I Need To Talk To Someone!

Hiz & Herz

could i ask what your stepping order is when it comes to new const.

this confuzes me, is it normal for floors to go in after paint, and then return days later to do jams and molding...or is the painter the last contractor before handing the keys over?

johnthepainter

one size doesnt fit all

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slickshift

Last in last out
But it doesn't always work out that way

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Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

POOLMANinCT

hiz & herz...

money & pricing is an emotional thing. throw out the algebra & calculations... if your proposal price doesn't put a big smile on your face, raise it.

ray

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send_it_all

I don't know anything about pricing paint work, but the formula you show here is correct for wall square footage.

Think of it in a slightly different way...measure the length of all walls you need to paint and multiply by ceiling height. You should consider buying an inexpensive measuring wheel from Home Depot. I use it for measuring for base and crown...makes it really easy.

Say for instance, you come up with a total wall measurement of 365 linear feet....and you have 8' ceilings. 365 x 8 = 2920 sq. ft of walls. At .40 cents a sq. ft. that would be $1,168 per coatfor the walls. Don't forget to add ceiling sq. if they need to be painted, too. Ceiling sq. footage is almost always VERY close to floor square footage. Let's say this house is 1450 sq. ft. At .40 cents, this is $580. Figure the house was painted all flat navajo white and is in ok shape, just too bland. The customer wants it some sort of sand color. I would guess no primer is needed, (I could easily be wrong, here...this isn't the point) so 2 coats should cover the celing and walls...this job would be $3,496.00 before you touch any trim. Can you live off of that? How long would this job take two of you to do? 2 days? what would materials be?...$300 or so? $3,196.00 That's $792 per person per day. More than enough to cover average overhead and make a profit. Imagine if you had a whole crew of painters out there working for you at $25 per hour, painting 5 houses a week...Hell, I might get into the painting business.

A W Smith

http://www.costestimator.com/

Bone Saw

LxW=sq'

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aceflooring

swag = Scientific-wild-ass-guess I specialize in flooring but I do a lot of remodeling projects. I know about what I want to make in a day, doing flooring I make about $200/day $100/half day. So I try to always make that but painting well... more people are able to do it so you have to drop the price or hire some cheap labors. Figure out how much you want per day how many days how much your going to spend on tool rental, paint, mileage. and throw that to the customer. I know how much I want to do the job and even when they try to talk me down I just stick to it. Now for some return customers like rental owners I keep it simple. all their places are cookie cut appartments some I bid it $50/room bath, live, kitch I just keep it the same. They usually don't need the ceilings painted but when they do I double the price. so $50 for ceiling $50 for walls 50+50= . Some jobs pay better then others but you'll get experience. Steping out on a limb is part of owning a buisness. most people can actualy do the work, but if there wasn't some degree courage require there wouldn't be helpers to hire.

send_it_all

Ace, $200 per day is not enough to run a business on. Also, you might have to send Michael Stone a check for using his "swag" term.

neolitic

Not unless Micheal Whosis started using that term in public more than 40 years ago!

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aceflooring

I have a small buisness and that's my personal goal per day after operating expenses, pay employee's ect. as for the SWAG. I didn't come up with it, I don't have a clue who did, but it's starting to become a "common phrase" for contractors.

neolitic

It has been a common phrase since I was in high school in the 60's
My partner uses it so often I've threatened to lay him out with a 2X4 if he ever says that in front of me again

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outsidethelines

I have tried using different methods to do my estimating. Most people tell me to go by sq. footage. Some say go by time. I'm not much of a numbers person. I look at the structure to be bid, I get out my laptop and start filling out the spread sheet that I created myself (so it is tailor made to suit my needs), I divide the work into different phases and figure out how long to complete each phase X the labor costs required. Hours X labor. Then I include all the other stuff, like equipment rental if any, materials cost, P/O or whatever. The computer does the math and all I have to do is fill out the proposal.

However, a litttle while ago I saw the website link previously provided here and decided to test it out against the way I have been doing it. I am happy to discover that the numbers were reasonably close. My way was a bit higher. Boy, was I happy to see that. Thank you to whoever provided that link to HomeTech Cost Estimator. It was worth trying out, but I might just stick to doing it the way that works for me. I hate figuring out sq. footage. Or, maybe I will use both just to check myself (well, for the 30 day trial period that is).

donb1959

I figure how many days it will take me to do the job x 710.00 plus materials and a 15% material mark up, thats the price.

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premierpainter

Here is how we charge-
18 inch roller- $624.90 per hour
9 inch roller- double figure above
4 inch roller- triple figure above
When we spray, we charge- $896.09 per hour. If it is windy, we have to charge more, of course, because a lot of paint material is lost in overspray.
I mean, using these figures I manage to work about 1 or 2 days a month. I don't like to work much, so if you like working I would consider lowering above numers by at least 92.76%
Good luck and hope everything works out for you guys.

Workaholic

Livin the dream.

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sttryffe

Don......is that really how you come up with your price??????

donb1959

Yes, that's my formula.

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sttryffe

Thanks Don! I've been struggling trying to come up with the "perfect formula" for estimating.....man it's like rocket science! But your way is pretty straight forward as long as I know my numbers and what can be done in a day! Tell me where do you factor in your profit??? Is it part of the materials markup??? Thanks again!

George Z

Is that you as one painter?

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