A town that started at a railroad stop
The railroad reached the Santa Anita Ranch on August 20, 1904, and the new community there was named for John McAllen; in 1911 the town was issued a charter of incorporation as McAllen. Whatever house you own in the city today, sooner or later it raises the same question: paint it yourself, or hire it out?
We don't publish weather figures for McAllen, because we don't have an official station source of the town's own to cite. This page is about that do-or-hire decision, and about the lead rule that bears on it.
What you're really paying a painter for
Paint is a modest share of most painting jobs. Labor is the larger part, and most of that labor is preparation: moving and covering things, washing, scraping, sanding, filling, caulking, priming and cleaning up. A crew also brings ladders, planks, sprayers and masking gear, and experience at cutting a straight line without tape.
So the honest question isn't whether you can roll paint on a wall. It's whether you'll do the prep properly, safely and in the time you have.
Jobs many homeowners handle well
- A single room repaint in a similar color, on sound, clean walls with little patching.
- Touch-ups on walls where you still have the original paint.
- Small exterior items you can reach from the ground: a mailbox post, a gate, a short run of low fence.
- Furniture and small built-ins you can take outside or to a garage.
Our guide to drywall repair and surface preparation explains how to patch and prime before you start.
Jobs that usually go better with a crew
- Anything high. Two-storey walls, gables, stairwells and tall ceilings need the right ladders or scaffolding, and falls are a real hazard.
- Whole exteriors. Washing, scraping, caulking and two coats on every side of a house is weeks of weekends for one person.
- Cabinets and doors. A smooth, hard finish on surfaces that are handled daily takes careful degreasing, sanding, the right primer and often spraying. See cabinet painting and refinishing.
- Big color changes, which need primer and extra coats to cover evenly.
- Peeling or failing paint, where the old film has to come off before anything new will hold.
Lead: paid work and your own work
On any house built before 1978, there may be lead-based paint under the newer layers, and scraping or sanding it can raise dust. Under the federal EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, anyone paid to do work that disturbs paint in homes built before 1978 must hold EPA lead-safe certification and use trained workers; the rule generally does not apply to homeowners working on their own pre-1978 homes.
That second half deserves care. The rule not applying to you doesn't make the dust any less harmful. If you're doing it yourself in an older house, keep children and pets away, avoid dry sanding and power-washing old paint, and clean up thoroughly. If you hire, it's fair to ask whether the firm holds RRP certification and how they'll contain the work area.
EPA also notes who runs the program where. EPA runs the RRP program in states it has not authorized; Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin run their own EPA-authorized programs.
A middle path
You don't have to choose all or nothing. Some homeowners:
- Hire a crew for the exterior and high work, and paint bedrooms themselves.
- Do the furniture moving, hardware removal and cleaning, and ask for a price on painting only.
- Have a painter prime and cut in, then roll the walls themselves.
If you do this, agree in writing who does which step, because a finish is only as good as the prep under it, and a crew won't stand behind work it didn't control.
Getting a fair comparison
When you ask for prices, give every painter the same list of surfaces, colors and sheens, and ask for a proposal naming the preparation, the products and the number of coats. Our pricing guide explains what changes the price, and the paint sheens and finishes guide helps you choose finishes before anyone visits.