by Brian Frazer

Created on: January 25, 2010   Last Updated: January 27, 2010

Hiring a professional painter is not cheap. Unless you are handicapped and can't lift a brush, it is not worth the expense. Painters will charge you for the paint you choose, and for the labor, which has to cover overhead costs (tools, lathers, mileage and gas spent to get to your home, employee wages, etc.), plus their own income. Most of the time they do not do any better job that you can do yourself. After they are done you may have to fix their sloppy job yourself and spend even more money. They also don't care about your home and often leave minor paint splats on the floor or even in other areas of your home. They are usually liable for major damages, so they might be careful to some degree, but a damage is a damage.

If you hire a professional painter, you have to be absolutely decided on the type of paint and the colors. Changing your mind is usually not an option, unless you are prepared to pay the extra cost of repainting. If you want any kind of decorative painting (stencils or special finishes), you will pay so much more. When you paint a room yourself, you can take your time finding the perfect color combination, trying out some samples (available for a couple of dollars at all hardware and paint stores) or experimenting with different types of finishes. You can take your time to decide. Your home isn't going away. Now, if you are in the process of selling your home, you can make it very cheap by choosing one neutral color for the whole house. Every hardware and paint store sells large containers of generic paint is several neutral colors. Do you think a painter is going to splurge on paint? Of course not.

As far as painting supplies, you can purchase them rather cheaply. There are all kinds of brushes, rollers, sponges, for any kind of paining job. Extendable poles and different attachments make it easy to paint without ever climbing a ladder. Even a person in a wheel chair can paint their home, if they can just hold a roller.

To sum it up, you will save a lot of money by painting your home yourself. Even adding all the supplies, paint samples, all the paint necessary to do the job and the time that is required to do it, you will be better off than hiring a pro. It will be worth the effort.

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