The 1920s bungalows along Haywood Road in West Asheville are the kind of house that makes you want to grab a brush. They're small enough to feel doable, they've got character that rewards careful work, and there's a whole generation of West Asheville homeowners who did the interior themselves before tackling the outside. So should you DIY the repaint, or hire a pro?
The honest answer is: it depends on what part of the house, and what year it was built. We've been painting around Haywood Road, the Asheville Sandwich Company area, and the West End for years, and the line between "good DIY project" and "call someone" isn't always where homeowners think it is.
The West Asheville Bungalow as a Category
Before we get into DIY vs pro, it helps to understand what you're working with. The bungalows west of the French Broad River, particularly along Haywood Road and the side streets running north and south off it, are mostly:
- Built between 1915 and 1930
- Wood frame on brick or stone piers
- Wood lap siding, sometimes with cedar shingle accents
- Single story or one-and-a-half story
- 1,000 to 1,800 square feet of finished space
- Original wood trim and porch details
That last point matters. The trim profiles, the porch columns, the exposed rafter tails, the rounded porch posts: that's what makes a West Asheville bungalow look like a West Asheville bungalow, and it's where DIY paint jobs go wrong most often.
What DIY Actually Handles Well
Some painting projects are well within the reach of a motivated homeowner with normal tools. For a West Asheville bungalow, the strong DIY candidates are:
- Single-room interior repaint. A bedroom or living room with walls in decent shape is a weekend project. Total cost in materials: $80 to $180 for one room.
- Deck refresh. Sanding and re-staining a small back deck is doable. Plan a weekend, $60 to $150 in stain and prep.
- Front door and shutters. Repainting a wood front door and a pair of shutters is satisfying, visible, and almost impossible to mess up badly. $40 to $100 in materials.
- Porch floor and ceiling. A standard West Asheville bungalow porch is small enough to do in two weekends. Watch for tongue-and-groove porch flooring that may need wood filler and careful prep. $120 to $250 in materials.
- Interior trim touch-ups. Brushing fresh paint on banged-up baseboards and door trim is normal homeowner maintenance.
For these projects, you'll spend more on quality brushes, a good roller, painter's tape, and drop cloths than you think. Plan on $100 to $200 in tools and supplies on top of the paint itself if you don't already have them.
Where DIY Breaks Down
The full-house exterior repaint on a 1920s bungalow is where most DIY projects either stall out or end up looking like a DIY project from the street. Here's what gets people:
- Lead paint. Any house built before 1978 is presumed to have lead paint, and the West Asheville bungalow stock is right in that window. Sanding or scraping lead paint without proper containment isn't just unsafe, it's a federal violation if you hire anyone (even a friend with a paycheck) to help. DIY is legal for your own home, but the cleanup standards are real.
- Two-story access. Some West Asheville bungalows have a half-story or attic dormer that puts trim work 18 to 22 feet up. That's not impossible with the right ladder, but it's slow and dangerous if you're not used to it.
- Cedar shingles and decorative trim. The decorative shingle work on the gable ends and the detailed porch trim takes brushwork. Spraying it badly is worse than not painting it. Most DIY jobs run out of patience here.
- Rot repair. A West Asheville bungalow that hasn't been painted in 8 to 10 years often has soft wood at the bottom of the siding, around windows, and on porch posts. That's carpentry, not painting, and it has to come first.
- Prep time. Pros estimate prep at 50% to 70% of total exterior labor. A DIY homeowner typically estimates 20%. That gap is why DIY exterior jobs take 4 to 6 weekends and still look uneven.
The Real Cost Comparison
Let's run the numbers on a typical 1,200 sqft West Asheville bungalow exterior repaint.
DIY materials:
- Paint (8 to 12 gallons of exterior at $50 to $75/gallon): $400 to $900
- Primer (3 to 5 gallons): $90 to $180
- Caulk, putty, sandpaper: $60 to $120
- Brushes, rollers, drop cloths, masking: $80 to $160
- Ladder rental or purchase: $60 to $300
- Pressure washer rental (one day): $80 to $130
Total DIY materials: $770 to $1,790, more typically $900 to $1,200.
Time investment: 60 to 100 hours of homeowner labor across 3 to 6 weekends.
Pro repaint for the same bungalow:
- Pressure wash and prep: included
- Carpentry rot repair (typical): $300 to $800
- Lead-safe prep on disturbed surfaces: $400 to $900
- Primer and paint application: included in total
- Premium exterior paint: included
- Full warranty
Total pro cost: $4,500 to $7,200 for a 1,200 sqft bungalow with typical prep.
What You're Actually Paying For With a Pro
The gap between $1,000 in DIY materials and $5,500 in pro work isn't all labor. It breaks down roughly:
- Labor (the actual painting): 45% of pro cost
- Materials (paint, primer, supplies): 18% of pro cost
- Prep work (scrape, sand, prime, caulk): 22% of pro cost
- Overhead, insurance, lead-safe certification, warranty: 15% of pro cost
That last bucket is what DIY skips, and it's the part that determines whether the paint job holds for 7 years or fails in 18 months. Lead-safe certification, general liability insurance, workers' comp on the crew, and a written warranty all cost real money. They also protect you if something goes wrong.
