Tutorials/advice for painting a whole house myself?
I was originally going to outsource the interior and exterior paint, patching, and pressure washing for my 1200 SF SFH rental, but I ended up being way over budget on the rebuilding of a room and now am desperately trying to slash my remaining expenses. Given that the biggest expense I have left is that painting, it seems like a natural place to start.
I have never really painted before. I have been watching some Youtube videos, but I wanted to see if anybody here has any tips, good tutorials they've found online, a list of materials to buy, etc? I'm kinda nervous about having to paint a whole house by myself with no experience. Feels like it would be way too easy for me to screw something up or take like a whole week to do it. I am considering hiring a friend of mine who is a handyman to help me, but like I said I'm several thousand over budget already and am basically in damage control at this point.
Am I the only one who thinks it's a terrible idea to paint the trim and walls the same color? It seems like that would really defeat the whole look of trim.
Originally posted by @Dawn Brenengen:
Am I the only one who thinks it's a terrible idea to paint the trim and walls the same color? It seems like that would really defeat the whole look of trim.
I agree!
Originally posted by @Dawn Brenengen:
Am I the only one who thinks it's a terrible idea to paint the trim and walls the same color? It seems like that would really defeat the whole look of trim.
I agree. The only time I would feel that is acceptable is if everything is white or off-white. In that case it's going to be blah no matter what you do, so why not.
@Sylvia B. Even then, it's usually flat wall paint and semigloss trim. While very blah color choices, at least there is still some sheen to the trim.
I second using an airless sprayer. I got the one from Harbor freight for $160, & it worked very well. I pressure washed & caulked 1 day, & paint the whole exterior of a SFR the next day. It's much faster if you have a helper hold a large 2 by 4 ft sheet of 1/4" plywood attached to a pole for very quick spraying around windows without taping anything. Watch a couple videos on how to spray, & consider getting a 24" extension to the sprayer. With the extension, I can spray ranch homes without a ladder.
For the interior, I'd use a 3/4" nap roller & sash brush for everything. Paint the trim the same color as the walls, and you can make quick work of it.
Good luck.
Don't worry, painting is pretty easy. Just be sure to cover everything that you don't want paint on if you plan to spray the paint.
I'm a professional painter with 15 years experience. I have 4 units (2 properties) and have had very good tenants thankfully, who've not trashed the properties. If you don't really care much and want to be super cheap, the following advice may be too excessive.
A few points I would like to add from a pros perspective. All of this advice depends somewhat on you rental philosophy. I'm speaking from my perspective whereby, I care about the property itself and the quality of the renters living experience. One can certainly spray everything (blow and go) but I believe there is a middle ground to property maintenance and profit. Also, there is a metric by which, if you go too fast, you'd create more of a mess that adds a higher frustration quotient and more cleanup at the end, that would have been better spent on a little bit of better paint, tool and preparation.
Prep and setup is the most important part of a good paint job and is what takes the most time. On rentals, it's a lot less important but still important.
Disagree with everything one color. Just ugly.
Flat is easy to touch up, but also easier to mark. However tenants can touch it up if you leave extra paint in the unit. Always nice. :)
Eggshell on walls: more durable, less marking, but will leave a visible sheen touch up area (we call it "flashing out" in the biz). Really don't recommend this for rentals with high turnover because of nail hole patches will show and be ugly.
Always flat on ceilings unless in some kitchens and baths. (Small baths and kitchens with bad or little ventilation)
Always gloss or semi gloss on trim.
I prefer oil (modern equivalent is called alkyd) on cabinets. (Very durable) dishes won't stick and they tend to get dirty and damage form heavy use. With oil, cleanup and touch up can restore a good look easily. However, a good latex enamel can be sufficient.
Side note about oil vs latex: where it's oil, you can sand down any chips or damage to an almost invisible transition. Latex doesn't sand very well typically. Tends to leave a hard edge because plastic just doesn't feather to a good taper.
Latex is good because of easy cleanup and usually less to no - VOC's.
