Not a pro, but we are painting our house ourselves too. From my experience with painting...Even if you do the same color if you use different finishes it will show. We used flat white on the ceiling, and same white but eggshell on the walls and after it dried we could see the sports where the roll touched the ceiling. So you should tape the ceiling after it has dried and then paint he walls.

For the stairs you could use some plastic sheets or tarps and tape them to the stair tread/riser...

Clean. Clean. Clean. Allow to dry. Light sand. Wipe down. Allow to dry. Prime. Paint. I suggest you allot more than a weekend. Trim is a major pain. Just the taping off can be a nightmare.

And just for fun and giggles, ceiling paint is different from wall paint.

Plenty of clean drop clothes and more clear polyethylene sheeting that you can shake a stick at.

Does anyone know what type of paint was used before? You have to know how to mix and match your chemical properties so that you don't get peeling, bubbling or bleed through (it looks like the walls are bleeding orange tobacco stains).

Prep: Take Friday off. to assemble supplies and PREP. Fill nail holes, remove light switch covers, drape, cover, dust away cobwebs etc, skim any rough spots. The more prep the better the result.

Go to bed EARLY Get up at five. Drink a lot of coffee..

Buy the long crew end poles for your rollers.....!!!!! Now!!!!!!!!! As soon as you read this

https://www.amazon.com/Mr-LongArm-3212-Pro-Pole-Extension/dp/B00004YUPO/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1524096696&sr=1-3&keywords=paint+roller+extension+poles

Saturday/ Sunday Ceilings first, all of them, Do NOT attempt without the poles. You will need a hospital on Sunday. remember........cut in first : )

Cut in..........roll walls. You need two coats. One in am, one in afternoon

Trim last. All day Sunday.......for one coat

Take MONDAY off....... Finish trim second coat....clean up

Tuesday. ..........................................lol Advil, a kind boss, go home early

Expect less than perfection. The good news is the second coat is a lot easier than the first coat. That is all the good one can say . I shall pray you are under thirty.

You’re going to need scaffolding. And I doubt anyone’s insurance covers injury from this if they fall down those stairs. Better ch k to see what’s in your agreement about your association covering workers. They usually spell out that a license and insurance must be involved.

This is not a good idea.

You should really do the trim first. It's a lot harder to cut in trim to finished walls than it is to do it the other way around. Paint trim then tape it off then paint the walls. As for the carpet, put a runner type dropcloth up the stairway and wrap it around each stair tread so that people can go up and down.

I guess you do what you have to do, but as a former lifelong contractor, it would drive me crazy to see this. It drives me crazy to watch some of these homeowner shows on TV where a mass of people attack a project, falling over one another!

http://www.surfaceshields.com/carpet-protection

I will warn you that the self adhesive film ( link in above post) does leave a residue which attracts dirt. It won't be immediately noticeable, but within a few months, a dark path will appear where it was used.

Don't use ANY self adhesive film. Don't

Thank you everyone for your responses.

@SJ, No, we have no clue what paint was used, we're thinking the last it was painted was in early 2000-ish. Hubs says we're using a water based paint though.

@Paintguy, right? At the Board Meeting I suggested doing the trim first, but then someone said that the paint on the ceiling/walls could possibly drip on the trim.

@Sophie, agree with some type of scaffolding, have you ever used one of those Pivot/Levelizer things? If so, would you recommend it? I'm attaching a picture

@Jan/David, at this point, everyone is thinking of using all their old bedsheets, some plastic, etc. as drop cloths and all I can think of is someone slipping.

THANK YOU, admittedly a bit overwhelmed, I feel that just because we have a bunch of people doesn't necessarily mean it will be easy.

Sorry IMO the interior stairs are the least of the issues , those decks are hideous that is where I would be spending money. BTW beer and painting never a good combo as for prep sanding is a must it will make a mess, as for protecting the carpet whatever you use will be a slipping hazard so only one person on a set of stairs and all the rest use the back stairwell.

