Basic Bid Question....

MarvinWilleyJr

New here and new to running my own business painting, but about to take the leap.

This question might help some others, and it might seem stupid...
But here goes...

A repaint on room 25' by 13' Paint walls and trim. 2 doors maybe, and a window or 2.

2 gallons primer.....20.00~
3 gallons satin.......45.00~
1 gallon semi-gloss. 20.00~

85.00~100.00 materials

608 sq footage area of walls. If that is correctly put?

What would you bid?

Cuz

sounds to me like your leaping to fast. understanding your own bids is an essential part of a running a good bus. just figure it by the hour. and what you need in fla differ from mid tenn any how dont sound like you will loose to much and may be a good learning process for ya anyhow good luck to ya in the world of fine finishs.

MarvinWilleyJr

Actually that isn't a real job, it's my living room im sitting in, lol

Just used that as an example, to see how far I am off on what I would want to do it.

I have heard 3 times materials was a formula used, but that seems low with my example. 300.00

I figure maybe 400-450.00 which would include Primer, 2 coats finish on walls and trim. Caulk what needed and fix any walls.

But also that's less than 1.00 per sq for repaints? That's way low right?

ProWallGuy

Figure out how long it will take to do each task. IE:

(All this is hypothetical, the sq ft numbers don't even jive, just showing an example)

Room has 200 sq ft ceiling surface, 600 sq ft wall surface, 40 ln ft base board, 2 doors, 1 window, needs 1 coat on everything.

Move furniture, drop off room, take off plates, bring in tools, pour up paint, etc. = 1 MH

Cut/roll 100 sq ft ceiling = 1 MH > total 2 MH for ceiling

Cut roll 100 sq ft wall space = .5 MH > total 3 MH for walls

Brush/lay off 1 door = .25 MH > total .5 MH for doors

Brush out window = .75 MH > total .75 MH for windows

Brush 10 ln ft base board = .25 MH > total 1 MH for base boards

Reset furn., pick up drops, take out tools, reset plates, etc. = 1MH

You now know it will take 9.25 MH to complete this job. I'd round up to 10 hours for some fudge room, and multiply it by my hourly rate of $40.00 (still hypothetical) to come up with a hard labor cost of $400.00.

Take your materials, and add a markup to them to account for the pick up time, and add to labor.

Tack on a percentage for profit, and that would be my selling price.


BTW, MH is man hour.

And another BTW, throw out the per sq ft numbers. These are only used by GC's who want to save a buck. No 2 jobs are the same, unless you are doing new construction in tract homes. And any other formula will usually get you in trouble. Figure out your production rates and costs and price the job accordingly.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

Hammatime

I agree with PWG. Also, you really need to know what and how much materials you will be using. Just in your example you missed the ceiling all together, chaulking and putty. What about your prep time also. You really need to break the job down to the simplist things and itemize everything that needs to be done and the time and materials to do the job. This includes cleanup also, don't leave anything out. I could go on forever but I think you know what I mean. Good Luck

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KellyPainting

Before we talk about the estimate...lets talk about the materials..

2 gallons primer..$20?
3 gallons satin ..$45?
1 gallon semi-gloss..$20?

I hope those are made up prices....primer at $10...satin at $15 per gallon
I hope you are useing good paint...or don't even bother going any further.

MarvinWilleyJr

Just a rough guess. But that's not way off around here.

KellyPainting

What brand of paint?

I pay.... close to $30.00 a gallon at the low end.

MarvinWilleyJr

30 a gallon for what? Primer? Satin? Semi?

I can get a good primer for 40.00 a 5 gallon bucket.

and as for the Satin usually runs from 14 up to 20.

Semi runs more, usually 17 up to 24 maybe.

I like SW paints, but also use ICI sometimes.

AFI

MarvinWilleyJr

? What? Do you think that's low? You'd be surprised the price differences at SW depending on how much product you buy. I can get paint thru SW on a friends account that has been with them for a long time.

Brushslingers

Couldn't help ya anyhow, you left off the ceiling height.. can't get square footage from two wall lengths.

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Benn

MarvinWilleyJr

8' ceilings

Brushslingers

612.54

couple hours east of you, two coats... no primer unless its a total color change, 1 coat on the trim, two doors, two window frames... including paint.

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Benn

Brushslingers

I'll break it down for you, 3 gallons of paint and 1 gallon of trim paint, leaving 1/2 gallon of each for H/O touchups... teaspoon of spackle, maybe a 1/2 tube of caulk. 608 sqaure at 81 cents and 76 linear at 1.20, plus two doors at 50 per. The extra charge per square/linear/doors works out to include a fairly high quality paint, and basic sundries. That's about 6 hours, with a lunch, two guys. most of the per hour guys here would say 2 guys, 400 dollars plus mats... it works out about the same either way.

Good luck.

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Benn

AFI

Dear Mr. Willey

I'm surprise about those prices please, can you provide me your Friend account?

Brushslingers

Oh, and those prices arent that great... it's a contractors discount for accounts generating upwards of 500k per year... you should see what some of the BIG guys get.. more like, 28% off.

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Benn

AFI

Hey Willey be serious now let me tell you what I do

For a simple job like this I'll charge by sq/f. You said 608 sq/f @$1.00 = $608.00 job. You can add $30.00 to discount later to the customer so they will feel appreciated (prefer customer discount).

I hope this help you

Art

MarvinWilleyJr

Thanks for all the responses.

As for my friend, it's a guy I use to work for. We use to paint Lowes and a WalMart or 2. 1st time I got some paint for my house I got it and they put it on his account. I paid cash for it and couldn't believe the price, it was like 50% off or so. Kinda makes me mad that they can do that to the small guys like most of us, but I guess the more you buy the better deal ya get. Not really fair to us, but what can we do.

painterjim

Those paint prices seem a bit skewed. I charge per day, a job this size incld ceilings would cost the customer $600.00 plus matierials, I mark up my matierials by 20%. That first leap could be a 80' drop if youre not careful. The first rule of business is know your numbers.

For me I charge by the day, so I need to know how much I need to make daily to meet all my overhead, then I need to factor in my profit.

First thing you need to do is figure out how much your overhead is, dont forget anything. Then you need to know how much you need per day to meet those cost. Then you need to figure out how much profit you would like to make per day. I shoot for 30-40% profit margin on any given job.