Was quoted $5000 to paint and prep 900sf house?


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Old 05-09-17, 09:16 AM
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Was quoted $5000 to paint and prep 900sf house?

I had a quote from a local something*Pro company to prep and paint the house and trim for $5000. Is that a good price for a small house? It seems like a lot.
 
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Old 05-09-17, 09:21 AM
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No way to know without going to your house and surveying just what needs to be done. Is this interior or exterior? Moving furniture will add to the interior cost as will dealing with landscaping and terrain will on the exterior. Best way to find if the price is reasonable is to get several quotes to compare.
 
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Old 05-09-17, 10:19 AM
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No way to know without going to your house and surveying just what needs to be done. Is this interior or exterior? Moving furniture will add to the interior cost as will dealing with landscaping and terrain will on the exterior. Best way to find if the price is reasonable is to get several quotes to compare.
It's the exterior. It's a very small house with 1 floor. Then the guy said something about if there's lead paint they charge even more. It's not gonna happen. I'll paint it myself or vinyl side it for that money.

I might just get someone to prep and scrape it and then paint it myself. It's a tiny house.
 
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Old 05-09-17, 11:16 AM
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Dealing with lead paint can get expensive as the lead debris must be contained and disposed of properly. Homeowners have a little more leeway than contractors when it comes to the new regulations regarding lead based coatings.

IMO having vinyl siding installed makes a lot of sense, especially when you consider you'll never have to paint the siding again. It will need washing every so often. I'd get some siding estimates to compare the paint cost with.
 
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Old 05-09-17, 11:57 AM
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Best practice is to get three or more local bids so you can compare. As Mark said, we have little ability to assess remotely like this.
 
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Old 05-12-17, 04:03 AM
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Yeah, that's a good idea on getting more bids. I also want to look into prices on vinyl. Someone said you could vinyl the whole house for under $2000, I guess they were lying?

Also, I keep thinking that this is something maybe that I can do (painting). I have some options.

1. Get someone to just prep/powerwash and then I can paint it (it's a small house)

2. Get more bids on paint/prep

3. get vinyl bids

Also, one thing from keeping me from scraping is I have no way to know if there's lead paint. The house was built in 1971 with cedar siding, so I don't know how late it may have been painted or if lead was not used after those dates.

Is it adequate to just wear a dust mask and maybe goggles to scrape, etc if there were lead paint? Is there a big worry? How about cleaning up the paint on the ground?

I'm thinking at the very minimal maybe I could just scrape the loose stuff, slap on some primer and paint and call it good?
 
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Old 05-12-17, 04:28 AM
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Only way to know for sure about the lead is to have it tested. Lead paints were banned from residential use in the mid to late 70's if I remember correctly. Only oil base coatings have lead [not all of them] and no latex coatings have lead.

#1 - the biggest cost in prep is labor, you can rent a pressure washer. While a little slower you can wash a house with just a pump up garden sprayer [to apply the cleaner] and a garden hose. A motivated homeowner is likely to do a better job scraping than a paid employee/contractor.

#2 - always a good idea!

#3 - good idea, while painting should be cheaper - vinyl only needs to be done once.
 
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Old 05-12-17, 09:03 AM
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On the optimistic side a 1971 home with cedar siding shouldn't have needed painting for awhile. Personally, I would test it with a simple kit and if negative should be ok. Or you could have a sample tested to be sure. Getting a definite negative test result takes that issue off of the concern list for you and any future owners. Note, trim may have been painted when built, but a much smaller area.

Bud
 
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Old 05-12-17, 01:58 PM
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Someone said you could vinyl the whole house for under $2000, I guess they were lying?
You might be able to get an outhouse sided with vinyl for two grand but definitely not a real house. I had my 900 square foot house vinyl sided back in about 1986 or so and the cost, as I recall, was in excess of $5,000 and that did NOT include doing the soffits or wrapping the window frames. The siding was not top-of-the-line either but a product called Gold Bond.

Nonetheless, I considered it money well spent as the house was ready for another paint job at that time. It definitely would have been less expensive to paint but it would have been a recurring thing, something I was NOT interested in. I did use my (electric) pressure washer on the house every two or three years, took the better part of a day including lots of breaks, but it looked brand new when finished.
 
 

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