Should you hire a painter, or can you do it yourself?

Why do I need to hire a professional painter?

We get asked this often.

A great way to give your home a lift or a new season facelift is usually a fresh coat of paint.

However, should you use your hard earned money for a professional painter to do the job done, or have a shot at doing it yourself?

Let's look at the advantages of hiring a painting expert.

Advantages of hiring a professional painter.

Experience

The most important reason for choosing an expert is that professional painters have years of experience in the trade. This means they know everything from how many tins of paint it will take to paint a room and how many coats of paint are required. If there are any special measures needed to prepare a surface for painting, they will know how to get the best result.

The right equipment

As a 'do it yourselfer', it is unlikely you will have a selection of paint brushes, rollers and drop sheets at home. When you hire a professional home painter you won’t need to waste money and storage space on painting equipment you’ll rarely use.

A fresh coat of paint can help increase the value of your home or commercial property.

Health & safety

Painting can be dangerous, especially when you are painting at heights, ceilings or hard to get to places. Safety is important. Professional painters have the right ladders and harness equipment to paint difficult to reach walls in your home. Painting also involves using chemicals such as solvents to clean up any spillages or paint runs, which can be very dangerous if they make contact with skin or are inhaled.

Perfect finish

Many people think that the do-it-yourself approach to painting is worth the cost savings of hiring a professional. However commercial painters and home painters are trained experts who will ensure that the job is completed to the highest of standards. It’s certainly worth spending the extra money to achieve a quality finish for your home or business. Professional decorators also know which are the best paint brands and finishes for each type of job. Whether you want a matt, gloss, satin or eggshell finish your painter will be able to source the best quality product to achieve the desired look.

Here's a few questions we have asked our staff over the years.

To show their commitment and passion, here's some of their answers

How long have you been painting and decorating for?

At Painting Newcastle, painting is our passion. Most of our tradesmen were exposed to painting from a very young age. Every school holiday during high school, some were out with their father and uncle acting as their apprentice, or helping at a local painting company.

What are your most requested painting jobs?

The most requested work we get at Painting Newcastle is repainting for landlords and refreshing their property to release. But we don’t stop there, specialise in large scale paint jobs for many new homes, repainting for family homes, office repaints, and many other special projects.

What is the most popular colour Australian home owners are painting their walls?

It would definitely be “White on White”.

What sort of paint is best to use for painting exterior walls and fences?

At Painting Newcastle, we use only premium paints. For exterior walls and fences our choice is Taubmans Endure Exterior, or Taubmans All Weather.

For exterior painting we use Taubmans Endure Exterior or All Weather.

What’s the largest paint job you’ve completed?

The largest commercial paint job we have recently completed was painting part of Newcastle High School. This job lasted many weeks and required 12 painters. The largest residential home paint job we have completed was a 120 square metre home in Merewether, Newcastle.

What colours do you recommend using when painting your home to be sold?

Definitely white! This give a clean canvas which buyers find most appealing.

How many days does it usually take you to complete a paint job?

An average job takes around 2 days to repaint a 2 bedroom unit. A 3 bedroom home can take 3-5 days to repaint.

What is your favourite part of your job?

We take great pride in our work and being a professional painter so handover time is definitely the best time for us. It is so good when we see the excitement on our customers face when we transform their property and give it a new lease of life!