Looking to Paint Your House? Ask Yourself These Questions Before DIY’ing

With the warm weather here, you might be outside more, and therefore, spending more time around the exterior of your home. Is the paint on your exterior chipping or peeling? If so, it might be time for a touch-up or full-blown paint job. Now, it can be tempting to do-it-yourself – after all, it’s so expensive to hire pros, and not that hard to do, right?

Well, not really. Before you decide to go at it alone, ask yourself these important questions. They might leave you realizing you need to call in the professionals.

Do you have the time? Repainting a home can take a full week or two. For many people, that translates to a lot of vacation days or weekends. Are you willing to make that sacrifice? By hiring professionals, they can paint your home during the day while you’re at work.

Do you have the patience? While painting can be fun and psychologically rewarding, good surface preparation – the sanding and priming essential to any successful paint job – can be very tedious. Will you take the necessary time to properly prepare the surface before yielding to the urge to paint? Consider renting power-washing equipment to speed surface preparation, or have the professionals prep your exterior for you.

Can you afford a professional? By doing the job yourself, you can save a lot of money; however, having your home professionally painted will be faster and eliminate the need for buying equipment, preparing the surface and doing the actual painting yourself. You must think to yourself – how much is that time and effort worth?

Do you have the right stuff? The highest quality acrylic latex paint costs more than S20 per gallon, and you’ll also need ladders, scrapers, sandpaper, brushes and/or rollers and safety equipment. Do you have these items? If not, are you willing to invest in them?

Can you do it? Have you painted a home’s exterior before? It’s tough the first go around, especially if you’re unfamiliar with surface preparation and application techniques. And are you afraid of heights? Look up at the highest point of your house? Can safely paint up there on top of a ladder? You also must have the physical ability to hold yourself on a ladder while reaching out and painting – it gets tiring quickly.

If you decide to tackle your painting project on your own, proceed with confidence. However, should you choose the safer route and hire a professional, there are plenty of licensed and experienced painters in your area that would be happy to do the job for you.

By Kellen Owings