house painting questions

[nageov3t]

just a couple random questions as I get ready to move into my new apartment in a month and a half...

any ballpark estimates on how long to expect it to paint a 1200 sq ft apartment? kitchen, dining room, living room, 2 bedrooms, and a relatively long hallway. we plan on hiring professionals, but if the price it too high or they can't meet our schedule, we might have to end up doing it ourselves.

our move-in date is hopefully March 1st, but I'm giving my current landlord a couple bucks so we can stay in our current apartment until the 7th, giving us a week to pick out colors and get all the painting done. (we've got it narrowed down a bit now; presumably after getting the keys from the LL and christening the apartment, we'll immediately paint a few spots on the walls, decide on our final colors, and drive to Home Depot to buy actual cans of paint)

also, any suggestions on actual paint finishes? my big concern is high durability in the hallways, living room, and dining room (we're big party hosts, so I imagine at multiple points, we'll have drunk people stumbling around using the walls to keep from falling over). I'm not sure wtf my current living room is painted with, but it suuuucks. you touch that thing for a second and it lives a dark smudge on the walls.

 

[MixMasterTang]

Professionals should be able to do that in 2-3 days, I'd guess less than 16 hours total man labor. If you do it yourself I would probably double the hours and say 32 hours worth of work for a novice. That being said I am not a painter nor ever have been, but have known people to do that as a living and have painted many rooms in a few different houses.

Finish will depend on if you what more of a matte look or a bit of a shiny finish. Good paint (like sherwin williams and similar) should be very durable and not leave smudges no matter what the finish is.

 

[Greenman]

Matte finish paint sucks. I used it once and swore a sacred vow that I would never put that crap on a wall again. It looks great, soaks up stains and dirt like iron fillings on a magnet, and is near impossible to touch up. Took three coats to cover brand new primed drywall as well.

 

[nageov3t]

am I on the right track thinking:

kitchen -- semi-gloss
hallways/living room/dining room/bedrooms -- eggshell?

or should we think semi-gloss for the hallways to protect against hand/fingerprints? if it's a factor to take into consideration, there are no windows in the hallways, so no light outside of the overhead lights and whatever natural light that spills out from the room (every room has tons of natural light, but the hallway itself is on the interior of the apartment and just connects the rooms)

thought about satin, but the one article I read said that satin finishes show up pretty much any imperfections in the wall, every paint brush stroke, etc.

 

[olds]

If there is no furniture in it, two days.

 

[stinger608]

If there is no furniture in it, two days.

Yea, if there isn't a bunch of cut in.

If there is carpet you will have to cut in the base trim unless it has the rubberized cove base. If it is the cove base get some 1 1/2" painters blue tape and go along the top edge of the cove.

Are you painting ceilings as well? If not, then you will have to cut in along the ceiling line in each room as well.

The semi-gloss will work pretty well in the kitchen as it is easier to clean any grease or food particles from the surface of the paint.

Eggshell in the rest of the house will work great as well. Fairly easy to clean and tends to not leave smudges like a mat finish.

Overall I would say it will take you probably 4 to 4 1/2 days with cutting in.
On a 1200 square foot house it will most likely take about 8 to 10 gallons of paint total.

It will be a lot cheaper to buy 5 gallon buckets of paint vs buying single gallons. Also if you do go with the 5 gallon buckets of paint, you can pick up a bucket roller grate that will also help speed things up and save ya the money buying them paint trays.
Another thing that will also help cover better and speed things up is get a decent quality 3/4" nap roller cover. You can also pick up a 4" mini roller which helps a ton in all the corners for cutting in. If your also painting the ceilings you can use that 4" to run the cut in there as well.

Get a good quality brush like a Purdy 3" angle cut brush to help keep your cut ins clean and not get paint on other items that you don't want painted.

 

[nageov3t]

If there is no furniture in it, two days.

yup, no furniture.

our planned schedule is:

Saturday: take keys from the landlord, shake hands, spend the rest of the morning/afternoon trying out sample pants (it helps that the new apartment is right down the road from Home Depot, 1.5 miles and 3 traffic lights)

Sunday-Friday: paint paint paint. a friend who does interior painting as a side businesses said he could get a couple guys and come down to paint for us (paid, obv) but he's not the most reliable person in the world... probably also spend the week bringing boxes down, but mostly breakables that I don't trust movers with. we'll probably dump them all in the walk-in-closet for the time being.

following Saturday: movers come in the morning. spend the morning/afternoon doing the necessary stuff like putting our bed back together and moving living room furniture around, then come back to my old place to pickup the cat.

 

[olds]

I wouldn't count on someone unreliable. I am very picky. I can walk into a room and the runs and holidays stand out to me.

 

[nageov3t]

I wouldn't count on someone unreliable. I am very picky. I can walk into a room and the runs and holidays stand out to me.

he's unreliable insofar as it won't surprise me if "something's come up" at the last minute, but the jobs he actually does are really good... budgeting time under the assumption that we may have to do it ourselves, though.