Impressions Of Our Facade Renovation- Costs And Time
Before we started the renovation of our house facade, I read almost all articles regarding wooden facade DIY renovation you can find online.
And you know what?
In retrospect, many things did not help us at all.
Here I will share our facade renovation with you, but it won’t be a real guide. However, you can still read below about our experience with facade renovations and maybe you will find it useful.
Two types of facade renovation
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First, not every side of our house facade was in the same condition. The short sides were in worse shape. In total, a third of the panels on one short side were rotten. Whatever, it was clear that we had to completely replace these. The long sides, however, were in a better shape. As you can see from the pictures the paint came off or was no longer complete. Also the front of the house contais three different colors.
Second, we wanted to hold back the costs as much as possible. At the beginning we even considered replacing the panels ourselves. So then really only those that are rotten. However, we have had no experience with wooden houses or even major renovations.
Therefore, we came back to a local craftsman. But we agreed that they will only fix the short sides. We will scratch and grind, prime and paint the long sides ourselves. Since we were planning on repairing the roof at the same time, it was convenient that we could use the scaffolding for both kind of works. We chose a different craftsman for the roof renovation.
Unfortunately, our roofers couldn’t keep their word and work on the roof was postponed for a whole month! Since we hadn’t planned the unintended and unexpected delay, costs were incurred that we simply hadn’t expected. This turned out to be a minor problem for us.
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Kick off for the work on the facade
Shortly before our move to Sweden we discoverd this amazing design programm from Alcro.
It helped us so much to find our favourite colors! In this online program you can see what the colors will actually look like on your house. Also, it is much easier to find the perfect combination of colors for windows, frames, an so on.
Just klick on the image and you will get forward to the Alcro Design Studio.
In July the main work started. While we scraped off the old paint, the craftsmen tore off the old panels and window frames on the first short side.
Anyway, we had to do our own tasks on the long side of the facade and also prime the new panels that the craftsmen would put in place. It was a balancing act between many tasks, as the work inside went on. Fortunately, part of my husband’s family was there and helped us a lot! Without the support we would probably have either perished or still not finished.
Looking at these pictures now is kind of satisfying as we got that job done! At the same time, I feel in my subconscious that we may have to repeat this procedure with our barn…
Anyhow, it is really a lot of work to scrape off the old paint. Because after the scrape off process you will need to slip the wood and oil it well. Our wood was so dry. It sucked in the oil directly within a few minutes! Definitely consider this if you want to keep the old wood.
As already mentioned, we decided to keep the old wood because we thought it would save money. Overall, I would say that it would have saved us a lot of time if we had invested the money in new panels. At the same time, while scratching and later painting, I noticed that the wood was really robust and thick. I am not a wood expert, but I think that it really has to be high quality wood.
While our DIY renovation of the facade we discovered that your slipmashine is your best friend. So choose it wisely! Here again we made a mistake and chose an cheap and weak device. It didn’t last long…
Here you can see the new primed panels. The work itself went very quickly. We had an average of 2 craftsmen a day.
At the beginning tof this project were even 3-4 craftsmen present.
Quick Tip:
Get some ready to use wood filler. It saved us so much time and money. handy wood filler is easy to apply and paint over. Every time you see a small crack in the wood, you can close it. For example, we had a few holes left over from old cables, and the wood filler done a great job.
Usually you can find small tubes of wood filler in the store. In our experience it need to dry very long and is hard to handle. We have had really good experience with this recommended product and recently bought a second can for repairs to our wooden doors and window frames.
The end is in sight!
However, it was a relief as the first green paint was on the panels. Painting the facade took some time, as the windows, window frames and corner timbers also had to be painted.
In retrospect, I think it have been better to split the work over two summers. On the other hand it is really satisfying that this work is over!
Nevertheless, I found it particularly annoying that we hadn’t given our own thought to the appearance of the panels. Personally I think the pärlspont panels are incredibly beautiful. But in the stress and ignorance we listened to our craftsman, who chose a very simple style.
So don’t make the same mistake and think about what your house should look like in the future and choose the style that you like!
Also, do not let the craftsmen stress you out. Take your time and do not rush to make long-term decisions. We know from our own experience that it is quickly forgotten. But it is one of the most important advices to keep in mind.
At the day when the scaffolding was build down, we discovered so much light in the house! And finally we could see how the house looked after the facade (and roof) renovation.
Please excuse the mess. We were in such euphoria when we took the photos that we didn’t even notice. In the course of the next few weeks we cleaned up most of the things and painted the front door and the two windows.
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The veranda at the back has not yet been touched. On the one hand because we want to expand this. On the other hand, the weather did not allow any further work …
Costs and Time of our facade renovation
Now we come at the accounting part of this project.
Over the past few months I’ve tried to save as many receipts as possible. Of course this does not work perfectly. Simply because a lot got lost in the chaos of this massive renovation.
However, I found the most important bills and could roughly remember the number of amounts used.
| Type | Costs | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Material | 43,000.00 SEK | Wooden materials, insulation material, screwes etc. |
| Paint | 19,500.00 SEK | Oil, primer, green paint, white paint, red paint. We bought high quality paint. Moreover we treated the wood of the facade with a homemade linseed oil mixture. |
| Craftsmen | 68,500.00 SEK | Price inkl. Tax. About 140 hours of work. |
| Total | 131,000.00 SEK |
In addition we worked from Mid-July till the beginning of September on the facade. Of course not 8h /day the whole time. But we had times where we were up at the scaffolding from 11am till 11pm and scrape the color off…
My husband took two weeks vacation in July. I was a bit more flexible in this regard, as my semester abroad officially started at the end of August. Nevertheless, I had two scientific term papers to write, a exam and handel my part-time job at the same time.
As you can see we took on a lot of work. As already mentioned, the interior work was carried out in parallel. This was also due to our wrong judgment. Namely, we expected that the tasks at work would be a little quieter.
But due to the pandemic, everything was pushed back and grew more and more. In addition, as I said, we planned to chop off the facade and roof renovation at once.
Conclusion
Anyway in my experience, hidden costs creep into the painting process. If you want to paint your facade, but not replace it, you should definitely plan a money buffer. Even if you work out how much color you need, things turn out differently in reality.
Scraping the old paint off the facade takes a long time! Consider buying a hot air gun. A proper grinder shortens the next step immensely! In short, consider your tools.
Likewise the scaffolding. If you are pursuing other projects it might make sense to share the costs. For example, if you hire craftsmen for the roof. Alternatively, a small scaffolding on one side of the house is the best option.
Support and help is incredibly important! If you can motivate friends or relatives to help you with the project, you will save an incredible amount of time. Also, it is more pleasant to chat and have fun while working 🙂
Last but not least: Think carefully about what the goal is. Inform yourself about the different types of facades, colors, insulation etc. and make a decision. Also, get several offers and calculate the costs exactly (labor, material, color, scaffolding, your own time, vacation).
Until next time,
Until next time,
