Cost of painting living room vs. do it yourself???

[maggiew]

We want to have our living room painted. It has high Cathedral ceilings - it goes up the entire 2 stories! DH & I painted the kitchen, but we think this may be too difficult to do ourselves due to the very high ceilings.

We had a paint company come and give us a quote and he quoted $1200. No major repairs (holes, etc.). Going from basically white (contractor paint) to an off white (parchment). This includes ceilings. They were also going to paint the wall on the stairway leading upstairs.

We could for sure paint the stairway leading to the upstairs landing. But what about the living room high ceilings?? DH was all set to have someone paint the LR for us, but the $1200 was a little higher than he expected. His brother (a realtor) told him that was a ridiculous price and to paint it ourselves. But he lives in Florida and not Chicago. So that may be the going rate here. I have another guy coming for another quote, but now DH has it in his mind to do it ourselves.

So, has anyone painted walls like this and is it crazy to try to do ourselves?? We would have to rent a big ladder from HOme Depot or somewhere.

Maggie

 

[njcarita]

We want to have our living room painted. It has high Cathedral ceilings - it goes up the entire 2 stories! DH & I painted the kitchen, but we think this may be too difficult to do ourselves due to the very high ceilings.

We had a paint company come and give us a quote and he quoted $1200. No major repairs (holes, etc.). Going from basically white (contractor paint) to an off white (parchment). This includes ceilings. They were also going to paint the wall on the stairway leading upstairs.

We could for sure paint the stairway leading to the upstairs landing. But what about the living room high ceilings?? DH was all set to have someone paint the LR for us, but the $1200 was a little higher than he expected. His brother (a realtor) told him that was a ridiculous price and to paint it ourselves. But he lives in Florida and not Chicago. So that may be the going rate here. I have another guy coming for another quote, but now DH has it in his mind to do it ourselves.

So, has anyone painted walls like this and is it crazy to try to do ourselves?? We would have to rent a big ladder from HOme Depot or somewhere.

Maggie

Did he tell you how many days it would take????
you can kinda figure out what they are charging per days work and see if its reasonable.

My husband is a paint / wallpaper contractor.
and there is a Huge difference between what he charges in NJ than what my uncle pays for a paint contractor is Florida.


Also check references and make sure they are insured.

If you decide to do it yourself make sure you use really good brushes and rollers -- also a good quality paint that will cover well.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

Don't paint the ceiling parchment, too. It will make the ceiling look dingy. Either go a shade lighter than parchment or paint it brilliant white. (been there, had to repaint that!)

I used an extension wand to paint the 20 foot front hall in the last house, you use a trim square (on the extension wand) to do the edge between the wall and the ceiling, it has little rollers on it to keep the line perfect (don't get paint on the rollers).

I'd leave the ceiling alone, if you can't, paint it first.

Look at it this way, if you totally mess it up, you can always call in the painter...

Scaffolding's not a huge deal, it just seems like it is at first. I'm going to go get some next week to do the hallway in this house because there are some hard to reach spots and some of the crown moulding is popping out.

 

[twinklebug]

We want to have our living room painted. It has high Cathedral ceilings - it goes up the entire 2 stories! ...

We had a paint company come and give us a quote and he quoted $1200.

Maggie, let me ask you this before I say anything more: What are your ER co-pays? $1200 might be pretty reasonable.

 

[DawnM]

That seems really high. We had our entire exterior house painted in CA, with window trim done differently, etc...for under 5K.

We did our living room/vaulted ceiling ourselves. DH built scaffolding to do it. It cost all of 2 buckets of really good paint at $35 each gallon. We wanted to pay extra for good paint so that we wouldn't have to do it again for a very, very long time!

I would say you could do it yourself for 90% reduction in cost.

Let's say that generously you could do it in 40 hours (we did it in about 15-20).....the savings would be about $1,000. Divide 1,000 in to 40 and you have just made $25 per hour by doing it yourself. It is takes you less time, even more!

