Top Five Reasons Why You Shouldn’t ‘Do It Yourself’ When It Comes To House Painting
In these times of economic hardship, it is often very tempting to do as many things as you can yourself when it comes to home improvement or household tasks, rather than paying the professionals to do it for you. In many cases this is absolutely fine and does make monetary sense, but when it comes to external house painting, it can very much be a false economy. There are a number of reasons why this is the case and this article will run you through the top five in the hope that you will be dissuaded from making the mistake of trying to take the task on your own shoulders.
You Should Never Bite off More than you Can Chew
The fact of the matter is that some decorating jobs are a lot simpler than they first appear, but exterior house painting does not fit within this category. To get a good, or even an acceptable final result takes a great deal of expertise and skill. If you do not have the experience of carrying out house painting regularly then you are unlikely to possess the prerequisite skills.
Do You Really Have Time?
If you look at the exterior of your home it may be easy to misapprehend just how large the surface area that requires painting really is. If you take the time to really think about it you will realize that there is in fact a lot of coverage required and, when you consider that more than one coat is likely to be required, you start to get the picture of just how much time you will have to set aside to paint it yourself. Add to this the fact that any work done at height invariably takes a lot longer and you really do have to ask yourself whether you really have time to do it yourself.
The Weather is a Factor
Feeding into the fact that doing it yourself will take longer than having your house painted professionally, is the fact that you have to consider the weather as an extra factor. You simply cannot re-paint exterior walls in the rain or wet weather and, as such, the quicker that you can get the job done when the sun does shine, the better hope you have of everything being finished and dry before the next shower.
It May Not be as Cheap as You Think
Whilst the main reason you may be tempted to paint your house yourself would be the fact that you believe it will be cheaper than bringing in the professionals, you may be surprised at how little difference there may be. This is true as, unless you happen to have the kind of specialist equipment and ladders required for working at height, buying these can be very expensive and almost wholly destroy any economic benefits of doing the job yourself.
Working at Height is Hard
A final point to remember is that even if you don’t believe to have a fear of heights, doing work and decorating at height is difficult and, if not done correctly, can be dangerous. If you have any concerns in this kind of area then you shouldn’t, therefore, even consider taking on the task of painting the exterior of your house yourself.
James is a writer, blogger and DIY expert having cut his teeth at Never Paint Again. An exernal wall covering and coating specialist in Plymouth, Devon.