So I always used to think those people on House Hunters were so dumb for caring about the paint colors of the houses they were looking at. Turns out, I am the idiot. We recently purchased a 3400 sq. ft. house, and the painting quote I just received was $17,500, which doesn't even include the three bathrooms, kitchen, or dining room. Granted that includes painting wood paneling in the living room and removing painted over wallpaper in the master, but holy moly. Please tell me this seems totally out of whack, even for an expensive locale.
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Hate to say it, but it's called DIY, my friend. That is NUTS.
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Yeah I would DIY it... it's a lot of work but saves a buttload of money!!
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Can you organize a painting party?
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holy cripes, that is insane. Is there any part of the painting you'd consider DIY-ing? I know some rooms have ridiculously high ceilings and that might be part of your issue -- but painting isn't the WORST thing in the world. Drywalling is.
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It costs less than $100 and takes half a day to DIY a bedroom.
that's an insane price.
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That seems REALLY outrageous! We've hired professional painters before -- they did the work on the side. In our old house, to paint our entire basement's drop ceiling, we spent $600. In that same house, to paint our small kitchen, stairway walls, and a large wall in our living room, we spent around $700.
Can you see about hiring a handyman or someone who does painting on the side?
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Problem is I am pregnant so no painting for me. And we are also both busy professionals (60+ hour work weeks) so DIY is not really a great option. Plus, we aren't terribly handy. Oy. May just live with the walls as is if the other quotes come back equally ridiculous.
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Whoaaa that seems crazy to me! Although, Ive never gotten a quote for such a large space? I would definitely check with some other places first! And, maybe do the easy rooms yourself?
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I would imagine the quote would be closer to $10k . . . do you have bids from other painters?
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We paid $5, 000 for repainting our home and garage. Total SF 3100. That included adding crown molding in two small rooms. We didn't repaint the ceiling. The house was empty, which cost us less. I don't know how much less, but all the quotes were roughly the same.
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@raintreebee: at least it's only the first quote.
Does that include the cost of all the paint? And the patching up any holes or anything in the walls?
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@raintreebee: Buy a few cases of beer and couple pizza pies and have a painting party.
OR slowly go room by room after baby is here. Painting is #1 concern prior to moving in.
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@raintreebee: we have 12 foot ceilings in some of the rooms plus we are not DIYers, there was no way we were taking on that task.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Okay you are giving me hope that there may be someone cheaper.
@Pepper: Good idea about the handyman!
@dagret: Yes, it does include all that. Am hoping the other two quotes come back lower! -
Get bids from other painters and have them break the quote by project so you can compare. My guess is removing the painted over wallpaper and painting paneling are more labor intensive, so more expensive. Its still seems high. Does that quote include painting trim or cabinets? That is more labor intensive, which means more expensive.
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That is a really high price. I live in an expensive area and painting 90% of a 2,500 sq ft townhouse was $4,000....which I thought was a lot!
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@raintreebee: Hooooolllld up. $17k? We were quoted $5k plus the cost of paint for 3100 sq ft + garage + marine paint on the floor of the basement. That included ceilings, trim, and some of the home has 20 foot ceilings. We went ahead with it because we knew the painter was really good, but when he put a gash in one of my precious antiques we decided DH could learn to paint. And he did a great job.
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@spaniellove: @NeekieRose: Ok, feeling much better now since you both live in pricey areas. There has got to be cheaper painters around. I have a couple names I am going to call now.
Thanks everyone!
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Our painters usually charge between $750 & $1000 per room. That price can double or triple with wallpaper removal, high ceilings or a lot of trim.
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That is mega excessive! We had 20 ft ceilings in our last house and it was 2200sf and I paid $4800 and they removed a ton of wallpaper and painted EVERYTHING (doirs/closets/etc)
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That price is INSANE! I've heard $200/room ... But we would never pay for painters. My husband was a commercial painter during college, and he loves doing it every now and then.
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Omg! I will paint your house for $5k! Yikes!
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I would definitely get another quote! That seems excessive.
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We had our entire exterior of our home done for less than half that much money, on a two story home with lots of trim and such.
Hopefully other quotes would be more reasonable. We went the DIY route over time due to being busy. Took me about 3 years, but I finally got everything painted the colors I wanted.
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@wheres_c: hahaha... I would do it for <$5k. I just finished painting almost every room of our house for free - well our house is only 1500 SF tho..
(well I guess I paid myself by not spending the money)
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We were quoted 4k for about 1000 sq ft. We opted out of that portion of our overall renovation contract and did the painting ourselves. And then we learned the value of spending 4k on painting. Especially when it involved ceilings, trim, doors, walls, etc. Your quote does seems high, but I do understand why it's an expensive endeavor. Especially when you consider the time it takes. It took us 3 full days to do it ourselves and we were so wrecked. And honestly, we still haven't finished. We pooped out with the doors
A year later, we still have some exposed wood.
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That is nuts!
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That's insane. We painted our entire house ourselves, while caring for a 7 month old at the time. Kitchen, living room, foyer, 3 large hallways, bathroom, playroom, and bedrooms. It was about $350 for all paint and supplies. You so not need to be handy to paint!
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Whooaaaa, that's insane!! I hope the other quotes come back lower
We found our painter off Craigslist and he did an ok job with our 1250 sq ft place for $1200ish. We got 2 other quotes, one for $2500, another for $4K+.
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@PrincessBaby: us too! WTF...
We paid 4,500 for wallpaper removal an painting a kitchen. They retouched our crown molding and window panels too.
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Hahah I love how bees are bidding to paint your house now. I'll do it for 4k!
Seriously, that's an absolutely ridiculous number. I agree with PP that you should just slowly tackle a room at a time. It really just takes an afternoon. If you know you have some time on a Saturday, then take an hour during the week to tape the room and set all your supplies up. Then paint for a few hours on the weekend. One of you cut in the baseboards and ceiling and one of you roll. It sounds like you work hard for your money, this is a good way to save it!
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Just an update. I got a couple more quotes. The lowest came back at $7240, a full $10,000 below the original quote!
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whoa crazy! thank goodness you got a better quote!!! those first people must be painting with 24k paintbrushes!
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@raintreebee: oh so glad to hear this!
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@raintreebee: that # still scares me, but much better!!!
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Holy cow, both those quotes sound nuts to me. I had NO idea painting the interior was that expensive. We don't even want to pay that to paint the exterior!
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@raintreebee: Oh good, that is much more reasonable!
BTW...is this the lake house or did you guys decide to buy a primary residence?
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I painted my house while eight months pregnant. I used VOC free paint and wore a respirator just in case.
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@runnerd: totally!
@Arden: you are my hero!
@spaniellove: this is the lakehouse. we still have the city rental through my employer (lucky, i know).
that's an insane price.
We found our painter off Craigslist and he did an ok job with our 1250 sq ft place for $1200ish. We got 2 other quotes, one for $2500, another for $4K+.
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41 comments