Hello, I have a question about doing the painting myself. I’m considering painting my new build on my own. So far, it has been included in the overall price.
I have years of experience from a holiday job with a painting company, where I painted apartments and smaller spaces like cafés, so I’m not afraid of the work and I have some experience. However, that was always repainting existing coatings.
Painting a new build for the first time is new territory for me. So my question is: is it doable with two people? How many days should we roughly plan for? The area is about 200 m2 (2,150 sq ft) of living space. The builder will naturally handle plastering and filling.
Also, do you need to prime the surfaces first, or do you apply the paint directly (probably 2–3 coats)?
Thanks in advance!
I have years of experience from a holiday job with a painting company, where I painted apartments and smaller spaces like cafés, so I’m not afraid of the work and I have some experience. However, that was always repainting existing coatings.
Painting a new build for the first time is new territory for me. So my question is: is it doable with two people? How many days should we roughly plan for? The area is about 200 m2 (2,150 sq ft) of living space. The builder will naturally handle plastering and filling.
Also, do you need to prime the surfaces first, or do you apply the paint directly (probably 2–3 coats)?
Thanks in advance!
We did it ourselves, and since we are not professionals, we are satisfied with the result.
170 m² (1830 sq ft) of living space.
Everything was prepped to about Q3, well, let’s say around Q2.5.
The ground floor ceiling was covered with 160 g/m² (5 oz/sq yd) painter’s fleece, and the rest of the walls and ceilings were painted with a moisture-resistant paint rated at abrasion class 2 (applied at least twice).
A few tips:
A 25 kg (55 lbs) bucket of fine filler costs about €40 (great stuff and depending on thickness, it can be sanded after 30 minutes, especially where the surface was only Q2 or worse).
A handy work light for angled lighting is a must.
Sanding paper with grit sizes 120 and 160 (hand sanding).
Enough ladders, rollers, masking tape, protective film, painter’s fleece (the thin kind is plenty), renovation fittings, primer (clear, not the pink one, which is cheaper), dish soap, and good fingertips for smoothing acrylic (or plastic squeegees like those).
As I mentioned halfway through: “Fill, sand, paint, then sand again —> surface like a chalkboard (smooth) —> but the ‘texture’ of the paint roller should be the goal.”
The three of us needed about three weeks in total, and the contractor’s quote was around 6,000 (currency) compared to our costs of about 3,000 (with better quality materials) like abrasion class 2 paint instead of 3, and 160 g/m² (5 oz/sq yd) fleece instead of 130 g/m² (4 oz/sq yd).
It was hard work but fun, and you get more experienced because when moving in, there are always some spots that need touch-ups.
170 m² (1830 sq ft) of living space.
Everything was prepped to about Q3, well, let’s say around Q2.5.
The ground floor ceiling was covered with 160 g/m² (5 oz/sq yd) painter’s fleece, and the rest of the walls and ceilings were painted with a moisture-resistant paint rated at abrasion class 2 (applied at least twice).
A few tips:
A 25 kg (55 lbs) bucket of fine filler costs about €40 (great stuff and depending on thickness, it can be sanded after 30 minutes, especially where the surface was only Q2 or worse).
A handy work light for angled lighting is a must.
Sanding paper with grit sizes 120 and 160 (hand sanding).
Enough ladders, rollers, masking tape, protective film, painter’s fleece (the thin kind is plenty), renovation fittings, primer (clear, not the pink one, which is cheaper), dish soap, and good fingertips for smoothing acrylic (or plastic squeegees like those).
As I mentioned halfway through: “Fill, sand, paint, then sand again —> surface like a chalkboard (smooth) —> but the ‘texture’ of the paint roller should be the goal.”
The three of us needed about three weeks in total, and the contractor’s quote was around 6,000 (currency) compared to our costs of about 3,000 (with better quality materials) like abrasion class 2 paint instead of 3, and 160 g/m² (5 oz/sq yd) fleece instead of 130 g/m² (4 oz/sq yd).
It was hard work but fun, and you get more experienced because when moving in, there are always some spots that need touch-ups.
Definitely do it yourself! We applied painter’s fleece on the Q2 plaster finish, which is really easy and can be done alone using a ladder if necessary. You need very little equipment, and the material doesn’t cost a lot.
With all due respect to professional painters—if not this, then what else would you do yourself? It doesn’t get any easier on a construction site. A YouTube tutorial is enough. After a day of practice, I wallpapered three rooms alone per day (walls, sloped ceilings, window reveals), and painting (two coats) was about as quick. However, you need an empty house without people constantly needing your attention. The stairwell without stairs was a bit tricky, so I had to get a small aluminum scaffold. Insulation between rafters is also a good tip! Laminate flooring, baseboards, suspended ceilings, building a terrace, all in the garden—you can save a lot of money here. The only thing you need is time. I would say: with two people, three weeks off, and good planning and preparation, wallpapering, painting, and installing (simple) flooring is doable.
With all due respect to professional painters—if not this, then what else would you do yourself? It doesn’t get any easier on a construction site. A YouTube tutorial is enough. After a day of practice, I wallpapered three rooms alone per day (walls, sloped ceilings, window reveals), and painting (two coats) was about as quick. However, you need an empty house without people constantly needing your attention. The stairwell without stairs was a bit tricky, so I had to get a small aluminum scaffold. Insulation between rafters is also a good tip! Laminate flooring, baseboards, suspended ceilings, building a terrace, all in the garden—you can save a lot of money here. The only thing you need is time. I would say: with two people, three weeks off, and good planning and preparation, wallpapering, painting, and installing (simple) flooring is doable.
