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Paint One Side of Your House, Once a Year

Paint One Side of Your House, Once a YearPaint One Side of Your House a Year – Save Time and Money

Painting your house yourself can be a daunting task, not to mention it’s a big commitment of time.  It can also be rewarding and if you have the time, it can certainly save you money.  Once you get past the time is money formula, and have determined that you are going to take on painting your house, then consider my idea to Paint One Side of Your House, Once a Year.

Hiring a Paint Crew:

A professional painting company crew, depending on condition of your home, can take two or three weeks, or more, to prep and paint an average-size home.   Consider cost with a formula similar to this:  4 men = 160 man-hours per week at $25 hour each, equals over $8,000 in labor.  That does not even include materials.

So if it takes a pro crew that long, you can safely bet it will take you longer.  So answer this question – do you have more time than money?

Hire a Crew Then Take Over

Speaking from experience when my wife wanted to change the color of our house I was overwhelmed with the idea of painting the entire house and trim.  I decide that I would hire a painting company to prep and paint the entire house and I would take over after that.

Once the house was painted I waited 3-4 years and painted the front of the house the following year.  The next year I painted the south side [most weathered side] and so one.  Sometimes, depending on the house paint condition, I skip a year.

Some years I only paint the body and other times I paint only the trim.  One time I had the painting company come back and paint the trim and window sash – my least favorite tasks.

Divide and Conquer

Divide and conquer works in political, economic and military strategies, so why not deploy it on your house painting project.

When you tackle an entire house project “quality suffers with quantity.”  It’s WAY too much to do for one person.  This is even more daunting when you have deferred maintenance for some time.

By painting one side of your house at a time allows you really focus on quality. Painting this way really allows you to adequately prepare the siding and trim surface.

Things that most people would “caulk and forget,” because of the sheer volume of the whole house, can now be addressed with trim or siding replacement, rot repair and proper surface preparation.  Painting one side of the house each year WILL result in a better quality finish, and overall longevity of your house trim, siding and paint.

Another Divide and Conquer Plan

A friend of mine tackles his trim first, including windows and doors, in the spring of one year.  Then in late August he paints the most visible side and one other side of the house. The following year, he paints the remaining two sides. He then takes six to nine years off before beginning the cycle over again.

This plan works when the house really needs a paint job, when your changing colors or you just don’t want to do the once a year thing.

Focus on Quality Repairs

House Painting Tips:

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