For the last three years I have thought about painting my house exterior. It started out as a light yellow. It was fine, but it really never felt like my style. After completing a whole host of other projects inside and outside, I finally decided it was time to paint. Really I wish I had done it much sooner. Spoiler alert, I love how it turned out and my house feels even more like a home when I drive up to it and it looks just like I had envisioned.
How Much Does It Cost To Paint Your House
When I bought my house, I had planned on having my friends boyfriend paint the house for me. Well I waited too long and they packed up the family and moved 2,000 miles away. So then I had to figure out exactly how much does it cost to paint your house?
Obviously it varies greatly. Through a quick google search, for my 1,000 square foot house, I figured it was going to cost me anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 dollars. Even as a 34 year old with a good paying job 1,000 dollars still feels like a lot of money to me let alone 4,000. Before taking on the task of painting your house I would consider getting a few estimates to see exactly what it will cost you. This could definitely help you decide if you want to do it yourself. Don’t forget to calculate into cost things like renting a pressure washer and spray painter if you don’t have access to these.
Pro and Cons of Painting Your House Yourself
So what are the pros and cons to painting your house exterior?
Pros
- Save money
- No waiting on painters
Cons
- Messy
- Time consuming
- Learning curve
- You may need to rent equipment making it not as cost effective
When you look at it the cons out weigh the pros, but saving such a large chunk of money and just putting in time to me made the decision. I also had access to a friends pressure washer and paint sprayer to use for free.
If you don’t have as well equipped friends as I do and still want to paint your exterior yourself there are a few ways to still get these at no cost. My town has a tool library that has a bunch of tools it checks out to its members free of charge, just like a book library there is a due date. It’s worth checking to see if your town has something similar. Also joining a neighborhood facebook page. Mine is called “being neighborly”. Most neighborhoods have them and people are always willing to lend out their things to neighbors in need. If you do go this route remember to be a good neighbor and return it better than you got it!
Other considerations before painting your house
One MAJOR thing to consider when deciding if you are going to paint your house exterior is how many levels is your house? Will you be able to safely reach all parts that need to be painted? My one story house was almost iffy. The sides of the house have a very high pitch which made it difficult to reach, but with a little creativity, patients, and a VERY long poll we got the job done. I suggest taking a walk around the house before you buy anything to asses the situation.
Materials
Okay you’ve decided to paint your house exterior…. What to you need to complete this gargantuan task
- Exterior paint – I used an online calculator to figure out how much I needed, and it was pretty accurate! I used Statement White, and Tricorn black from Sherwin Williams.
- Roller
- Roller frame
- All purpose brush
- Paint tape
- Masking paper/plastic
- Paint tray
- Old plastic containers (ex. yogurt) to hold paint for touch ups
- Ladder
- Pressure washer
- Paint sprayer
- A buddy, you can do this alone, but it will be way easier with someone
Prepping the Exterior for Paint
Power washing
A few days before you paint, you’ll want to power wash the exterior of your house. Make sure you take your time and knock away all the bugs and cobwebs you don’t want to paint over them. That being said you don’t have to use soap or really scrub unless your house looks really dirty. Let the power washer do the work! Make sure your house is fully dry before you go ahead and start painting. If you are doing this in warm weather power washing one day and then painting the next day is usually totally fine.
Masking windows and other things
The bulk of the prep process after power washing is masking off windows, door etc. that you don’t want paint on. I mainly used a small roll of brown paper and did several strips to cover each window. It felt a little more manageable than larger paper.
For more unusually shaped things my dad came up with a genius idea…aluminum foil! I used this more sparingly but it really worked out for areas like the electricity meter and the light fixture before I had decided to replace it.
To use the aluminum foil I first painted around the electricity meter with a paint brush and roller, waited for it to dry and then covered the meter with aluminum foil which just sticks on itself. I then just sprayed straight over the aluminum foil as usual.
Spray painting or Rolling?
Simply said spraying is the only way to go. I’m sure you could use paint roller ,but you won’t get all the nooks and crannies, and it would take weeks to finish. That being said if you haven’t used a sprayer before it may take a little practice.
As I said before, my house on each-side comes together at a really high point. Even with my ladder the sprayer wouldn’t reach as high as I needed. This was going to be the only thing that would prevent me from painting myself. So we got creative and bought a long poll that I could attach a roller or brush to to do those part. My dad was helping me with the house painting so we took turns patiently and painstakingly hand painting those areas (if I’m being totally honest he did most of that part). Not ideal, but it got the job done.
How to paint using a sprayer
Find an old cardboard box and practice on there. Short bursts of paint while moving your arm in a sweeping movement is the way to go. You never want your arm to be stopped while paint is coming out of the nozzle or the paint will pool up really quickly and get over applied. You can always go back over a spot it you miss it.
If you do over apply and things are starting too look globby not to worry! Grab a paint roller and use it to roll the excess paint to other parts of the unpainted exterior.
Painting Doors
While you are painting your house exterior you may want to freshen up your front door and maybe even your garage door. I say go for it! Painting the front door really gives the house a little bit of extra personality. New front doors can run anywhere from $800 on up to thousands of dollars, so painting is a great very affordable option.
Since I knew I was going to paint the front door I didn’t mask it. I used a roller for smooth surfaces as the surface of the front door was metal. Taping anything off wasn’t even necessary I just opened the door and put some cardboard under it to catch any drips. I did two coats of black paint and in no time at all I had a beautiful black door that popped against my white house.
Touch up
Before you start cleaning up, take a roller brush and some paint around the house with you. There will inevitably be places that you have missed. It is exponentially harder to see where you missed a spot when you are painting a light color on a light color or a dark color on dark, so a fresh set of eyes would be super helpful for this part.
Cleaning Up
Painting is probably going to take at least two days. It definitely took longer than the one day I thought it would. If you are calling it quits for the night make sure to seal all of your paint so it dosen’t start to dry out. I covered my roller brushes in tin foil and I but my brushes in zip lock bags so they wouldn’t dry out before I used them again
For the sprayer I did clean it out after each use. I did not want to end up with a clogged unusable sprayer. I didn’t clean the outside parts thinking I could easily just clean that when I was completely done. This was not the route to go. It took me several hours and some denatured alcohol to get the sprayer cleaned up. It would have been well worth the extra 30 minutes each night to completely clean the paint. Live and learn!
Finishing touches
Now you have a freshly painted home exterior, the last thing you might want to think about is upgrading house numbers, light fixtures, door knobs, etc. I updated my house numbers to more modern looking ones. They were super easy to install, they came with a template to help mark where they should go and where to drill holes. I also updated my light fixture to something more modern and less farmhousey. These two updates were super affordable and really helped finish off the house.
