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NW Painter

Hey guys,

Just registered today but have been popping in here the last few years.

I'm currently bidding a house for a company that flips houses for teh money. The house was built in 1908, it seems to be a combo Foursquare/Craftsman style, it's two-story with a basement. Max height is about 26 feet, and it's got about 4,300 square feet of floor space to give you an idea of size.

Second story has cedar shake all around, it's already been painted, and seems to still be adhered well, but has some minor peeling in a few places. At the roof line, there's big rafters that may also need to be painted all the way around the house.

1st floor is 4" lap siding all the way around. Pretty decent shape still, has some minor peeling here and there.

Then it has old block four feet up from the ground, there's a basement half underground. These blocks are about 12"X18", made way back in the day, they aren't perfectly square.

The home is beige now with like red trim.

Customer is considering using 4-5 different colors, so each floor/material will be a different color. Such as 2nd story cedar shake will be one color, 1st floor lap siding another color, brick/stone base another color, trim another color, and they will probably want all the rafters highlighted in white or something for that truly oldschool classic look.

Currently I see bidding this place between $12,000 - $15,000, maybe more. I know that sounds like alot, but it may even need to be closer to $20K to be honest.

I'll likely need a lift for a few days to a week($900), or staging/scaffolding for a few weeks, the home has some areas that will be extremely difficult to reach in any case due to trees/bushes on the sides. The place could tie me up for several weeks really, there's a lot of oldschool detail as well around doors and stuff.

Should this place be primed everywhere, or spot primed since the paint is adhering so well in most places? I'm thinking primed everywhere.

Normally I don't pressure wash older homes, but the flaking/peeling paint I saw seemed to be latex. I'm certified in Lead-Safe Work practices too but am trying to avoid that as well since the home appears to have only latex peeling. It seems to have been painted within the last 5 years, and although it had probably high levels of lead paint at one time, it seems to have been abated previously because all I could see was latex, could see few layers of paint, only two. (Seems likely the cedar shake and lap siding could have been replaced within the last 20 years). Opinions?

I am kinda of in a toss up between Duration and Superpaint.

Wondering too if 12-15K is too low for this place, this could really be a crapload of work, it's kind of a scary one. Other local painters have told me they usually bid houses in this particular area for around the same price. Just wondering, give me some opinions guys...

rws

Doing a house that size with that amount of detail and color for a house flipper and getting the price you want may be tough.Spot prime and one coat of Duration if possible, 15,000 still seems tight.

slickshift

I'm sorry to hear that

Chances are they won't want to pay anywhere near what it really needs to be at, and you'll underbid to get "the work", and end up working for like 7 bucks an hour because you ditched every safety net and PITA charge to get the bid in at something they liked

I'm not saying that these guys are like that, maybe you'll be OK
It's just that chances are they are

"crap load of work" and "scary" are fine-if you are getting proper compensation

Listen to your gut...if they don't want to pay, walk away
The only times I've ever been hosed is when I went against my gut

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Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

slickshift

I like Duration for exteriors
But it's not in most flipper's budgets either
Super paint is way too runny for my taste

__________________
Signature Quote

Quote:

Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr