When thinking about home painting services you are faced with two choices; either hire a professional painter or go with the do-it-yourself approach. Each choice has its advantages and disadvantages depending on the particularities of cost, quality, time, and accessibility. Here you will find the most important factors to consider for you to decide whether a next painting job is best tackled DIY or with the help of professionals.
Cost Comparison
Of all the factors that affect a homeowner, the single most important consideration is always the cost. The first thing that may come to mind is, well, let them paint it themselves because that would be much cheaper since you don’t have to pay for the painters. However, if one looks at other expenses like equipment and supplies, then doing the work on your own can be slightly expensive.
The main cost factors to compare:
- Professional painters often charge between $25 to $50 per hour or higher depending on the size of the project, firm and geographical area. For the most part, professional painters offer free estimates of the cost based on the intensity of the project.
- Needle, painting as a DIY can be very expensive if you have to buy all the various paints, brushes or rollers, trays, tapes and tarps among others.
- While experts are able to afford professional and durable equipment that is reusable in several projects, amateurs are likely to have to buy substandard equipment that they can use once and dispose. When you go out to purchase quality DIY gear, it comes at a higher cost than if you were buying substandard equipment.
- Prepping surfaces is the most time consuming of all the steps. It is easier to prepare a car for painting when you have access to power tools, lifts, and the right techniques. DIY preparation is done individually and requires more time.
- Other assets: People have painter’s insurance, bonding, and licenses. So if anything concerning the vehicle goes wrong they are financially secure. This is because any mistake that occurs during DIY jobs directly costs the homeowner his or her money.
For small rooms or a few areas that may need a new color or a change in the existing one, individuals can get by with a do it yourself budget paint. However, where there are large areas like whole house painting or exterior painting, it is often priced almost the same as or cheaper than DIY painting when you consider the time to be used, other materials and the likelihood of a messy up job. Price may vary, it’s always advisable to seek quotes from different service providers.
Skill Level
In painting, there is nothing that would guarantee that the painting would come out as desired without some level of skill and paint control. One of the biggest advantages of painting a house with the help of professional painters is that they have many years of experience. Those people who decided to complete the painting project on their own not always take into consideration that there is a definite process which has to be mastered.
Consider your current DIY skills and willingness to learn:Consider your current DIY skills and willingness to learn:
- Preparation process – workers have approaches that they use when preparing the working surface. Are you ready to spend time, effort and elbow grease in scraping, sanding, washing, patching gaps and masking off areas before painting?
- Basic painting skills like cutting in to the edge and doing a neat finish, loading the roller sleeves and controlling the drips, painting corners and cutting edge neatly and maintaining a wet edge is not an easy job.
- Technique – Painting is a very sensitive art; painters make it look very easy as if they are painting with a lot of speed. This is even more apparent in diy work as against when a competent painter paints a surface with little or no blurs.
- Cleanup- As always, Pros have messes managed through the use of drop cloths, proper taping as well as effective working. A person who is an amateur painter when using paint and stains will have an easy time making spills.
For those who have ample time to devote to the mastery of painting, single room projects that are small in size can serve as good practice spaces. However for large projects or if you are not competent in that particular area, professional experience is a good investment and leads to a much more satisfactory end product.
Project Size & Complexity
Think about what rooms you want to paint, the scope of the job (touch-ups, one accent wall versus whole house) and how complex the project rates in these areas:Think about what rooms you want to paint, the scope of the job (touch-ups, one accent wall versus whole house) and how complex the project rates in these areas:
- Spaces (stairs required, need to raise for high walls, high ceiling)
- Surface prep level required (poor existing condition lots of repair work required before surface preparation).
- Other features not easy to mask (cutting in around crowns, trims, other hard-to-mask areas that need taping-off).
- Paint job density (highers of darkness need more than one coat; multiple colors need careful touch up)
Large homes with high/vaulted ceilings, complex architectural designs, increased area to manage, and poor painting statuses pose exponentially more complicated DIY painting quests. It has to do with the fact that professionals have ability, tools, experience, and thinking capabilities needed to do more complex painting tasks faster.
For smaller tasks such as painting a powder room, a bedroom accent wall, or a small kitchen makeover, a beginner to expert DIY person should be able to do it well especially if he or she has some time and energy to spare. Assess the type of work that is required to paint a house in order to decide whether it is within your capacity or if it is best left to professional home painting services.
Key Takeaways: Choosing between hiring a professional painter and painting the house on your own
- However, for smaller paint touch ups such as repainting the walls of a single room, it is possible to do the work by yourself and this will save cash that would otherwise be used to hire a professional painter.
- Be prepared to learn – painting does not happen without some effort and therefore one should expect to learn some technique before mastering what is aesthetically perfect to paint. When going solo on the project, be ready to spend some time on it.
- Relating to the relative cost of a project, other professionals argue that when brought down to labor rates, quality supplies, and improved efficiency, larger projects are cheaper.
- Painting contractors have the necessary skills, time, personnel, tools and materials to deliver intricate, large and professional level paint jobs that are beyond the capability of do it yourself work.
- Think about the accessibility, if there is any preparation required for the surface, the detail complexity, and the size of the project to decide whether it is a do-it-yourself project or not.
Again and again, when it comes to painting, the preparation process can be said to be the best in a production than the actual painting. Except for the surface preparation which is something that professional painters take shorter time and efficiently, painting application in general can be a DIY project if one has a lot of patience. However, for homeowners who are not in a position to dedicate quality time to comprehensive surface preparation, or possess sufficient expertise and appropriate tools for handling big painting jobs, professional painting services provide value for the money by offering excellent end results. Thus, before choosing between taking on the home paint job yourself or getting a professional to do it for you, you should think about all these factors.