A fresh coat of paint can transform your Grants Pass house without construction or extensive renovation. But while house painting is more cost-friendly than other home improvement projects, it can still be an expensive investment.
The average cost for interior and exterior house painting in the United States is $3.50 per square foot, but how much does it cost to hire a Grants Pass house painter?
We’ll examine how Grants Pass stacks up against the national average for house painting, all the factors that shift that price, and why DIY painting might not be the cost-effective solution you think.
Factors To Consider
Labor Costs
The most significant expense for hiring a Grants Pass house painter is the cost of labor. Whether they’re painting the interior or exterior, one wall, or the whole house, labor expenses are roughly 70% to 85% of the final cost. But, of course, labor costs will shift dramatically based on how much square footage you want the team to paint.
Specific labor costs change depending on the painting company. But in Grants Pass, most house painters charge between $20 to $100 an hour. However, your painters might charge additional labor costs in certain situations.
If the team has to cover thousands of square feet or travels in from out of town, you’ll pay much more in labor than you would for a smaller, smooth-running project.
Paint Quality
The paint quality your Grants Pass house painter uses plays a major role in the final cost, but luckily, you have a significant say in this expense.
You can request your painting contractors use low-quality paint and primer if you want to save more or ask for their top-shelf products if the price tag doesn’t deter you. However, if you opt for cheaper options, you’ll limit what colors you can have and what finish the paint has.
In Grants Pass, Oregon, the average cost of paint ranges from $15 to $50.
Wall Material
It’s more challenging to paint on certain materials than others, and what walls you want your professional painter to coat will significantly affect the final service cost.
Average home materials, like wood and vinyl, range from $1 to $3 and $1.25 to $3 per square foot. But more extravagant walls like stucco and brick cost a bit more, and you might pay as much as $3.50 and $4.50, respectively, per square foot to paint them.
The specific cost depends on your painting contractor, how much you need them to paint, the exact material, and a few other factors.
Home Layout
Much of the cost for in-home painting services depends on your home’s unique layout and your specific requests for your Grants Pass house painter, so sometimes it’s challenging to get a precise estimate of what your service will cost.
Painting projects cost considerably more on average the more architectural intricacies stand in the way. For example, if your interior walls have crown molding you want your painting contractors to coat, the final price will reflect the extra time, effort, and paint put in.
Other home layout intricacies can inflate your painting project’s cost as well, including:
- Wall height
- Smooth vs. textured walls (extra $1 per square foot on average to paint textured walls)
- Painting the walls vs. painting both the walls and ceiling (overall labor costs increase an average of $3 per square foot for ceiling painting)
- Special requests, like an accent wall or mural (not all painters take special requests, and those who do charge up to $200 per square foot to complete them)
Interior Painting Costs
Painting your home’s interior has a couple of unique costs on top of those listed above that can add a lot to the overall service price. The most consequential of those costs is individual room painting.
Individual Rooms
Even small, single-family houses have at least a bedroom, a bathroom, and a few other spaces and interior dividing walls that play a role in the cost of your painting services. Professional painters need more paint, supplies, and time to cover each of these walls, quadrupling the service’s labor and equipment costs.
Of course, you can request your painting company omit certain walls and rooms to decrease the price. However, the fading, chipping paint will stand out contrasted against the fresh paintings and coatings of the other rooms.
Hidden Structural Issues
Foundational issues are another potential cost in interior painting. Imperfections like water damage, mold, and structural cracks often hide on and inside walls and don’t reveal themselves until a painting crew accidentally uncovers them.
Unfortunately, professional painters cannot work until you’ve repaired those issues to ensure their safety and that your walls are strong enough to support painting services. But not only do the additional repairs add to your painting service cost, but the time your painting crew spends waiting to resume their work will also inflate the price tag.
It’s best to schedule a consultation with a water damage restoration team before hiring a painting service. That way, you can ensure your home is ready for painting.
Exterior Painting Costs
Exterior painting has unique roadblocks that professional painters don’t have to worry about with interior jobs. And, like interior painting, these roadblocks will make your professional service cost more.
Specialized Paints
Professional painters use highly durable, water-resistant paint for exterior work that resists wear and tear from weather elements. And while based paints provide a shine that lasts for years without repainting, they cost more than cheaper, less robust paints.
The average Grants Pass house painter charges $45 more per hour when using specialized, weather-resistant paint.
Extra Equipment
Taller, multi-story homes have walls with more surface area to cover. And, while you’ll see that reflected in labor costs, it has a massive impact on supply costs as well.
In addition to extra paint, your service crew will need extended paint rollers and secure ladders to complete the job safely.
Why You Should Hire a Professional Painter
House painting is an expensive investment, whether hiring a professional or tackling the job yourself. It’s impossible to avoid supply costs and home safety measures while still making the finished product look good. Still, many avoid external labor payments and paint their own house to save money on the costly project wherever possible.
But while DIY house painting saves you money initially, the prep work, time sink, and sacrificed quality might not be worth the extra cash in your pocket.
Job Quality
You’re guaranteed a high-quality job when you hire a professional painter. Not only do painting companies have expert training, certification, and years of experience, but they also have access to professional-grade paints and paint supplies you won’t find at department stores.
Even if you have top-quality supplies, you won’t have the same expertise as professional house painters.
Extensive Prep Work and Supply Needs
It takes more than a bucket of paint, a paintbrush, and a can-do attitude to repaint an entire house. Beyond those basics, you’ll need the following materials to do the job properly and protect your floor:
- A floor tarp to cover your floor from dripping paint
- Painters tape to keep the paint from dripping off the wall
- A ladder and paintbrush extension polls for hard-to-reach areas
- Rags to dry your brushes and remove unwanted paint drops
Between what it costs to acquire those extra materials, professional-quality paints, and backup paint rollers, you’ll pay nearly as much to handle the job yourself as you would hiring a professional.
Massive Time Investment
House painting is more of a time commitment than many DIY home improvers realize. It takes most professional painters with years of experience at least a few days to complete an entire exterior and interior house painting job. But the average timeframe balloons to 2-3 weeks for an inexperienced painter without the right tools or training.
You’ll need to do more than slap a quick coat of paint onto a wall before calling it a day. High-quality painting requires you to thoroughly clean your walls to ensure dirt doesn’t prevent the paint from sticking, sand the walls down so that they’re even, and apply multiple paint coats to get a decent color.
Call Good Neighbor Painting to Transform Your Home Today
Interior and exterior house painting is the quickest and most cost-effective way to turn your house into a dream home. And the best way to ensure your painting investment delivers those results is to hire a qualified Grants Pass house painter to tackle the job.
You won’t find a better professional painter in the city than Good Neighbor Painting. We work hard to keep costs affordable while taking the time to deliver quality exterior and interior painting services that our clients love.
Call Good Neighbor Painting today at (541) 960-4597 to schedule a free estimate.