Charging By The Hour?

ProWallGuy

Vermutung werde ich dann gebumst.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

PlainPainter

My God - deja vu, all over again! I had the same scenerio - new construction, fickle interior decorator, tile guy taking up 4 rooms and showing up when he felt like it - then fielding customer complaints about plaster job. Took 2-1/2 months to get 3 weeks of scheduled work done. And when decorator/homeowner asked to take off small items on the bill, because she changed her mind - I wanted to blow up. Yeah - don't do new construction anymore either - give that to the mexicans as well.

neolitic

FOMALOL
All the flack we small timers take from all the trades for trying to do it all!
You guys just summed it up.
I could get the same speech (and have) from the tile guy,framer, plumber, hanger...... And I get to explain it all to the HO and try not to look like an idiot!
The only guy I can schedule and rely on is me (usually, most of the time)

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Put your location in your profile!
(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

premierpainter

Plainpainter....
We have many crews doing many jobs in a week. Over 20 men on the payroll today. We have the best customer relations and give each customer the best service around. You should look into www.yourcostcenter.com to find your true cost per hour. With all of the guys that we have, vehicles, equiptment and all else, our hourly rate is far less than your $50 an hour. For us to go into a house and paint one bedroom is just not worth our time. By the time you do the estimate, go to the job, set up all needed equiptment, move furnishings, prep and paint, then clean all areas, drive home and look at your profit on the job, I think you'll find that they are not worth painting as well. Love the single/ master painter line as well. In our own eyes- aren't we all masters at our proffession?

PlainPainter

PremierPainter,
If you have bulk crews working big type jobs - and your guys are happy making $12-$14/hr -- then I am sure you don't need $50/man-hours. And I totally agree with your assesment about bedroom type jobs - but that's because your hourly rate has been crafted around the type of work you do.
If you started those 'bedroom' type jobs, with all the driving, moving furnishings, prep, paint, clean - then you would probably come up with the same conclusion as I - you need $60/hr 'at the job' rates, if a bedroom takes 3 days of work, with all the driving and estimates and what not then - you can see how such work, assuming you can get in 6 hrs of 'at the job', would cost $1,200 for just one bedroom.

Now, this is the niche I am in - if it turns out, that there are enough mexicans willing to do this kind of work for $200 - like I see on craigslist, and there are tons of people happy with their work. Then I may look towards other avenues.

PressurePros

Everyone can argue a number until they are blue in the face. Its meaningless. You will always hear a person that has owned a service business for awhile say the same thing. You have to charge what you need to stay in business. The variables (employee pph rate, how many billable hours per year, marketing expense, job quality, etc) are too great to take into consideration anyone else's numbers. Its why so many guys turn blue in the face when someone asks about "going rates". Going rates apply to commodities, not service or trades.

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Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Roof Cleaning Services PA

silvertree

Oui mes amis!

Whenever I need passion and drama in my life, along with some acerbic wit, I just go to the painter posts. Worked as a full time painter for 2 years and then went on to be a carpenter. I'm still hearing the same carpenter jokes I heard 30 years ago. Anyone can roll paint on a wall, but only a painter can paint.
Charge what you think your worth, include cost of truck, ins, advertising ect. and then see whats leftover at the end of the year. Your not an hourly worker, your a businesswomen.

outsidethelines

Surprisingly, I am usually told that out of everyone, I am the only one that was reliable. Anyway, I don't really mind new construction because if I had a choice between that and painting all or part of a house that was neglected for the last 30 or so years, having to deal with lead paint, and killing myself sanding tons of spackle from crack repairs, I'll take the new construction. And, don't even get me started on the 60 something year old pack rat ladies with the 5 or more cats where the smell is so bad that even the smell of primer can't over power it. Or what about the exteriors where the owners dump their dogs crap all over one side of the house right where you have to paint. Not that I would ever want to go back to track homes again where the workers are leaving their piss bottles around for someone to unwittingly kick over. But, a single family home in a high end area where the HOs are cool and the GC is easy going, that to me is the preferred way to go, despite all the frustration of my previous complaints. As for the $50.00 an hour, the GC was fine with it. The work is done and the homeowners ended up taking the initiative with regard to the color choices. So, all worked out in the end. Phew!!

Joewho

BACKCHARGE!