Reading another post there was mention of painting an entire unit the same color. Right now we paint walls a light grey and ceilings/trim bright white (semi-gloss) on everything.

I had been kicking around the idea of going to just painting everything walls, ceilings, trim all one color. I believe Richard (MI) suggested Navajo White. Is there any other colors people have tried when painting everting they same that looked nice?

Until this year I always painted everything antique white. Ceilings, trim and all. Eggshell sheen.

Only had to keep one color in stock, easy to do. Used to have a person who would mask off what didn't need painted and I would spray it all. Then I lost the help and I just rolled it. Having one collor makes cutting in easier as well.

18" roller covers a lot of ground really fast.

This year I elected to paint with mistints and color mixes. Did this with three places. Cheaper than paying full retail for sure.

Time will tell if this experiment is worth it. I figure that I usually paint the walls again between tenants so not having the exact color match should not be an issue. Ceilings are flat or eggshell white. Trim and doors are semi-gloss white.

I also started painting the closet interiors with semi-gloss in the hopes that scuffs and such will not return as easy.

I stopped painting.... got tired of painting an then tenant will go an paint it a different color

we use kilz 3 on ceilings to help cover any water stains.

Cue twilight zone music:

Imagine, if you will, a time when a 2 bedroom house or apartment rented for $85-110 per month. Gas cost 25 cents a gallon and you could buy a pretty fair used car for $50. That's a time when we didn't worry so much about day to day survival and running out of money. This was reality in 1971.

Paint was cheap too. I remember paying $2.00 a gallon. when I was working my way through college, one thing I did was paint student apartments. Pay was $85 per 2 bedroom apartment. So, being the hustler that I was, I applied the technique of industrial engineering/efficiency to the painting process. This is where every aspect of the job is analyzed to make sure of maximum efficiency. This is why large spray shields were used, why everything was all one color, why I carried used carpet strips about 12-15 inches wide in the truck (they are put down along the walls to protect flooring from overspray), why the sprayer used a 50 foot hose so it did not need to be moved. This allowed me to paint 2 to 4 units per day no problem, walls and ceilings.

As I was doing this work, one day I ran into a crew doing the outside of houses and one story apartments, Their setup spoke to me of the same efficiency. A flat bed pickup truck, 4- 50 gallon barrels of paint, a big airless sprayer with 2 hoses coming off it, spray guns with extended nozzles that would allow painting the peaks of the gable ends without using ladders. And more. I watched this crew to see how they worked. The truck backed into the driveway, 2 workers got out, fired up the airless and each went around back of the house/apt with a long hose, one on each side and started spraying. It took about an hour to 1.5 hours and they were done. Here's how they really made money.

In every town, there are some people who just want the cheapest job. They're getting ready to sell, or just want it done cheap. These were this crew's customers. NOT the people wanting a first class high quality job. Good or bad, like it or not, this group of people exists. So the crew sent out an advance salesman, who went from town to town, put ads in the local papers and sold the jobs. The crew followed when enough jobs were sold and then went to the next town. There was NO prep work. No trim was painted (fascia, window frames or doors) by the crew, only the walls and eaves. All walls and eaves had to be the same color. The customer had to choose between only 4 colors (4 barrels of paint on the truck). If the owner wanted prep work they had to do it themselves or get a handyman to do it. Bushes got a tarp thrown over them and a rope pulled them back from the walls for a few seconds to allow spraying behind them. Quick and cheap. Good? --barely. Definitely not for those wanting a high quality job, but it was cheap. Price at the time was $200 per house, including the paint.

So, as I was watching this happen, I had questions. How many of these houses can you do in a day? (They averaged 5 a day) How much paint does it take per house, on the average (tract houses) (10 gallons). How do you deal with the trim?(hire it done by others with the owner paying extra to the other painter). That's when I said "how much extra? Average was $75. So I said, "how about I do that?" OK, was the answer and (in Forrest Gump voice)- just like that I was making $75x5 a day painting trim. $375 a day when the minimum wage at the time was about $3.00 per hour ($25 per day). The spray crew was making $1000 per day, less paint and expenses.

So after I did this a bit, I said to myself, "Self, why don't you get a helper to do this and pay them $6.00 per hour? They'll like making 2x wages and I'll make the rest" (less the insurance and overhead). So I did. I bought a good used pickup ($400 at the time) and we painted a lot of trim. We followed the crew for a while and did this. Motels were $6 a night then -remember Motel 6? That lasted a while (you have to realize this is hard on many people and especially family's because you're on the road a lot.) So after a while, I sold out and quit doing it, wanting to be near family).

Side note: I always feel a bit of sympathy for those people on traveling crews you see that go around building motels, dollar stores, big box stores, etc. They may make good money, but it's a hard lonely life. Few friends other than at work, no home cooked meals, no one to come home to, often broken family life and divorce. Not something I'd want.

What I'm trying to point out here is that this is the reason I advocate the "all the same color" idea, especially for the "C" type units. Tenants in "C" units really do not care what the color is. They are glad to just have a place to live. THe "A" and "B" units are different and really do need to have modern and different colors, especially at current rent levels.

Shoji White SW 7042 seems to be the new popular color. Yes, walls and ceiling all the same color.

I use ceiling white (flat), grey walls (satin), and white trim (semi gloss). I use a sprayer, old paneling on the floors against the wall, and spray shields. Take the electrical covers off and tape the outlet, take the air covers off and stuff with paper, and tape visqueen to the windows. Paint ceiling first and let it dry while prepping the walls/windows, do the walls next and let it dry while pulling the tape and putting the covers back on, finish with the trim. I can do the complete inside of a 4 bed house in a short day. Only a little touch-up by hand, mostly the outside corners.

Most of my units are C+ to B properties. I could see painting everything one color for D and below properties because the applicants have very little choice in where they live and you end up picking the best of the worst. Me, I want to get top dollar for my places so I make them pop. I want to be able to pick from the best of the best for my units when I have a vacancy.

The only time I sprayed everything the same off-white semi-gloss on all surfaces was when I had the rooming house.

Anything else gets color on the walls & white trim & ceilings.

Even in a Class C house, it makes it nicer than the competition even though it may be all semi-gloss for durability.

Nicer house gets satin walls in living areas & bedrooms, flat ceilings, and semi-gloss trim/doors/closet interiors.

OTIS 100% agree it looks nice at turn over. For LL/owners it's more how fast can I turn this unit. When you use color #1 they may not be exactly the same each time and # 2-THEY WON'T BE THE SAME COLOR EACH TIME.

What this means is you have to paint floor to ceiling each time because this difference shows up.

We have used Glidden Antique White since 1986. The same color code on the can off the shelf. So if i run out of paint I can bring that code to h-depot and they give me the same color I've used for 35 yrs. When I paint the antique white BLENDS. Only the center 3 or 4 ft of the wall needs refreshing. That translate into painting the inside of a home in 2 hrs (3/2) with a paint stick. Which BTW I can keep the paint in and walk to our next unit and paint those walls.

Richard, I love your story of the good old days and the engineuity of painting and your business sense. I may use the carpet trick sometime when the need arises!