Dawn

 

[Scraper]

I did not paint my ceilings but I did paint the walls by myself and we have cathedral ceilings. I live in Fl. and they wanted $800.00 just for the walls. Although I did the bottom chair rail a different color. Anyway I saved alot of money doing it my self and would do it again.

 

[englishteacha]

I'd do it myself, and I hate ladders! You'll be able to reach most of it with an extension wand, and light colors are very forgiving if you make any mistakes. If you're concerned, though, call around for a few more quotes, and ask some friends who they'd hire. A colleague of mine painted the interior of my sister-in-law's house. She enjoyed painting and was good at it, and it gave her some extra cash for the summer.

 

[jodifla]

I'd get more estimates!
Seems too high to me.

 

[Goofyzgurl]

We stayed up all night painting our living room one weekend. I did the big parts and dh did the trim. I actually enjoyed it.

 

[HERSEY]

Is the quote including primer? How many coats of paint. If it's 2 coats,primer and they supply a good quality paint than that price is reasonable for this area.

 

[janette]

I had my den painted recently at about $900, it is 2 stories and did the stairway & foyer. I did just the fireplace myself because I wanted it a different color and wished I'd had them paint all of it by the time I was up / down the ladder and trying to get the edges straight etc.

Something I also considered is that now that I've had it painted a color I like I can do touch ups or freshen the bottom half of the room pretty easily without having to do the top half again.

The paint crew took about 5 hrs to do mine, it took me almost that long to paint the fireplace. Hated to pay it but it was worth it.

 

[raammartin]

We want to have our living room painted. It has high Cathedral ceilings - it goes up the entire 2 stories! DH & I painted the kitchen, but we think this may be too difficult to do ourselves due to the very high ceilings.

We had a paint company come and give us a quote and he quoted $1200. No major repairs (holes, etc.). Going from basically white (contractor paint) to an off white (parchment). This includes ceilings. They were also going to paint the wall on the stairway leading upstairs.

We could for sure paint the stairway leading to the upstairs landing. But what about the living room high ceilings?? DH was all set to have someone paint the LR for us, but the $1200 was a little higher than he expected. His brother (a realtor) told him that was a ridiculous price and to paint it ourselves. But he lives in Florida and not Chicago. So that may be the going rate here. I have another guy coming for another quote, but now DH has it in his mind to do it ourselves.

So, has anyone painted walls like this and is it crazy to try to do ourselves?? We would have to rent a big ladder from HOme Depot or somewhere.

Maggie

We were in the exact same position a year ago. Our living room is 22x22 with almost 2-story cathedral ceilings and we wanted it repainted. I live in north Louisiana and quote after quote was anywhere from $1250 to $1600. We just wanted to go from a white to a beige. The expense of renting scaffolding (which we needed instead of a ladder), the pain of erecting the scaffolding, buying paint, etc. was more than we wanted to deal with. We paid someone to do it instead.

I really recommend just hiring someone.

PS - The painters we went with were $1350. It was two guys and they did it in two days. The first day they did the moldings and the second day they did the walls (beige) and the ceiling (lighter beige). There were insured and they did a great job!

 

[maggiew]

Did he tell you how many days it would take????
you can kinda figure out what they are charging per days work and see if its reasonable.

My husband is a paint / wallpaper contractor.
and there is a Huge difference between what he charges in NJ than what my uncle pays for a paint contractor is Florida.


Also check references and make sure they are insured.

If you decide to do it yourself make sure you use really good brushes and rollers -- also a good quality paint that will cover well.

He quoted 2 days. They have insurance (gave me a copy) and I read their reviews on a ServiceMaster website.

We used Behr paint in the kitchen - kitchen/bathroom sateen lustre enamel. The painter wanted to use Sherwin williams paint but he said he could match the color.