I would REALLY recommend you turn it over to a pro. ........one with insurance too.

@Patricia, right? According to the former Condo Board President, she said the building took out around 7G "to have the back porches done" approx 5 years ago.

We are 7 minutes away from the World Trade Center, (2 quick subway stops) so to even have outdoor space in NYC area is gold.

Sounds like we'll need the beer for after the painting, not during!

I am a diy housepainter, and what I've done with the high ceiling is to paint everything up to where I can reach with my ladder (and I certainly don't put my ladder on stairs). By the time I'm done, there's just the high walls and the ceiling, which covers our large-ish living room and the stairs. I had a crew sent by a professional contractor come just to spray the high ceiling and the walls of the stairway at the top. I used the same color as the wall paint, same eggshell sheen, and I provided the paint. In my HCOL area, it was, as I recall, $500, and this is a 22' ceiling with wide staircase (2 guys, 1 day), which looks much bigger than yours. In the interests of safety, I would explore options like this.

It is easy to test your existing paint to see if it is oil-based or latex. You can google it. If it's oil-based, you'll do an extra step or two, but it's not hard.

Another thing to note is that you can do a LOT of prep work in advance of the painting day. You can sand, spackle, and especially tape off the trim, unscrew and prepare the switch plates and vents and light fixtures.

You can peek at some diy videos for how-to best prepare. I'd buy a couple canvas tarps, and some of that paper on rolls to cover the walkways to protect your floors. And lots of painters tape, primer, and good quality paint.

If one of the volunteers slips on all of that plastic and drop cloths, and breaks their hip, what happens then? Is the lawsuit against the association cheaper than paying a painter? What about if someone knocks over 5 gallons of paint and it ruins the whole stairs, floors, and everything else? And no one has the equipment to properly clean it up? What if someone falls from that scaffolding? At the top of the stairs? And dies? It CAN happen.

You had better make sure that you and your Board understands the risks. This isn’t some fence you’re whitewashing at ground level on lazy Sunday afternoon in MO. This is a NYC building where traffic will need to pass up and down those stairs while work is taking place, and where you may not have the applicable insurance to hire yourselves to do the job. And where people sue if you sneeze on them.

Is the risk of losing the building worth the “free labor”?

@Sophie, thanks and agree! Thankfully, the 6 units can use the back porch steps to enter/exit the building so we can close off the staircase/hallways, but so many other hazards to consider.

The common elements are in horrific shape, mostly due to errant, irresponsible renters, who thankfully are now pretty much gone, we have 1 unit out of 6 that is rented.

Most of the rowhouse is now owner occupied. Thankfully, we are a condo and not a coop, one of the new owners moved out of her upper west side coop, she had to pay $500 for an application from her coop board just to receive permission to paint her own unit, can you imagine?

In the picture you posted it has a disclaimer that you need to use a safety harness and lanyard. So, no, do not use that pivot/levelizer.

If the outside decks are as you say in horrific shape, are they structurally sound? If not, all the paint in the world won't save them.

Covering carpets, etc is the smallest piece of prep work. Prep is cleaning, sanding, filling, more sanding, cleaning. It takes longer than painting!

This reminds me of moving day. Friends don't show up. Some come for only one hour. Some come but have a bad back that day and cannot lift anything. Some come only for the pizza and beer. That happened once. Hired professional movers thereafter who knew how to get the job done. Cost worth every penny. Hire professional painters and live happily ever after.

@Pam, HA, right? Thankfully this is everyone that lives here, we'd be banging on their doors.

@Diana, yes, they're sound but just ugly. Also a Limited Common Element so everyone is responsible for their own which asked the question "why did they take so much $$$ out of reserves to have their decks done" and end up looking like crap. But it's the interior of the rowhouse that is being painted.

@Jan, LOLOL!! I said I would sit on a little stool and do the trim, the millennials will have to do the rest. Let's put it this way...LBJ was President when I was born ;) THANK YOU, I just ordered that on Amazon BTW!

Thank you for everyone posting, I appreciate it.