A long time member of the Remodeling Guy Crew (regular readers and commenters), Denise who blogs at Journey to Maggie May, has been building an addition all summer. It’s a beautiful project and she has pictures on her blog. Denise posted a comment today on a post about Bump-Out Style additions that got me to thinking. (See: Bump-Out Additions – Small Spaces, Big Impact)
Should You Do Your Own Painting?
This is a picture from Denise’s blog of her project. They hired a general contractor to do the work, but saw an opportunity to save some money by doing the painting themselves. While that is obviously much less work than trying to build the whole thing, it still can be a ton of work! Here is her comment:
Hey there, we have been busy with our addition…go check out some pics on my blog. I am so ready for it to be done. I have to say that our biggest mistake was signing up to do all of the painting…never thinking of filling nail holes, caulking, etc…we have bitten off WAY more than we can chew!!
When I saw her pictures I could see why! They have an abundance of painted woodwork in this project and the question of “prep” wasn’t discussed ahead of time.
If you want to paint – Decide about “Prep”
You may not know it, but there is an eternal debate in play between carpenters and painters. The gist of it is “who’s job is it to fill the nail holes, to do the caulking, and most importantly…the sanding?” Ask ten painters and ten carpenters and you’re likely to get twenty variations of what is “right, fair, and professional”.
Personally, I think the carpenter needs to leave his work pretty close to ready. A painter might need to do a little prep work, but not much. I’ll readily admit though, that I’m in the minority. Most jobs leave the prep work to the painter and most carpenters are willing to leave the final outcome of their hard work in the hands of someone else. Not me.
The point is this: Sanding, filling, sanding more, caulking, and priming are about 80% of the work of painting. Most homeowners have experience “re-painting” which is a totally different animal than painting for the first time. If you agree to doing the paint work on your project, a choice Denise would advise against, just be sure you’ve agreed on what exactly you’ll be responsible for before you start.
I’ve seen many a row between painter and carpenter because of a 1/4″ gap in the woodwork. Painter feels that the carpenter ought to rip that board out and do it right! Carpenter feels that a little bit of putty or Bond-O will fix it right-up. It’s one thing when that argument is between two people you’re paying. It is another thing altogether when the argument is between you and your contractor…that can keep you up at night!
Food for thought!
Great post! I’d never really thought about all of that prep work before, and I did wonder if we should do all of the painting in the next house we build, since our painter didn’t do such a hot job last time. Now, I know that I don’t want to tackle that one.
Thankfully, people warned me about NOT trying to do all of the pre-move-in cleaning on our new home. Well, the builder thought we could do it, but our friends advised against it. I’m SO glad we listened to our friends because it took a professional an entire WEEK to clean up! We paid her for the job rather than by the day. Imagine how long it would have taken us (the non-pros!).
This post is SPOT ON! My husband is an excellent painter and so we never hire out. But you are right — half of the battle is the prep and the prep has to be done RIGHT!
Then the painting goes flawlessly. Now I will say when I see him with a model brush up along the ceiling I think he’s a bit neurotic, but when it is all done it looks like we paid hundreds of dollars to have it done.
But I have one question! He’s painting our family room this weekend which is at the top of our staircase. How in the world do you effectively prep and paint a staircase without falling and breaking your neck?!? It’s our own paint job that we have considered hiring out. But I’m thinking with the right equipment we could also do it ourselves.
Any suggestions???
Love the blog.
Blessings,
Dori
My husband is a professional paint contractor. He does mostly commercial work but has a few clients who will wait for months for an opening to have their home painted. He is considered one of the best in our area because his work is so outstanding. Over the years there have been those who got lower bids and went with the cheapest painter or tried to do the work themselves. Most of them call him back to re-do the job that some “handyman” has messed up or finish what they have started themselves. If you are good at painting yourself, by all means go for it. If not, hire someone with a good reputation. I see many more bad paint jobs than good. A bad paint job can ruin the look of a home.
as i do most of my home finishing / refinishing / remodeling, i haven’t had to deal with many contractor to painter problems / trade-off’s [i’ve been both!], but you are absolutely correct in the fact that prepping is a vital, albeit, tedious & sometimes painful process.