A Few Pricing Questions

SwishPainting

Just a few questions,
1-I already know that if you multiply the length and wight of a room that will give you the square footage of the room,but if the costumer wants only the walls painted and not the ceiling painted will lenght times wight still be the square footage?
2-If i charge 1.75 per square foot for interior painting about how many times more than the 1.75 should i charge for exterior?
Thanx Guys.

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SwishPainting
800-979-4740
www.SwishPainting.com

Painter.Josh

Man swish this could take me awhile. LOL

1st, in my opinion, you should keep a floor plan sqft price and a wall sqft price. That way, when a customer doesn't want their ceilings painted, you can figure the bid using the wall sqft price.

Now you said that your labor price is 1.75 per floor plan sqft. That means that your wall sqft price should be roughly around .44¢ per wall sqft.

So let's say a customer wants your to bid a 12x15 room.
That's a total of floor plan of 180 sqft.
Based off of your price, the room would cost 315.00 in labor.

Now if they just wanted the walls done. You would have 2 walls at 12x8 and 2 walls at 15x8. All together that would be 432 wall sqft. Based on a rough price of .44¢, the cost would be 190.08 in labor.

Now this takes alot of figuring. I spent three months last winter puting all my prices together. I know my labor per floor plan sqft and wall sqft. But I also figured my paint, in all grades, per floor plan and wall, and also my trim work.

It took my a long time. But now I could bid the same job using either of my prices. Bidding labor, the cost of paint, trim and doors; and using both pricing methods, the total will be the same everytime.

ProWallGuy

Sq. ft. for ceiling (or floor) > length x width
Sq. ft. for walls > length + length + width + width x height (or if not a square or rectangular room, measure the perimeter of walls x height)

Swish and Josh, are you guys doing new construction, or repaints, because those prices sound awfully low to me.

A 12' x 15' room, w/8' ceilings, walls are 432 sq. ft. At .44 per sq. ft, only $190.08 in labor. That might work for new construction, (no flooring/drops, no trim, etc. run n gun spray)but for repaint, with furniture removal, dropping off floors, cutting around trim, etc. sounds way low to me.

I guess it depends on how the business is run. I need at least $200 per man per day to cover insurance, work. comp., taxes, benefits, etc. just to break even. And trust me, I ain't in the game to break even.

But if it works for you, then it works. Its just MHO.

Hey Josh, where the heck did you find the 'cent' symbol on your keyboard???

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

DandG

Prowallguy, If you dont mind would you share your sqft floor price? Also as there can be more wall space in 1 home than another with the same floor sqft how can you arrive at the same price both ways?

DandG

sorry that second part was for painter josh.

ProWallGuy

Sorry if you misunderstood, I don't ever use a sq.ft. floor plan price. That would IMO only work for ceilings, because walls aren't always 8 ft. high, there are different diffcultie factors, etc. I don't even bid jobs using wall sq.ft., ever.

I bid by time, materials, profit/overhead, PITA factor, etc. We do mostly high-end wallpaper and only interior repaints, mainly for decorators or our paper customers.

The only thing I charge by sq. ft. is hanging digitally imaged murals, because I usually have to deal with a GC in commercial applications, and thats their language. And on those we charge between $2.50 -$5.00 a sq. ft. , once again, depending on the PITA factor, and travel distance.

I will try this though. The above room discussed, 12 x 15 x 8 high, comes out to 432 sq. ft. assuming its an average living room, with minimal furniture to move, very light prep, an easy customer, and 2 coats, (I almost always insist on 2 coats, my labor price would be around $550 -$700. That comes out to $1.27 - $1.62 per sq. ft.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

DandG

sorry for the confusion prowallguy, I mistakenly mixed up your reply and painterjosh's reply. Was just curious as you seemed to think $1.75 was low, but you seem to be in the ballpark kinda.
P.S. I'm still looking for thatD**N 'cent' symbol on my keyboard too

hatchet

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Just to see if html will work
U+A00A2;
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[added]Accessories > System Tools > Character Map

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

Painter.Josh

lol k guys...press the alt key, hold it down, and type 155 on your keypad. ¢¢¢¢

DandG, the price I used to describe it to swish was a standard labor price for floor plan square footage. There are many add ons in that equation. Using the floor plan sqft prices, I aslo have and add on for each foot in wall hieght past 8 feet.

I also have add ons for the moving of furniture and trim, both in the wall sqft prices and floor plan sqft prices. Like I said, its very complex. It took me 3 months to prefect. And I only did it for the "less than" understanding customers.

Hey pro...
In one of my earlier post I talked about my pricing for labor. In my area that keeps me competitive. At a 1.60 per floor plan sqft, or .40¢ per wall sqft in basic labor; there are still a few painters cheaper than I am. Im right in the higher middle for pricing. But what I posted a few threads ago was, my buddy who started on his own only 1 year before me, lives only 1 1/4 hours down I-75 in Detroit, and he's getting right around 3.85 per floor sqft, or .98¢ per wall sqft in basic labor.

ProWallGuy

Josh, you are absolutely right about keeping in mind what the market will bear in your area. And I reckon it depends on how long you've been in the game and where most of your leads are coming from too.


and BTW, ¢ :Thumbs:

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation