IP used so I didn't want the potential toxic fumes to harm the little ones. 

4 - At the time, I thought $2000 was over-priced for paint.  Hind-sight is always 20/20.

 
bones said:
$2k for whole house or just the common areas (no bedrooms)?  Either way - pretty damn good pricing.  My builder is charging me $5k to do whole house.

The whole house - garage, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, pantries, you name it, it's painted.  For $2K!  Damn good pricing now!  I should have just gone with them and did patch up jobs when necessary during the flooring and pantry/closet upgrade process.  *sigh*

If I could walk back into the Design Center and request the whole house paint option right now, I would.
 
homer_simpson said:
bones said:
$2k for whole house or just the common areas (no bedrooms)?  Either way - pretty damn good pricing.  My builder is charging me $5k to do whole house.

Yeah but your home is ginormous!

How many square feet is your house, Bones??  For $5K worth of painting!
 
bones said:
ZeroLot said:
homer_simpson said:
bones said:
$2k for whole house or just the common areas (no bedrooms)?  Either way - pretty damn good pricing.  My builder is charging me $5k to do whole house.

Yeah but your home is ginormous!

How many square feet is your house, Bones??  For $5K worth of painting!

Don't listen to Homie.  He doesn't know what he's talking about now that he's no longer an Irvinite.  BTW - don't beat yourself up too bad on the painting.  You weighed the pros and cons at the time and went with what you thought was the best decision.

I'm still an irvinite!! trust me  ;D
 
My painter charged me $1,050.00 which includes:

- 1 color for the entire downstairs including the downstairs bedroom, stairway area, and upstair hallway. 
- Baseboards my flooring contractor put in.
- 1 accent wall in each of the 3 bedrooms upstairs in different colors

House is about 2140 sq ft.  IP wanted $2800 and I could only choose certain colors.  I didn't do any of the bathrooms.  Picked out paint colors from Dunn Edwards in Tustin, and the painter did everything else.  I'm very happy with his work, he pays very close attention to little details, so it turned out a lot better than my last house which I painted myself.
 
@ZeroLot:

Is that $2k for one color? Can you choose the color?

Back when I was looking at new homes, they gave you a choice of a only a few colors (usually beigish).
 
irvinehomeowner said:
gaogi said:
My painter charged me $1,050.00...
So who is gaogi's painter? One of the TI referrals?

The guy's name is Juan, he usually doesn't do jobs in Irvine, which may be why he's so cheap.  PM me for his number if you're interested.
 
gaogi said:
irvinehomeowner said:
gaogi said:
My painter charged me $1,050.00...
So who is gaogi's painter? One of the TI referrals?

The guy's name is Juan, he usually doesn't do jobs in Irvine, which may be why he's so cheap.  PM me for his number if you're interested.

Juan? Cmon - you dont have to protect their identity by coming up with a fake name. what is their real name?
 
ZeroLot said:
bones said:
$2k for whole house or just the common areas (no bedrooms)?  Either way - pretty damn good pricing.  My builder is charging me $5k to do whole house.

The whole house - garage, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, pantries, you name it, it's painted.  For $2K!  Damn good pricing now!  I should have just gone with them and did patch up jobs when necessary during the flooring and pantry/closet upgrade process.  *sigh*

If I could walk back into the Design Center and request the whole house paint option right now, I would.

If you think about it though, you're basically paying them 2000.00 to use a different color to paint the areas they were going to paint anyway.  Lots of profit for them in that 2000.00.
 
qwerty said:
gaogi said:
irvinehomeowner said:
gaogi said:
My painter charged me $1,050.00...
So who is gaogi's painter? One of the TI referrals?

The guy's name is Juan, he usually doesn't do jobs in Irvine, which may be why he's so cheap.  PM me for his number if you're interested.

Juan? Cmon - you dont have to protect their identity by coming up with a fake name. what is their real name?

LOL, we're on first name basis only.  I can't remember his last name, he's in my phone as "Juan the Painter"  :)
 
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