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| Hi, Iam in the process of building a new house. It is now time to pick the paint colors- I was just informed that the builder will paint one color throughout the entire house (walls & ceilings). If I choose to have the ceilings painted white, there is a $2000 charge.
My contract says nothing about ceilings- "Walls- latex enamel, eggshell finish, choice of color, same color throughout. Handrail, door and trim semi gloss "Alabaster White" Anyone have any opinions if I should try and dispute this charge for painting the ceilings? Thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by athensmomof3 (My Page) on Sun, Jun 3, 12 at 18:50
| I would paint the ceilings the trim color but in a flat. It should be no more expensive to do. In fact, I would think your painter would prefer it as it would be much harder and more precise to cut in a color on the ceilings than painting it the flat version of the trim. That would be my argument and I would stick to it!!! |
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| I don't think it's reasonable to dispute this. It's very common for builders to do all one color, including ceilings. When they say the walls are the same color throughout, that includes the wall above your head. :) It's also common to charge more to make the ceiling a different color. |
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| My aunt was stuck with a situation like this and she went over and talked the builders who did it for pizza and a couple cases of beer! She did have to buy the paint though! :) Also when she talked directly to the painters and told them the up charge they were pissed, as they weren't getting paid extra! |
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| Thanks for the opinions! I guess I just assumed the ceilings would be white & since the contract only said walls- I thought I might have a leg to stand on... I will try and talk to them on Monday and see what they say. |
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| Thats a little steep but I guess it depends on your part of the country and the price range of your house. Our builder paints all the walls and ceilings same color unless you pay an upgrade of $750 which covers the whole house. |
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| New construction is painted with spray equipment. All surfaces are painted at the same time, but only one color can be applied at a time. To do another color means another paint job. The second color has to be masked off or cut into the first color. That is more labor intensive than just spraying again. |
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- Posted by jmagill_zn4 (My Page) on Mon, Jun 4, 12 at 13:48
| "New construction is painted with spray equipment. All surfaces are painted at the same time, but only one color can be applied at a time. To do another color means another paint job. The second color has to be masked off or cut into the first color. That is more labor intensive than just spraying again." Not in every circumstance. My husband is a painter. Primer and first coat is usually sprayed. He always rolls the third coat. |
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- Posted by hollysprings (My Page) on Mon, Jun 4, 12 at 13:49
| "One color" is one color, and that means walls and ceilings. If you want something different, pay the fee now, or paint it whatever you want after the build is complete and before you move in. |
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| I agree with most of the posts, one color means on every "wall" surface even ceilings. Most around here use the power sprayer and to change colors means the equipment needs to be cleaned and set up for the tape off of the areas not to be painted. Or they would have to roll and cut in which is also labor intensive and cost more $$$. If you want the ceilings a different color see if you can get some family and friends to come one weekend and help paint. Get some rocking music playing and order pizza for the crew, make it a paint party! :) Or higher some college kids home for the summer and pay them to help you. That would certainly be a lot cheaper than the upcharge. |
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| I actually ASKED for the ceilings to be painted the same color as the walls and it turned out brilliantly! Love the look! |
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| $2000 seems like a pretty steep upcharge unless your house is quite large. We paid about $7K for the labor to have our entire interior of our 3500 sq ft house painted (ceilings included) with an unlimited number of colors. I think they used a sprayer to apply the primer (except on walls that we were painting a dark color that required a dark gray primer). All of the paint (six different colors) was applied by brush and roller. Be aware tho that painting ceilings is a major PITA. I was a military brat and we moved frequently...often into houses that hadn't seen a fresh paint job in 20 years or more. My mother often negotiated a month or two of free rent in exchange for us repainting...plus it let her get the colors SHE liked. So, in my younger days, I helped repaint a number of houses and frankly, I'd rather paint a dozen walls any day than a single ceiling! Without the proper tools painting a ceiling is VERY VERY hard on the back. Even with the proper tools, your back and neck will get a work out! It takes some skill to hold a long handled roller brush in place against the ceiling and move it so that it rolls without skipping or slipping. And, if the roller handle is too long, you lose control so, if your ceilings are higher than 8 to 9 ft, your legs will probably get a workout too from climbing up/down a ladder to get close enough to the ceiling to be able to control the roller brush sufficiently. Plus amateurs (and I count myself among them) have a tendency to wind up dripping paint onto the walls when painting a ceiling... which means they often have to go back and repaint the walls! Painting a ceiling AFTER the walls have already been painted is certainly not a job that I would hire a bunch of college kids to do. Perhaps if your builder is using a nice white primer, you could talk him into priming everything (walls and ceilings) but just painting the walls and leaving the ceilings with just the primer. Since ceilings don't get touched (at least not normally), if you like the look of the white primer, you can get by without putting a coat of finish paint on your ceilings. Your builder might still want to charge you something extra because he would still have to mask off the ceilings before spray painting the walls but it ought to be a lot less less than $2000. Just a thought. |
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