House Painter

[Guz1]

We have had two quotes for painting our house. The old paint is peeling off and much of it will have to be scraped back. Because we had some rain damage some of the plasterwork (inside and out) will require patching up so we expected to pay extra this year. We have had two quotes and although I know nothing about housepainting the quotes seem a bit high.

Our house is roughly 100 sq. metres. There are metal railings all around the ground floor terraces and on top of the wall of the roof terrace. Our house has a pergola on three sides. There's a kind of wooden lining beneath the roof of the pergola and the wood will require varnishing.

Can anyone, please, give me a rough idea of how much the job should cost (including materials)?

 

[gren]

Scraping the walls may reveal (damp) damage to the render which will need filling.
There is cheap 6TL filler and good filler which has small hair-like fibres in it (made by Henkel and you mix up with water).

Best to use the best (Marshall, Polisans etc.) paint and don't dilute much plus gives 2 or 3 coats.
Coloured paint on window frames is achieved by mixing a bit of the desired colour (buy any hardware shop) with the main exterior paint you are going to use.

If the old 'whitewash' is very thin may be best to coat with (waterproof) primer after scraping and wire-brushing. Ceresite 'no-water' primer is meant to be good.
Either way any bare/unpainted walls may need a coat of PVA or put a bit in the paint to help it stick to the walls.

Next time i need to, i will paint myself because i'd only be watching over workers to ensure they did a proper job.

The real time is in the preparation. Why not buy the materials yourself and negotiate a price? Plenty of people want work at the moment!

Sorry I have not answered your actual question Maria!

 

[Guz1]

Thanks Gren. Wish I had asked this question before my trip to Turkey. Wish I had known about the rain damage before my trip to Turkey. If wishes were horses......

When I was in Turkey I asked for two estimates and have family travelling out there soon so I have to decide whether to choose one of the estimates or find a different painter. One estimtes is from a painter who did a good job for us in the past. The other is from a man who was painting a neighbour's house while we were there.

Seems like an easy choice except that both estimates came via the same middle man. There isn't a big difference between the two estimates, but what has me worried is that my neighbour told me how much he was paying (although I'm not sure whether that included materials). Our estimates are three times higher than what he was paying. He was only having the outside of his house painted which would account for some of the difference but I'm not sure that it would account for such a significant difference.

 

[carolk]

Maria, I'm sorry I don't know but I do have the number of a good painter if that would be of any help.

 

[Guz1]

Thanks Carol, but you're in the wrong area. I'm really between a rock and a hard place on this. My bad mind is telling me that we'll be paying to have more than one house painted and my conscience is telling me I ought to be ashamed of myself.

Gren: Do you have any idea of how much paint it takes to cover 100 sq metres? I may be able to check the Marshall website for idea of how much the paint costs.

 

[Lindacm]

We are just having some decorating done inside. Our guy is very good and through. We know because we have used him twice before and so have oir friends. He starts at 7.30-8.00a.m, finishes when we say "enough", eats lunch with us, at our insistence and charges 35tl a day.

We buy the materials ourselves and I guess the cost would depend on your area. We use a local store, so you would have to check that for yourselves.

 

[Guz1]

Thank you Linda. Assuming the daily rate is the same for working outside, that tells me that the price my neighbour was charged included the materials unless the painter works at snail's pace. Reckon I'll have to send a "cok para" message.

 

[gren]

My memory is a bit flaky... but a smaller tub of Marshall was painted UNDILUTED and it easily covered about the 36m2 (both coats included) area I painted.

I'd say this smaller tub would cover 50m2 so the large tubs would do 100m2.

Someone said the going rate to prepare (sand down etc.) three downstairs rooms plus paint two coats would take about 3 hours in all and cost about 100TL.
(actually this was only the bottom 1.5m of the walls).

 

[carolk]

Hi Maria,

Primera paint ( the one with the fibers in for outside) 15lt was 200 TL from Texzan, its a very big tub!! I dont know how far that goes because I wouldnt have it watered down at all.

 

[Sara-666]

We had our house painted inside and out, from scratch (i.e. the base coats then 3 coats of silicone paint) We bought the best paint going for both inside and out as we were told we would only have to repaint every 3 years then. We bought the paint which cost 2400tl and the labour costs were 2000tl, this was for a house of 270m2 though so for 100m2 I would say about 1600tl to paint every wall, nook and cranny both inside and out x 3 coats. You may not need the base if your house is already painted but if you have water damage it may be worth putting on another base coat as well?

