Is It Cheaper to Hire a Painter or Do It Yourself?

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Painting your property is one of the most DIY-friendly home improvement projects. While it’s simple and affordable to invest in a professional painter Gold Coast wide, many people are happy to roll up their sleeves and give it a go. With a little bit of practice and the right preparation, even an amateur can produce a high quality paint result.

The deciding factor for most of us is the cost. It’s quick and easy to hire a professional painting company. But that often costs thousands of dollars more than the DIY alternative. Before you pick up your paint brush we’re going to check out the differences in cost between professional and DIY paint jobs to see which one comes out on top.

How Much Does Professional Painting Cost?

When you hire professionals to paint the inside of your house, you can expect to pay about $4,000 to $6,000 for an average three bedroom home. The actual cost varies widely depending on the size of the property, the condition of the walls, how much labour will be involved and whether you require any special paints. For instance, if the existing paint in your home is cracking or if the plasterboard requires significant repairs, that will add to the total cost of the work.

The main part of the expense comes from the labour involved. While a team of professional painters can paint a home in just a few days, there are lots of hours of work involved that you’ll need to pay for.

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The Cost of DIY Paint Jobs

There’s no question that it will cost you less money to paint your home yourself. All told, you can expect to pay about $500 for the materials you need to paint an average 3 bedroom home. That’s much cheaper than hiring professionals, but the trade off is the time involved. If you want to achieve a high quality finish you can expect to spend 4-6 hours painting each room.

So, your DIY paint job will be easier on your wallet, but it will still come with a few major expenses that can’t be avoided:

  • Preparation. The quality of a paint job often comes down to the preparation at the start of the project. For your DIY project you will need to invest in a few preparation items, including detergent for cleaning the walls, drop cloths and masking tape for covering things you don’t want to get paint on. Luckily, most of these items are very affordable, so it’s just a case of carefully washing your walls and applying masking tape around things like windows and electrical fittings.
  • Brushes and rollers. Good brushes and rollers can make all the difference to a paint job. You don’t need to break the bank here, but avoid buying cheap painting equipment. There’s nothing worse than picking paint brush fibres or roller fluff out of your fresh paintwork. At minimum you should buy a roller handle, a few roller covers and some straight-cut and bias-cut paint brushes for the edging work.
  • High quality paint. If you want a paint job that looks good and lasts a long time, investing in quality paint is a must. Make sure to choose a paint that’s designed for your application. Interior and exterior paints contain different additives and they should only be used in the areas they’re intended for.

Is Professional Exterior Painting Cheaper?

If you’re happy to sacrifice a few weekends then it’s definitely cheaper to paint the inside of your home yourself. But the same isn’t always true for exterior paintwork. The average house has hundreds of square metres of outdoor surfaces. If it’s time to paint your house then it’s well-worth considering professional painters.

You can expect to pay a professional painter Gold Coast wide between $10,000 to $20,000 to paint the outside of your home. While that might seem like a lot, professional painters can make light work of what would otherwise be a difficult and time consuming job. Thanks to specialist equipment like paint sprayers, professional painters can make their way through the work very quickly. Compared to the amount of time it would take one or two people to paint an entire home with just brushes, the cost of exterior painting is more than reasonable.

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