Still adamant you’re not going to hire a professional house painter. That’s okay, we get it. Like all trades around the world and in particular the big western nations, prices for labour have rocketed. I work for a company called Imperial Painters, we’re based out of the Gold Coast of Australia, where the prices of just about everything have gone insane. For trade services, hat’s because less and less young people are going into manual labour, and on top of that, the prices of raw materials have also rocketed. Over in America, my buddies have told me prices of paint have more than doubled in the last 10 years.
So, I thought as somebody who does this full time painting houses, naturally my team knows a thing or 2 about saving cash and time. So, here’s 3 of our best painting tips to try and save yourself some money this year.
Don’t buy cheap paint brushes
This might sound counter intuitive, but a nice brush can be used many times over. Cheap brushes get worn real quick, not to mention they don’t hold as much paint. In other words, painting with them is much slower, that means dipping it far more often and not getting as long of a stroke with it. The only time we ever use cheap disposable brushes is when undercoating an oil based paint, oil based is quite nasty to clean up so it’s often far more time and cost efficient just to throw them out after a single use. A good quality brush with water based paint can be cleaned over and over again using warm running water and a good wire brush.
Use your connections
Know any family or friends who are painters. Even if you’re not looking to hire them for the job. Chances are they have access to far better paint rates through their employer. You see, painting stores like Dulux have trade agreements with painters in their areas meaning they get drums of paint cheaper than members of the public can get. If you ask kindly enough and throw them some beer, you may just save yourself some dollars by purchasing on their account.
Wrap your roller sleeves up
You don’t need to throw away your roller sleeve when you’re done for the day. Even if labelled for one time use. Cheap roller sleeves often keep good for many days and uses provided they are wrapped tightly in plastic and kept wet with paint when you are done. Let’s assume your doing the entire home interior, we recommend completing the entire 1st coat in one sleeve, throwing it out, and using a fresh good one for your second coat where a perfect finish really matters.
Don’t use cheap paint brands
Stick to quality paint brands. Trying to save money here will cost you money. Seriously. Stick to big names such as American Sherwin Williams and Dulux, or if in Australia, our own Taubmans is an excellent brand. The problem with cheap brands is they just don’t contain as many pigments. The “coverage” is simply often bad, you can find brands that are half the price of Dulux for example but would take 2x or 3x the paint to get the same level of quality coverage. And even if you do get the coverage, formulas are often so bad that they leave “flashing” and “picture framing” rather than a flawless finish.
