What a paint job involves
Inside a house or a shop, a repaint usually goes like this:
- Agree colors and sheen. Flat paint hides flaws on ceilings. Eggshell or satin wipes clean on walls. Semi-gloss stands up to knocks on trim and doors.
- Clear and cover. Furniture goes to the middle of the room or out of it. Floors and fixtures get covered.
- Prep the surface. Fill holes and cracks, sand, and caulk the gaps where trim meets the wall. Drywall that's past patching gets cut out and replaced first.
- Prime. Patches, stains and big color changes get primer so they don't show through the finish.
- Cut in and roll. Edges are brushed, walls are rolled, and a second coat goes on where the color needs it.
- Clean up and look it over together. Touch-ups happen while the paint and the painter are both still there.
Outside walls, trim and block
Exterior work starts with washing, then scraping loose paint, replacing rotten trim, caulking, and priming bare wood. Concrete block and brick need a clean surface and paint made for masonry, or the finish lets go. The building in the photos on this page is painted block.
Wallpaper
We hang new wallpaper and take old paper down. Stripping means getting the paper and the old paste off without tearing up the drywall face, repairing whatever's damaged underneath, then priming. From there the wall is ready for new paper or for paint. New paper is hung so the pattern lines up at every seam.
What affects the cost of painting
| How much there is | Square footage of walls and ceilings, the number of rooms, and wall height. Stairwells and two-story rooms need tall ladders or scaffolding. |
|---|---|
| The state of the walls | Prep is usually the biggest variable. Smooth, sound walls go quickly. Peeling paint, cracks and old patches take longer. |
| Color change | Going from dark to light, or covering a strong color, can take a coat of primer plus extra finish coats. |
| Trim and doors | Baseboards, crown molding, window casings and doors are slow, detailed brushwork, and they add up. |
| The paint itself | Better paint costs more per gallon, but it covers in fewer coats and holds up longer. |
| Outside extras | Siding type, how high the walls go, rotten wood to replace, and how much old paint has to be scraped. |
| Wallpaper | Whether old paper has to come off first, repairs to the wall under it, and how much a big pattern wastes when it's matched. |
[PLACEHOLDER: typical price ranges, e.g. one bedroom repainted, and a single-story house exterior]. Jose prices each job after he's seen it.
How long painting takes
[PLACEHOLDER: typical time for one room, and for a house exterior].
Weather sets the pace outside. Paint needs a dry surface and temperatures inside the range printed on the can. Central Arkansas has humid summers and plenty of spring rain, so exterior work sometimes waits a day for the wall to dry.