ᐅ Reducing painting costs. Any suggestions?

Hello everyone!

The drywall installers will be finished soon, and after the tilers, we can focus on painting and flooring work. Accordingly, we’ve requested a quote. Unfortunately, it is well above our budget (over 16,000€). The quote includes covering and masking work, priming, filling and sanding, and paint fleece.

We now want to skip the paint fleece, as a perfectly smooth surface is not that important to us and the cost is quite high. But even without this item, we are still looking at over 10,000€. The filling and sanding work is also quite expensive. We could probably save those costs if we apply textured wallpaper (Raufasertapete) on the Q2 walls, right, or am I mistaken?

What other options are there? We have Q2 plaster. We know it’s not recommended to paint directly on this surface. However, our expectations for the finish are not very high. We are not fans of wallpaper, so eventually we just want to be able to paint on our own.

What exactly speaks against simply painting our Q2 walls? (Of course, we would sand and fill them beforehand.)

Thanks for your answers!

MiCasaEsSuCasa schrieb:

Hello everyone!

The drywall installers are almost finished, and after the tilers, we can focus on painting and flooring work. Accordingly, we requested a quote. Unfortunately, it is well above our budget (over 16,000€). The quote includes covering and masking work, priming, filling and sanding, and painting fleece.
We now want to leave out the painting fleece, as a perfectly smooth surface is not that important to us and it’s quite costly. But even without this item, we are still looking at over 10,000€. The filling and sanding work is also quite expensive. Presumably, we could skip these if we apply woodchip wallpaper on the Q2 walls, or am I mistaken?

What other options are there? We have Q2 plaster. We know that painting directly onto it is not recommended. However, we do not have very high demands for the finish. We are not fans of wallpaper, so at some point, we would just like to paint ourselves.

What exactly speaks against simply painting our Q2 walls? (Of course, we would sand and fill them beforehand.)

Thanks for your replies!

The price surprises me a bit. For us, the entire bungalow (140 sqm (1,507 sq ft) with 2.72 m (9 ft) ceiling height), including filling, painting fleece, and two coats of paint, costs less than 9,000€ gross. This also includes masking and so on. We will decide on site whether to use painting fleece or not. The painter wants to show us examples with and without. However, I think we will skip painting fleece in the dressing room, pantry, and utility room.

I was also shocked when I saw the price. Unfortunately, we don’t have many painters to choose from, as most are not available in the timeframe we have to carry out the painting work... Our square meter area is even smaller and our ceiling height is lower as well...

MiCasaEsSuCasa schrieb:

I was also shocked when I saw the price. Unfortunately, we don’t have many painters to choose from, as most are not available during the time frame we have to carry out the painting work...
Our square meter area is even smaller, and our ceiling height is lower as well...

What about doing some of the work yourself? You can skip the drywall finishing if you're not confident with it. I think installing painting fleece and painting should be manageable. If I had the time, I would probably do it myself.

Neubau2022 schrieb:

The price surprises me a bit. With us, the complete bungalow (140 m² (1,507 sq ft) with 2.72 m (9 ft) ceiling height) including filling, painting fleece, and two rounds of painting costs under €9,000 gross. This also includes masking and other prep work. We will decide on-site whether to use painting fleece or not. The painter wants to show us examples with and without it. However, I think we will skip the painting fleece in the dressing room, pantry, and utility room.

I’m more surprised by that price. Our quotes were also in the range of 15,000–20,000 (North Rhine-Westphalia).

@MiCasa

We also received a Q2 finish.
Once filled, then sanded, then locally filled again, and finally painted.
The result is okay. The 15,000–20,000 for painting work just wasn’t feasible.

Oh, and the concrete ceilings were covered with painting fleece.

Fortunately, we do have the time. We would definitely feel confident doing the sanding and painting ourselves. As mentioned, painting fleece is not very important to us and therefore not worth the effort or the cost, even if we do the work ourselves. That’s why I asked earlier what would be the downside of simply painting directly on walls that have been sanded and filled by ourselves. Or is a wall considered to be at a Q3 finish level after sanding and filling, making it perfectly fine to paint over?