Philfuel schrieb:
Definitely do it yourself! We applied painter’s fleece over the Q2 finish, which is really easy and can be done alone using a ladder if needed. I would be quite cautious with that. Q2 still has some unevenness that can become very visible under painter’s fleece. Even a small plaster crumb can cause the fleece to tent up like a tiny shelter. So I would at least sand it down again beforehand. Even then, it probably won’t meet high-quality standards if you’ve never done it before.
At the time, we had textured, somewhat thicker painter’s fleece (called fleece fiber) installed by a semi-professional wallpaperer, who also did some sanding (though likely not up to Q3 level). Still, there were spots where you could tell it would have looked better if we had invested more money.
Elias_dee schrieb:
Do you need to apply a primer first, or can you paint directly (probably 2-3 coats)? If you ask like that, the previous answers don’t really make sense.
Tolentino schrieb:
Hi anyway, with Q2–Q3 you usually have to sand and fill again. So I’m generously doubling my time estimate. Elias_dee schrieb:
So for us the steps are: filling, sanding, priming, two coats of paint — right? If you know “walls” from your previous job, you should be familiar with the surface quality.
Then the question for us is what the final result should look like.
We also had a good Q2 (–3), primed it, and painted ourselves with tinted paint. And that’s how it should be, without fleece, wallpaper, or skimmed plaster.
Only the drywall on the sloped ceilings gave us trouble with the extra sanding: so we spent two weeks with two people in the attic, and one week on the ground floor. Due to the air space, we had scaffolding work and taped off a white strip on the ceiling area.
So: I’m in favor of doing it yourself, plan for 3 weeks (without fleece), and expect that you won’t be working 10 hours every day if you’re not physically active otherwise. After four days, the body starts to refuse to continue.
Painting isn’t rocket science, but I would be cautious about gluing fleece.
M
Marvinius31 Dec 2022 09:42kati1337 schrieb:
I would be really cautious here. Level Q2 still has some unevenness that becomes very visible under paint fleece. Even a small plaster crumb makes the paint fleece lift up like a little tent. So I would at least sand it again before applying. And even then, it probably won’t meet higher standards if you’ve never done it before.
At that time, we had structured, slightly thicker paint fleece (called fleece fiber) installed by a semi-professional, and he sanded a bit afterwards (but probably not up to Q3 level), yet there were still spots where you could see it could have been better if more money had been spent. Philfuel schrieb:
Definitely do it yourself! We applied paint fleece over Q2, and it’s really easy — if needed, you can do it alone with a ladder. You need very few tools, and the materials aren’t expensive.
With all due respect to professional painters — if you don’t do this yourself, what else would you do? It doesn’t get simpler than this on a construction site. One YouTube tutorial is enough. After one practice day, I could paper three rooms per day on my own (walls, sloped ceilings, window reveals); painting (two coats) was similarly fast. However, you need an empty house without anyone constantly interrupting you. The stairwell without stairs was a bit tricky; I had to get a small aluminum scaffold for that. The insulation between rafters is also a good tip! Laminate flooring, baseboards, suspending ceilings, building a terrace — all garden work — you can save a lot of money there. The only thing you need is time. I would say: with two people, three weeks of vacation, and good planning and preparation, you can handle wallpapering, painting, and (simple) flooring. Properly painting a stairwell including scaffolding is definitely a big challenge.
In the end, we only did the basement ourselves and had the main living area done by a professional. That was the right decision.
X
xMisterDx31 Dec 2022 12:12If you have the 15,000 to 20,000 EUR that painters nowadays charge for a 150m² (1,615 sq ft) house, for 200m² (2,153 sq ft) it can quickly rise to 25,000 EUR.
Why do you actually want silicate paint, or on gypsum plaster you can only use dispersion silicate paint anyway... when you seal the wall underneath with adhesive and fleece?
A vapor-permeable paint only makes sense if it is applied directly onto the plaster and there is no vapor-tight layer like painter’s fleece in between.
The underlying plaster and masonry are supposed to remain breathable and help regulate indoor humidity.
A few millimeters of silicate paint won’t do anything for that...
In that case, you might as well use the much cheaper dispersion paint.
Personally, I decided I’d rather see a few cracks than seal my new build made of solid masonry from the inside with fleece like a milk carton.
Besides that, you save yourself the very time-consuming step of wallpapering, including material costs... especially with fleece it takes a long time if you’re not a professional painter who can apply 1-meter (3.3 feet) wide strips.
And you have to level and sand to Q3 anyway, whether you use fleece or not...
PS:
In the end, it’s always a question of how perfect it needs to be. I am willing to accept small imperfections if I can say “I did this myself and saved the cost of a compact car.”
Why do you actually want silicate paint, or on gypsum plaster you can only use dispersion silicate paint anyway... when you seal the wall underneath with adhesive and fleece?
A vapor-permeable paint only makes sense if it is applied directly onto the plaster and there is no vapor-tight layer like painter’s fleece in between.
The underlying plaster and masonry are supposed to remain breathable and help regulate indoor humidity.
A few millimeters of silicate paint won’t do anything for that...
In that case, you might as well use the much cheaper dispersion paint.
Personally, I decided I’d rather see a few cracks than seal my new build made of solid masonry from the inside with fleece like a milk carton.
Besides that, you save yourself the very time-consuming step of wallpapering, including material costs... especially with fleece it takes a long time if you’re not a professional painter who can apply 1-meter (3.3 feet) wide strips.
And you have to level and sand to Q3 anyway, whether you use fleece or not...
PS:
In the end, it’s always a question of how perfect it needs to be. I am willing to accept small imperfections if I can say “I did this myself and saved the cost of a compact car.”
Similar topics