I personally shy away from most big box store paints. Usually, they have bad coverage (will need to do at least two coats every time) and are usually too thin (more drips, sags and roller sprays). Another good thing about latex, it usually fills pin holes and cracks. If you go with the pro paints (sherwin Williams/Ben Moore) some of the higher quality paints will really full big holes and cover in one coat (Superpaint; Duration; HighHide; Regal). Some paints (exterior ones especially) are very thick. It's like painting frosting. Yum. :). But this is fantastic for filling little cracks. (Duration and SuperPaint)
Definitely learn to use brush and roller. If you buy the cheap roller naps, you are guaranteed to be covered in paint.
2.5" angle or straight cut brush for cut ins
1"-2" angle or straight for window sashes mullions.
3"-4" straight for siding.
These are typically the brush size uses. However, I've seen guys use a 3" to cut-in and I've often used a 2.5 straight for window sashes.
9" roller or even 18". But you better be in shape for the 18. Especially high ceiling or walls. 18" are fantastic on regular 8 foot walls. If you have someone helping you (a cut-man) you guys can get thru a room with all four walls in about 20 min.
Personally, I find painting very enjoyable. It's like several hours of tai chi - if you put your mind to it. If you really don't like doing it, by all means, hire someone who either likes to or wants to.
I believe anyone can pick up a brush and a roller and apply paint to a surface, but not everyone is a painter. It's ok. Just because I can pull out the doc's stitches or argue a speeding ticket - that doesn't make me a doctor or a lawyer.
I could go into finer detail about brush handling and roller technique and paint extenders/conditioners (floetrol and penetrol) but that's a fairly advanced level of process that most landlords don't care about.
Spraying is altogether a different monster and while it can be a time saver, there are some important details about tips, coverage thickness and thinning, that take a lot of time to discuss.
Learn the difference between the blue tapes. Some are for newly coated floors (low tack) others are high tack and will rip of paint if not careful. Some are designed for masking rough surfaces, others will bleed under.
Scrapers: pull scrapers are better at quick removal. Push scrapers are a bit more dangerous for gouging and possible hand spearing by a splinter.
Pans and pan liners: use the deeper pans and pan liners.
Cleaning latex brushes in a sink: handle up and dirty bristles down under a running tap; Warm-not cold water and work the majority of the paint out first. Don't initially "jam" the brush into the bottom of the sink, in the warm water. This just drives the bow thinned out paint up into the ferral (the metal part of the brush). After the brush has been mostly clean you can then gently ham it into the sink bottom to remove the last little bit. This process should really only take about 3-5 minutes - Not 10-15. :)
Typically don't clean and reuse roller naps
If you plan to go for lunch or store roller and brush until the next day, you can do a quick wrap with a grocery bag or painters plastic so they stay wet. Store them with paint on them as well. Don't aggressively wipe them clean then store them. I've stored roller naps for over six months this way (work out any air, wrap a few more times and tape shut the ends) And they were still usable many months later. :)
Good luck and have fun!
Lots of great advice. I do a 2 or 3 color scheme, yellowy white eggshell walls (Moore Navajo White, a stock color in Superhide 5gal is ~$75), a warm off white semigloss for trim, a Behr color called Swiss Coffee that I have made in Ben Moore, and flat white for the ceiling, unless it's "tin", which gets the Swiss semi.
I also spray the trim if I can with a $100 HVLP cup gun from Harbor Freight. My places are a century old with intricate & beat up casings at least 5", a real pain to brush. And a cup gun has more control for these details than an airless. I red paper the floor with careful masking around casings, and mask the windows. I actually bought 2 so I could have 2 guns, one with primer and one with paint. A backup compressor and hose is a bonus. I use 20% floetrol and dilute it to 30-40 seconds in the test funnel. It's amazing to see latex semi-gloss with no brush marks at all, looks like old school oil.
I am not a professional painter, but I've done both interior and exterior painting on the houses I've lived in before. Also, I realize the original post is kind of old.
To reiterate something many other people have said: when you think about painting a room, you see yourself standing there with a brush or roller, putting the new paint on. That step is maybe 25% or less of the work, and comes fairly close to the end of the whole process. You will spend a lot of time before that cleaning, fixing cracks, and other prep work. You'll wonder why you're doing all of that work, but it helps you to spend less time actually painting, and get a better result.