The Hybrid Approach
A lot of West Asheville homeowners land on a middle path: DIY the interior, hire a pro for the exterior. That makes sense for a few reasons.
Interior work is forgiving. If you mess up a wall, you're rolling another coat and it's fine. Lead-safe rules apply, but with care a homeowner can manage interior prep on their own walls without the federal restrictions that apply to paid work.
Exterior work is unforgiving. UV, rain, freeze-thaw, and pollen all attack the paint film. A DIY exterior on a Haywood Road bungalow that wasn't prepped right will start showing problems at the bottom of the south-facing siding by the second summer.
If you go the hybrid route, here's the rough budget:
- DIY interior (whole house): $400 to $900 in materials, 4 to 6 weekends
- Pro exterior: $4,500 to $7,200
- Total: $4,900 to $8,100, vs $8,500 to $12,000 to hire out both
When DIY Is the Wrong Call
Skip DIY entirely if any of these apply to your bungalow:
- You're planning to sell within 18 months. A DIY job that doesn't quite read as professional will hurt resale.
- The home took water damage from Helene and needs moisture remediation as part of prep.
- There's visible rot on more than 5% of the siding or trim.
- You're changing colors from light to dark or dark to light.
- You don't have time to dedicate 4 to 6 weekends in a row to it.
When DIY Is the Right Call
DIY makes sense if:
- You've done at least one full-room repaint before and were happy with the result
- The bungalow is in good condition with minimal rot or moisture issues
- You're staying in the house for at least 5 more years
- You enjoy the process (this matters more than people admit)
- You have a friend or family member with painting experience who'll help
The Tools and Materials a DIY Bungalow Repaint Actually Needs
If you're going the DIY route, here's the realistic shopping list for a West Asheville bungalow exterior. Skipping any of these is where DIY jobs start to look like DIY jobs:
- 32-foot extension ladder rated for at least 250 lbs. A 24-foot ladder won't reach gable peaks on a one-and-a-half story bungalow. Rent for $40 to $60 per weekend or buy for $250 to $400.
- Pressure washer: 2,500 to 3,200 PSI rating, with adjustable spray tips. Lower pressure for wood siding so you don't drive water behind the boards. Rent for $80 to $130 per day.
- 5-in-1 painter's tool for scraping. Cheap ($8 to $15) and essential.
- Wire brush and sanding pads for prep on bare or peeling spots
- Caulk gun and exterior siliconized acrylic caulk: budget 6 to 12 tubes
- Wood filler for minor rot and nail holes (full rot repair is carpentry, not paint prep)
- Quality 2.5-inch and 3-inch brushes: Purdy or Wooster, $18 to $30 each. Cheap brushes leave streaks and shed bristles.
- 9-inch roller frame plus extension pole for siding panels
- Drop cloths: canvas, not plastic. Plastic blows around and tears.
- Painter's tape for windows and trim transitions
- N95 respirator masks (any pre-1978 home, mandatory for your own protection)
Add it all up, and the tools-and-supplies pile (separate from paint) runs $250 to $500 if you're starting from nothing. Some of that you'll keep for future projects, but it's real out-of-pocket cost for the first bungalow.
The DIY Mistakes We See Most Often on West Asheville Bungalows
When we get called in to fix a previous DIY paint job, these are the recurring patterns:
- Skipping the primer on bare wood. Once you scrape off failed paint and expose raw 1920s wood, you have to prime it before topcoat. DIY jobs often skip this step and the topcoat fails within a year.
- Painting over damp siding. Pressure washing on Friday and painting on Saturday is too soon. Wood siding needs 2 to 4 dry days to release surface moisture before paint goes on.
- Roller marks on smooth trim. Brush trim, don't roll it. Or spray it. Rolled trim looks rolled.
- Wrong sheen for the surface. Flat on exterior siding traps dirt. Satin or low-sheen is the right choice for siding. Gloss on trim is durable but shows every imperfection.
- Cutting in with cheap brushes. A $4 brush cannot make a clean cut line. Spend the $25.
How to Sequence a DIY Bungalow Repaint
If you're committed to DIY, the order of operations matters as much as the technique. Here's the right sequence for a West Asheville bungalow exterior:
- Weekend 1: Pressure washing the entire exterior. Let it dry 3 to 4 full days.
- Weekend 2: Scraping loose paint, sanding rough spots, identifying any rot or carpentry needs. Do not paint yet.
- Midweek between weekend 2 and 3: Address any carpentry repairs. Replace rotted boards, treat soft spots with wood hardener.
- Weekend 3: Caulking, spot priming bare wood with a quality exterior primer, masking windows and trim transitions.
- Weekend 4: First coat of body color on siding. Brush all cut-ins.
- Weekend 5: Second coat of body color. First coat of trim.
- Weekend 6: Second coat of trim, accent door and shutters, touch-ups.
That's six weekends if everything goes well, weather cooperates, and you don't run into surprise rot. Plan for eight in reality.
Get a Free Estimate Before You Decide
Even if you're leaning DIY, get a pro estimate first. It's free, it tells you what the prep actually requires, and it gives you a real benchmark. Asheville Paint Pros does free estimates for West Asheville bungalows from Haywood Road to the West End and out toward Leicester Highway. Call (828) 826-1687 for a free quote, and we'll give you an honest read on which parts of your house make sense to DIY and which parts don't.