Painting Your Home: Do-it-yourself or Hire a Professional?
Size of the job
The first step in deciding whether or not you will do the work yourself or hire a professional is determining the size and type of the work that needs to be done. This will have an impact on all other aspects of your decision. Generally, the bigger the job the more money you will save by doing it yourself. This is because labor costs become a greater percentage of the overall cost of painting as the size of a job increases, and the more labor you’re willing to do yourself, the more money you save.
Exterior/Interior
Exterior painting jobs have a wider margin for error because you don’t have to worry about being as precise and you can get away with making a little more of a mess outside. Exterior painting is more about physical labor than painting skill (at least relative to interior painting). There is usually a lot more prep work to be done on exterior jobs such as sanding and scraping which can be very physically demanding; not to mention the fact that you will most likely be hauling ladders around and spending a lot of time in awkward positions high off the ground. If this doesn’t sound like something you want to get yourself involved in, hire a professional. If you’re thinking about painting the entire exterior of your house without anyone else’s help at all, then you also need to consider that you will be giving up several entire weekends to get the job done. However, because most exterior painting jobs are larger, this is also where you can save the most money by doing it yourself. Interior jobs are much easier for the do-it-yourselfer. They are far less physically demanding but they can still be a challenge if you’ve never painted before.
Costs
While cost is often the determining factor in deciding whether to do the painting yourself or not, there are a number of cost issues people don’t always consider.
Monetary Costs: One thing many people fail to consider when calculating the cost of doing it themselves is the cost of supplies. If you don’t already own any of the necessary equipment and supplies then there will be considerable costs beyond that of the paint itself. If the quality of your paint job is important, you will need at least one good brush which can run between $10 and $40 and you can add that to the cost of tape, drop clothes/plastic, roller covers, caulk, putty, and any number of things that you will suddenly realize you need mid-way through the job. You may also have to include the cost of renting or buying ladders in your estimates depending on the size of you job (this is especially important when considering exterior painting). On a smaller interior paint job, when all the costs are added up, you may only end up saving $25 to $100 by doing it yourself.
Time Costs: The dollars and cents estimates don’t account for the value of your time which is something that you shouldn’t overlook. For some people working on home improvement projects is an enjoyable experience but for others it’s a nightmare. If you’re not experienced even a small painting project can seem to last forever. Painting is not something that can be broken up and spread out over a week or a month very easily like some other home improvement projects; so if you can’t block off the necessary time then you should consider hiring a professional. Even if you consider yourself an expert do-it-yourselfer but find yourself short on time, outsourcing the painting work may be the most cost effective way to save time. For example, I was once working to finish the basement in a house I owned before we put it on the market. I was at a point where there was still a lot of work to be done and a limited time to finish it all so I was forced to bring in outside help. Despite the fact that I worked as a professional painter for years, I determined that the most cost effective solution was to hire someone to paint so that I could focus on the remaining work (which would have cost a lot more to hire out).
Quality
You need to consider how important the quality of the job is to you. If you’re thinking about painting a room that you use a lot or that you entertain guests in, you’ll probably be more concerned about the quality than if you’re considering painting the garage. If you do your homework and hire a reputable contractor, you can expect a professional looking paint job that you will be happy with. Obviously, the results will vary widely if you choose to do it yourself depending on your experience and your attention to detail. An experienced painter can go into a home and easily determine whether the painting was done by a professional or not; but for most people, as long as the paint stays off the ceiling and the carpet it all looks the same. When making your decision you need to determine the likelihood that you will be able produce a finished product that you can live with.
In the end, there is no absolute right or wrong decision. Equal arguments can be made for either approach, but the key is knowing all of the important factors to consider and then making the decision that fits best with your own needs.