Another kind of psychological thing is that it will look worse before it looks better. Right now, that interior wall is an out-of-fashion color, and maybe it's a little dusty or cracked in a few places, but it's more or less all one color - you could picture somebody living in that room with the wall the way it is right now. But once you dust it, fix the cracks, maybe scrape a peeling spot - it will look worse than it does now, with spackle over the cracks, and "bare spots" where you scraped it. It's easy to feel like you're going backwards. Once you get the first coat of new paint on it, this feeling will mostly go away.
For the interior, if you have anything else to do to the walls you are going to paint - like hanging up a curtain rod, or replacing an electrical outlet, or anything like that - do that before you paint. 9 times out of 10 this doesn't really matter. The other 1 time, when you drill holes for a curtain rod, you find an old nail or drywall anchor you didn't know was there, and either make a big hole, or have to move the thing over 1/2" and redrill. Or, when you tighten the screws down that last little bit on the new outlet, the drywall cracks under the "ear" on the outlet. Then you get mad because you have to fix the hole or crack, and get the paint stuff out again and fix the new paint. If you do all this stuff before you paint, the new crack or hole is easier to fix when you're patching the rest of the wall too.
For the exterior, if it needs an extension ladder, and you haven't used one before, look up some "how to ladder" videos online. Also, try to use the ladder when there is someone else around. You don't have to have someone else there at the house you're working on - it can be a nearby neighbor that is home, or the city street crew that is working down the block, or even the (older) neighborhood kids that are riding their bikes around. Their job is to call for help if you fall off the ladder.
Here is how you get a really great paint job; you find a great painter and you write a check.
While that painter is making $20 / hour painting your house, you spend the exact same time looking for another deal that will make you $1,000 / hour.
Why do you want to do a $20 / hour job? You're not saving money. You're missing out on the time you could be investing to make $1,000 / hour.
Write the check.
Originally posted by @Aaron Mazzrillo:
Here is how you get a really great paint job; you find a great painter and you write a check.
While that painter is making $20 / hour painting your house, you spend the exact same time looking for another deal that will make you $1,000 / hour.
Why do you want to do a $20 / hour job? You're not saving money. You're missing out on the time you could be investing to make $1,000 / hour.
Write the check.
That's your business model. It's not everyone's, or this forum would not exist. Some of us are buy and hold with small portfolios, where it makes sense to DIY. And that that "time you could be investing to make $1,000 / hour" dilutes that $1000/hr. Don't delude yourself.
That said, I hate painting and hire when I can. I do the spraying because that requires expertise that your typical $20/hr does not have.
Originally posted by @Johann Jells:
Originally posted by @Aaron Mazzrillo:Here is how you get a really great paint job; you find a great painter and you write a check.
While that painter is making $20 / hour painting your house, you spend the exact same time looking for another deal that will make you $1,000 / hour.
Why do you want to do a $20 / hour job? You're not saving money. You're missing out on the time you could be investing to make $1,000 / hour.
Write the check.
That's your business model. It's not everyone's, or this forum would not exist. Some of us are buy and hold with small portfolios, where it makes sense to DIY. And that that "time you could be investing to make $1,000 / hour" dilutes that $1000/hr. Don't delude yourself.
That said, I hate painting and hire when I can. I do the spraying because that requires expertise that your typical $20/hr does not have.
If you spend your time painting rental properties, it might be the explanation why you only have a small portfolio. Something to think about while you're fumigating your lungs with toxic paint spray.
Funny, I acquired my most recent property at short sale from a guy who thought he was a player too, his entire portfolio went underwater and he was no longer a guy who made deals.
Like I said, there'd be no DIY forum if everyone thought as you. To each their own.
great info David and Matt. Painting is all about the prep work. There are many ways to cut corners to save money or time, but if the prep work isn't done properly, the paint job will look like garbage.
On the flip side, painting isn't rocket science. If you have access to the internets, you can learn how to paint.