How much to paint a house?

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1
Hi all,

As this is something that one does once in 20 years or so, I am at a loss. It's time to have the house painted.

We hardly live in a villa, it's a typical cozy 3 bedroom house, 2 floors and an attic. Maybe 130 sq. meter living area. It has 4 sides (attached to neighbor via the garages), and is a mix of wood panel/awning and stucco. Throw in some wooden railings on 3 balconies.

Anyone have an idea/experience about what a painter will charge for this job? I want to avoid getting 3 or 4 quotations to avoid being ripped off, I just don't have the time for that!

And advice is really appreciated!

2
This is also a current topic for us. We live in a 6 and a half room house, which is three storeys high, but with additional roof space. Living space is about 190 sq. metres. We don't have wooden balconies, but the side of the house and one balcony is painted in a different colour to the rest of the house (not my choice!). We are adjoined to our neighbours house.

Several other neighbours have had their houses painted recently. The house opposite us cost CHF 32,000 for two houses, so CHF 16,000 per house. One person has paid as much as CHF 19,000 for his side of the house and another claims to have paid as little as CHF 11,000. We have not sought any quotes yet - quite frankly we are still getting over the shock of the cost.

Our properties are unusually high, and apart from the contrasting colour, pretty straightforward.

3
1000 a day including materials.

Just the outside to be painted? Windows? Doors? Inside?

4
Painting the exterior of a house is expensive, I don't care where you live. Even in America, (a.k.a. The Land of Cheap Labor), painting a house is always going to be upwards of 10,000 dollars. 20k is not unheard of.

It falls into the category of Things My Husband Thinks Should Be Much Cheaper Than They Actually Are, along with custom curtains and upholstery.

5
If you are going to spend a great deal of money, perhaps it would be wise to find the time.

6
Get quotes. Make sure that they include the price of scaffolding.

7
I agree - get a few quotes and details of what the quotes include. How many coats 2 or 3? They usually do a clear base coat to help the paint and colour fix better.

Are you staying with the same colour? If you're changing colour, you need to get permission from the Gemeinde first.

Scaffolding around the whole house costs more. Some painters might use mobile scaffolding, which might be cheaper.

Do your homework. Very expensive, not to mention a complete headache, if you get this job done and it isn't very good and needs re-doing.

8
With low interest rates buying a house may seem like a no brainer, Banks assume 1% annual repairs, it's a very real & realistic no, however it's not 1% each year just an average. Rent is not as expensive as you may think, both the properties I own would be cheaper to rent on a month by month basis on average.

9
We need permission from the Gemeinde to paint it a different color??

10
Welcome to Switzerland. Ask them, they may have local laws on such things. Remember their income is fee-based in addition to taxes.

Your neighbours will be watching to see if you change anything, and if so to "assist with enquiries as good citizens for the benefit of the community".

I would concur with the cost benefit analysis of previous posters, that if you don't have time to get competitive quotes, please be prepared to pay potentially more, especially if your urgency is detected by your supplier.....

11
Better check, else you might find that you end up paying to have it painted twice!

12
1) I recall on EF about a year ago, someone giving explanation as their husband was a professional painter, that he had to pay extra high charges for cleaning his brushes and disposing of used paint etc, as opposed to DIY

2) how much do quotes costs, as have seen on EF in the past someone getting charged for quote when not using that company for the job

13
Caveat: Ausserschwyz

We repaired the stucco and repainted our house - 3 stories ca. 220m2 - 12 years ago. The bill was ca. 60K; IIRC of that some 25K was for the painting. Add in the cost of scaffolding as well. Again IIRC, renting, transporting, putting up and taking down scaffolding was something like 12K.

We live in a Quartier with a Gestaltungsplan so yes, we had no choice but to paint the same color. Change would not have been allowed. (Mixing the exact shade to neighborhood satisfaction was loads of fun... )

Whether you need permission to change color, either from your neighbors or from the Gemeinde, will vary from place to place.

Do also be aware that when you need permission from your neighbors some may expect compensation for their signature, or at the very least a bit of horse trading. Be prepared for that cost as well.

Most of the quotes we sought for building work have been under 500. But larger jobs will likely cost more for a quote, expect upwards of a thousand. Quotes from an architect or a Bauleiter will likely run much more than that.

(Not applicable to your project, but FYI for others reading this: For a whole house job the Bauleiter should be seeking quotes as standard management of the project - and he can probably get them without paying. You will pay him a handsome fee - but it might end up less expensive to go that route if you are doing a large renovation job.)

Most firms asking for payment for a quote will credit the cost against the total, but not all do. Certainly if you do not go with the firm you can expect to pay for the quote.

Yes, one needs to shell out quite a bit to do due diligence. However, the cost of not doing due diligence could well be very painful.

There are still a few firms out there advertising 'Gratis Offerte'. Look for those first.

Do be aware, though, that the quote you are given may or may not be binding. As always, read the mice type!

14
Just to reiterate what others have said on here.... scaffolding is ridiculously expensive. Make sure you budget accordingly.

15
Agree, although some firms do have their own which generally works out cheaper, recent job offer Chf3500 for scaffold but plasters supplied their own Chf1200.

16
I thought I had mentioned this enough times, but apparently not.

Yes, you have to ask permission. Anything that affects the outside hull of a building needs permission from the city chamber. If it's only a freshen up with the same colour, they probably won't ask for anything, but if you wish to change the tone, you will most likely will need to ask permission (with documents and the whole shebang).

Your building does not belong to you. It is part of an urban network. And I'm tired of people complaining about it, but then crying that someone in their village painted their house in this awful colour that doesn't match the urban landscape.

I've met countless people who just decide to do whatever they want without consulting the proper authorities, only to be forced to repaint the house/put back the jalousies/ change the balustrade, having to pay both double for the work and a nice juicy penalty to go with it.

And this is one more of those points people forget to give credit to architects. Yes, even that we have to take care of...

*yes, I'm grumpy. my Engineer had an accident today and my schedule just got blown to smithereens*

17
Following installation of our new window the painter had to match the paint to the original - he did - except the old is a bit dirty - so the join is still noticeable.

18
You sound like one of the good guys, Helm. How I wish there were more like you - or more architects with your ethos who work on small projects such as a 'normal' house renovation.

Unfortunately my experience was quite the opposite.

The architect we hired for our current house renovation couldn't be bothered to look up local building regs. Kept proposing designs clearly incompatible with the Gestaltungsplan and left us hanging high and dry when what he swore was allowed turned out not to be. As the property owner ultimately bears all responsibility, it soon became apparent that we could not rely on the architect for compliance issues. Or design issues. Or to lead a project to completion, for that matter.

As always, I suppose it's caveat emptor.

That's the frightening thing about property purchase, building, renovation, ownership. You have to hire experts at vast expense... and yet those expensive experts assume no responsibility, ultimately kicking the can back to you, the layman owner.

*I'm grumpy too. Just lost a property because I couldn't hire the folks needed to line my ducks up in a row quickly enough to do due diligence.

(Hope your engineer is OK...)

19
Another thing to bear in mind, if you have to pay for the expensive full scaffolding around the house, it's worth getting a good experienced roof man to go up check your roof and chimney to see if any repairs are needed. It's the perfect time to make good any small tile/ seal repairs, or get the chimney pointed/copper sealed etc.

If you have to make any roof repairs 3 - 5 years down the road, you will probably have to put up the expensive scaffolding all over again making any future work really expensive. Roofs and chimneys really take a battering over time and if you have any small holes, gaps, they are just going to get bigger and cause more internal damage in the future.

20
I live in France. I can paint my house any damned color I please.