Levels Of Quality

Hiz & Herz

Hello to everyone....
Recently I have been asked by the home builder I do work for to lower my standards/quality and in return to lower my price with it, as he builds anything from cheap housing units to million dollar homes. I know his tapers charge him by the level of finish he requires and I'm thinking painting could be charged out in a simlar way.
My question is does anyone charge by quality of painting?
And if so what do you include for top quality work vs medium work vs cheap work?

Thanks for any replies and God Bless!

send_it_all

Ask him what he wants to pay. When he gives you a number, divide it by your normal daily rate and use that to figure how many days you have to do the job. Cut any corners necessary to be out of there in that number of days. There's your new quality level. Before you do this get in writing that he understands that he is paying for lesser quality for this price. That way, when he tries to get you back out to "finish" the job, tell him it is your level 2 finish. That's what he paid for.

daArch

It's truly a pity you are faced with that.

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donb1959

I have one level of quality, high.

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slickshift

Taping is different

There's different levels depending on whether it's a garage or a totaly smooth finish

It's not different levels of quality

It's firetapeing only needs one coat mud, level 5 needs everything plus a complete skim coat

It's like you saying one coat primer is $***, one coat primer one coat finish is $YYY, one coat primer, two coats finish is $ZZZ, level 5 $XYZ...

The quality (prep/product/application) is the same
(*aside from more sanding needed on the higher levels, due to the extra coats of mud/paint)

No sense in doing a level 5 in a garage, or where a texture is going to be applied

It's a different animal

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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

threaderman

While working for a man in Florida he told me the quality of my work was too good.He said you fix stuff so well we don't get called back often enough.

PlainPainter

I find quality levels tough - and homeowners in general are just a bunch of ditz that will look at you with glossed over eyes if you talk about different levels of quality. Other than not filling nail-holes and caulking, and sanding - the only thing you can do is not just lowering quality - but a total abandonment of basic principles of painting, i.e. Not priming surfaces - not washing dirty surfaces, painting in the cobwebs. I have a my apartment/condo techniques of painting - and I have my high end approach - but there is damned litte in between.

Frankawitz

I could see the quality being in the paint, but when you start cutting your Quality of work you just make yourself look bad even in your own eyes, not to forget what the new Home owners will think of your company. hope your name isn't on your truck, When I worked new homes 20 years ago when Painters used all oil base paints and stains, I worked for a guy that told me we did Custom Production Painting not perfection painting. Cause I spent 5 hours on a walk thru when it was suppose to take two hours. So if you have to lower your standards just say your now custom blow and go painting

THINKPAINTING

The quality of work today for the most part sucks and its gotten worse every year....espeicaly new construction.........

Ive seen many a good company go out of bus...this year because they could just not compete with the comanys using illegal labor, its really a sad
american unsucess story....

it gets worse everyday at least in my backyard......

We are in for the worse recession since the early 70's when ya could not buy a job.......although thats what most painters do anyway.

Teetorbilt

It's getting to the point where a lot of customers no longer care, they have just learned to tolerate shoddy workmanship. I know that I have suffered from it in remods, a lot of people don't even have the time to understand the price/quality issue.

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jakester

I"ve delt with these issues of clients always looking for a cheaper price, it seems to me they want the highest quality for the cheapest price, so now I just ask them one simple question "what part of the quality of my workmanship would you like me to reduce" I find this question tends to open there eyes a little and 9 times out of 10 I land the contract.

98mustangguy

I absolutely charge different prices. Well lets see you can use anything from $50 plus a gallon BM to $10 gallon whatever generic special you can get or $12 glidden $15 behr ect,ect,ect and the same goes for the primer. lets say you do 2 coats paint 1 primer and use 1 gallonprimer 2 gallon paint that could changed price alone for material from$150 plus to say $30 (obviously prices made up for illustration). Now to add in are you doing large areas or more than 1 unit a day. Do you have to brush,or roll, or can you put a 1221 tip in a sprayer and go to town? All these will greatly affect man-hour so they greatly affect price also. If he wants cheap go to your local bargain outlet, pick up the cheapest $7 a gallon paint they have, drop a 1221 tip in your sprayer and do 1 real quick coat. It wont look all that great but over using a quality material you just saved $100 in material and knocked your labor in half over cutting and rolling. Also tell him your spec the same flat white for ceiling and walls that way no changeover,no cutting,no clean-up or wait time between ceiling and walls you can do it all in once pass

BMAN

When they ask me for a lesser expesve paint I tell them that I have to charge more labor to work with it....

PlainPainter

I still can't understand the mentality of a homeowner that is paying a grand to have a dining room repainted - where one gallon of paint will do the walls twice over - and think spending $50 for a gallon is too much money vs. spending $25? They saved themselves a whopping 2.5%.

98mustangguy

But its all in appearance you could charge the grand either way but if they see $50 gallons of paint many will think you are expensive and could of had it done way cheaper where as if they say they want cheap you still charge the grand but spend 25 instaed of 50 on paint and appearance shows that you went cheap and tried to save them money so they got a great deal.
Along the same lines when i used to deliver pizza years ago I could go to the same house 2 days in a row. Day 1 i show up in my BMW and receive a whopping $.50 tip, day 2 I show up in my rust bucket winter beater and get a $4-$5 tip. hmmmmm what changed other than the fact i looked like i was making nothing. Consumers for the most part are greatly driven by appearance and impressions, both of which are greatly deceiving. Just like a wife who sees that infomercial and suddenly has to have the new turbo ginsu 3 platnum knives even though she has a full set of Henkels in the kitchen. Dont try to understand just go with the flow