 

[maggiew]

We were in the exact same position a year ago. Our living room is 22x22 with almost 2-story cathedral ceilings and we wanted it repainted. I live in north Louisiana and quote after quote was anywhere from $1250 to $1600. We just wanted to go from a white to a beige. The expense of renting scaffolding (which we needed instead of a ladder), the pain of erecting the scaffolding, buying paint, etc. was more than we wanted to deal with. We paid someone to do it instead.

I really recommend just hiring someone.

PS - The painters we went with were $1350. It was two guys and they did it in two days. The first day they did the moldings and the second day they did the walls (beige) and the ceiling (lighter beige). There were insured and they did a great job!

I'm inclined to just hire someone. I don't really want to deal with it. But DH & I did put in wood laminate floors in the living room last summer. And DH just retiled the kitchen/powder room/laundry room this month.
So I think we could do it. Its just do we want to do it?? $1200 seems like a lot. That's the cost of the new fridge and dishwasher we want.

Maggie

 

[maggiew]

Don't paint the ceiling parchment, too. It will make the ceiling look dingy. Either go a shade lighter than parchment or paint it brilliant white. (been there, had to repaint that!)

I think our ceilings are white already. I don't think we would do the ceilings, though. They aren't bad and it would be too hard!

Maggie

 

[janette]

He quoted 2 days. They have insurance (gave me a copy) and I read their reviews on a ServiceMaster website.

We used Behr paint in the kitchen - kitchen/bathroom sateen lustre enamel. The painter wanted to use Sherwin williams paint but he said he could match the color.

The painters we used also use Sherwin Williams but I just bought the Behr paint that I wanted and had them use that. I have some other areas I wanted to match and I'm really glad I did. Love the color and sheen over the Sherwin Williams. I also like that Behr is cheaper all the time and I don't have to wait for a good sale at Sherwin Wiliams.

 

[IDoDis]

You could do it yourself but not go all the way to the ceiling. You could paint up to the top of the windows and then have a border to separate the white from the new color. Look at this photo so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about. Once you are on the web page, click on the 2nd photo.

http://homes.realtor.com/search/lis...e5&pg=4&lid=1081605764&lsn=34&srcnt=193#Photo

If the link doesn't work, copy & paste it into your browser.

 

[buzz5985]

My DH and I do all our own painting. We actually brought in a contractor to get a price to stain our exterior. We are in the NE. $17,000. We actually do 1 side a year. We just did the back - it took 8 gallons of stain, and another 2 gallons in trim - using Behr, on sale about $250. Our time 1 weekend. DH is 49 and I'm 48. I only go up about 20 feet - I'm too scared after that. My DH needs a 40 ft ladder to get to the peaks. But - he is very comfortable on a ladder. He was a roofer as a kid.

I think that is the difference - if you are not comfortable on a ladder - I'd pay someone. Also - you may not need staging - we have a 20 foot step ladder that we use, I have cathedral ceilings from my 2nd to 3rd floors.

 

[momtris]

The painting company was your mistake! Try looking for someone who does painting on the side. My DH is a teacher, but supplements our income by painting during the summer. He just did someones stairwell (you know, where the ceiling is WAY up high, charged them $125). Its a win/win....took him 2 hrs but the homeowner paid a 3rd of what a painting chagres! Shameless plug......we're in NH if you need someone

 

[maggiew]

The painting company was your mistake! Try looking for someone who does painting on the side. My DH is a teacher, but supplements our income by painting during the summer. He just did someones stairwell (you know, where the ceiling is WAY up high, charged them $125). Its a win/win....took him 2 hrs but the homeowner paid a 3rd of what a painting chagres! Shameless plug......we're in NH if you need someone

But how do you go about finding someone like that???

The other thing I worry about is that we put in new wood laminate floors last fall. So I don't want anything to get on them. I was thinking if we had a painting company and it was in the contract about using floor protection and cleanup, leaving things in state they were found, we would have a better chance of having THEM fix any mistakes.

Maggie