If your home is showing signs of paint failure, such as paint peeling, cracking, checking, or chalking, a fresh coat of paint might be all you need. A new coat of paint improves your home’s curb appeal, protects your siding against harsh exterior elements, and ultimately increases the value of your home.
Exterior siding painting is generally one of those home improvement projects that you should leave to professional painting contractors. Contractors have the training, skills, experience, and the right tools to paint your exterior efficiently, faster, and produce high-quality, durable results.
However, if you have some painting skills and would like to try out DIY exterior home painting, you might be wondering how long it will take. Here are some factors to help you get an idea of how long it will take, and even whether or not DIY painting is a viable option for you.
Size of Your Home
Your home’s size will inevitably determine how long your project will take. An average home of 4 bedrooms or less will take about 3-4 days to paint if you have a crew, 2-3 people. Lager homes that have five bedrooms and more, or three-story homes could take about 5-6 days. The more surface you have to prep and paint, the more time it will take.
Size of Your Crew
If you’re a DIY painter, chances are you have just about 2-3 more people whom you can invite for help. Generally, the more helping hands you can get, the faster you can complete your painting project. Yes, you could invite over some of your friends, buy refreshments, turn on the music, and create some sort of painting festival. However, if your friends have little or no painting experience, you won’t move as fast.
At Ron Rice Painting & Consulting, we allocate just the right number of painting crew members and resources based on the size and complexity of the project. So, regardless of the project size, all we need is to adjust the resources allocated to it, and we can complete it in a shorter time than DIY painting would.
The Surface Condition
If the exterior walls you’re painting are relatively intact with an even surface, and without surface imperfections, or repairs to do, the job should move on quite first. However, you will spend almost double the time required on surface preparations if the surface has extensive damages, paint failure, and dirt accumulation.
If you have molds, mildew, water damage or repairs to do, expect even further delays. The fact is, all the dirt and any organic growth must be cleaned off, all the failing paint scraped and sanded off, and any repairs have to be done before you can paint.
Weather
When planning your project, try to pick a time of the year where there is minimum humidity and rain. Paint doesn’t adhere to wet or damp surfaces, no matter how good the quality is. Paint applied on wet surfaces or when there is high humidity often end up peeling and blistering prematurely due to poor adherence.
Additionally, if you’re pressure-washing the siding, it will take much longer for it to fully dry (up to 48 hours or even more) if there is high humidity. On the flip side, don’t paint under direct sunlight either because this will also lead to the paint dying too first but with poor adherence.
The bottom Line
How long it will take to complete, and exterior painting project depends on the factors mentioned earlier. Things like the number of paint coats, the material of the surface, available of the right tools and your painting experience will also determine your paining speed. However, ultimate, DIY painting always much slower, less efficient, and often inferior in quality compared to professional painting.
If you need help repainting your exterior, Ron Rice Painting can help. We’ve been doing the exterior residential painting in San Diego for decades and would like to add you to our long list of happy clients. Call us on 619-208-4482 to get started.
By DYB Virtual