Home Improvement - Garage Pool and Paint

I thought you were building a pool in your garage..I was like huh?

 

I'm sure prices are quite different between New York and Texas but...

$5 to $10K for painting seems a bit high to me. I just priced siding for my house and estimates came in between $7,500 to $11K. I can't believe that painting could be more than that. I'll probably hold off on the siding for a couple of seasons (just bought the house in May) and paint it myself this summer.

I too am pricing garages. Had a guy quote $12K for a two car (with a workshop) and $8,500 for a one car with workshop. I'm probably going to go with the one car.

 

Ah! That's explains a lot! Being a victorian, you'll probably have several different colors to keep it authentic. And the restoration is a job in of itself.

Mine's just a small two bedroom cottage weekend home. Nothing as elaborate as a victorian.

 

I have no idea about building just a garage from the ground up, it would depend on a lot of things, but paint CAN be cheap if you find a reasonable crew to do it.

When you say paint your house, do you mean the exterior or interior...or both?

Also, painting is easy, but time consuming...paint it yourself and save a few thousand...just by the paint and equipment. If your doing the exterior, just rent a high powered paint sprayer.

 

Do researh on your contractor!

You may have to pay a little more money but get someone with references. I lost 11,000. in 99 and never got anything done or caught up with the contractor, "Kevin Construction" took my deposit and another 5 grand for materials and I never saw him again until he was arrested.

Good Luck

 

Oh...I think $20,000 sounds kind of low for a pool. It is going to be pretty basic at that price.

Pools are like cars...base models around 18-25K, up to $80 K for luxury ones...and their are price points the entire spectrum in between.

 

Yeah, pool work is tricky. Watch out. You'll get a hole in the ground, then they'll fill it, take your check, and a month later you notice the neighbor's lawn is really green. Funny how your pool never stay's full. And what's that green stuff at the bottom? Isn't there a sewer line that runs by there?

It's hard to make money honestly in the pool biz, so a lot of good people get out. So much cheater competition. Tom Tynan was saying he couldn't recommend anyone the other day.

It's just going to require a little more follow up and quailty assurance. You may want an engineer to inspect the hole, the pipe and pump, and the pour.

The garage sounds ok. Pretty cheap. Is concrete in that?

If you like your painter, good. You might bid some industrial painters, too. Painters are always a little loopy. The paint store usually can give you some leads, too. Pick your own paint. The contractor can get you the discount, (10-25% retail cost, dep on volume) but you want to buy it and store it and make sure it's used on site. So, build that garage, first. Good luck.

 

By the way, if you are looking at this in an investment in your house, a pool is a bad investment. You will almost never get the money out of the pool that you put into it if you sell your house.

It might help you sell the house, but you won't make the money back in most cases.

 

Including a new concrete foundation, I was quoted recently 14k for a BASIC garage with one light. My real estate agent told me to expect to pay 20-25k for a garage. What she told me is consistent to the general contractor if you start to include any plumbing, electrical, windows, decent doors or any other upgrades for that matter.