Hope this is of some help/

Sara

PS we didn't water down any of the paint which is why the paint cost so much and made the painters job harder as they are used to splashing it on, not rollering it on!

 

[nanamo]

"Next time i need to, i will paint myself because i'd only be watching over workers to ensure they did a proper job".

Gren ......... Can I come and watch you paint yourself.
Molly

 

[gren]

:bounce:

 

[Guz1]

Thanks a million for all your help on this. I'm on a borrowed laptap because my own computer has been playing up since last night. I'll do my sums again. We have never had to paint the inside of our house. We had the outside painted three times in the first two years. The last time we had the outside painted was nearly 4 years ago and it must have been the same kind of job as Sara describes because since then this has been our first case of rain damage.

Sara: Your house must be very big. I think that we will need a very thorough job on the exterior walls. Inside, however, the only serious damage is to a single wall on each of two bedrooms. All the other walls just need freshening up apart from one very small patch of plasterwork on the ground floor. We don't have any nooks or crannies indoors - just walls and ceilings. All the bedroom furniture is free standing, we aren't having the kitchen cupboards painted and the windows are aluminium, so I reckon that our job will take only a quarter of the work and paint it took to do your house. It would be helpful if you could give me an idea of how many days it took to paint your house.

The weather must have been exceptionally bad last winter. There's a field behind our house, so no other houses to shelter us. Sometimes being surrounded by other buildings can be an advantage.

 

[Guz1]

I'm preparing my instructions for buying the paint. KocTas sell Marshall paint but I can't see any Polisan. There's three types of Marshall paint on the page but it's hard to tell whether it is interior or exterior paint. I can't see whether they sell PVA....excuse my ignorance, but does that come in a tin, tube or bottle? And what about filler? Is that what's used to patch up the plaster or should we buy plaster as well as filler? Here's a link to the KocTas page:
KOÇTAŞ - Evimi Çok Seviyorum

Would appreciate all the advice you can give me, please.

 

[gren]

Interior paint is called İC.
Marshall is good, buy that.
I don't know if they sell PVA in Turkey actually..but it usually comes in a 5litre plastic container but if your surfaces are well-prepared (scraped and repaired/filled) and you have primed any BARE surface with good primer then if the paint is good you should be ok without PVA.
PVA is an adhesive which you can mix with paint etc. to help it stick to bad surfaces.

If you are doing the interior (filler for exterior only) just re-plaster (alci) any holes and then sand down flat. Make sure if there are holes due to damp plaster, you thoroughly clean them out and let it dry out. If you have this problem you may need to cure the damp otherwise it will return.

 

[Guz1]

Thanks a million Gren. We won't be there when the work is being done. Some of the family are travelling over this week and have agreed to get the materials from Koc Tas. I just want to give them some idea of what to buy. I'm going to print out the details from this thread for them. If necessary they can arrange to go to Koc Tas with the painter or one of the neighbours. There is a Marshall shop not far from us but I would rather buy the stuff from Koc Tas because I know that their prices are the same for everyone.

 

[gren]

Önderler may be cheaper than koştaş if there is one of those around.

iç = interior
dış = exterior
mat = matt

Try not to water the paint down if you can. It works better in the long run although harder to roll/brush.

Don't pay too much for the labour!!!

 

[Guz1]

Thanks again, Gren, for all your advice. I have already stressed that they must buy sufficient paint for at least two coats straight from the tin. I don't remember seeing an Onderler. I feel more confident dealing with Koc Tas even if it costs a little more.

It isn't easy trying to work out a fair price.....hard to find the right balance between being a cheapskate and a complete sucker.

 

[Sara-666]

Maria, we had ours painted from render so had to have more coats than you would need, it took them 4 days to complete, both inside and out (270m2 house). This was for 2 coats of undercoat, both inside and out and then 3 coats of silicon paint inside and out. This was 2 painters working from 7am to 7pm for 4 days.

Kind Regards
Sara

 

[gren]

It isn't easy trying to work out a fair price.....hard to find the right balance between being a cheapskate and a complete sucker.

Personally, I'd err on the side of a cheapskate-they can always say "no".

I have never met a Turkish builder/plumber/painter/worker who didn't try an over-inflated initial price - only to agree on nearly half that when met with non-acceptance..wheres the 'fair' concept there?

If sellers want to try-it-on, then the buyer must also try-it-on but remember its a buyer's marketplace and if they do a good job, i'll pay a bit extra.

Why don't you ask a Turk what they pay for painting on their house?