Louvered Shutters. 2x8

George Z

"Look at what I said $125-$25 paint- We can add in 20% overhead for the guys gas and the newspaper ad, Leaving $80 for him. If he does the room in even say 4 hrs thats $20 an hour. Most likely tax free, no insurance and so on.

If you work 40 hrs a week at $20=$800
X 52 weeks= $41,600 a year. Not rich but not horrible by any means"

Reality is different
40 hours a week means two $80 rooms a day, not necessarily scheduled in the same house or even in the same neighbourhood.
He would have to estimate these two rooms a day, schedule enough for
every day of the year, buy the paint, and paint them with travelling from room
to room every day. That is more than 4 hours per room.
To be able to achieve the above he would have to likely work for about
12 to 15 hours a day not 8 hours.
That leaves him about $13 to $15 per hour and running a business.
That is definitely not good.

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dwbrooks

George I couldnt agree with you more. Nonetheless there are people that will paint in my area for that price. I live in a large metropolitan area which brings a good amount of cheap labor to the area. I dont want to offend anyone but I found a mexican guy that has his own work van, all painting tools, and around 10 yrs experiance, his rate $12 an hour. Why....Because thats a heck of alot better than the money he was making in Mexico so its a large improvement for him.

I hope I'm not coming across as argumentive, my point is there is cheap, skilled labor that can be a threat.

George Z

What about hiring that skilled labour and paying them well?
At the same time, differentiating your company in a large metropolitan area is very much possible.

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Dale

Yeah...but hes not living in Mexico. How the hell do you pay your bills, buy tools and keep a van on the road (not to mention all the other things) for 12/hr?

dwbrooks

Believe it or not there are many people surviving on much less. No your not going to have a big house, or a fancy car or truck or the nicest clothes. But you can get by on $10 an hour. Thats far above the poverty level in America.

I dought he drove a nice car, had a huge house and great clothes in Mexico. Maybe he had no car, no food, junk clothes and a nasty apartment. $12 an hour in the USA will get you better than that, maybe not much but it's still an improvement. 12 an hour with not income tax is actually around $16 also.

Why are jobs that usaully pay around $50,000 a yr getting outsourced to India for a 1/5th the wage. Because there happy to make anything even remotely near what we have here in order to provide them with the bare essentials needed in life.


There are plenty of immigrants happy to surivive, where we want more. I want more than to just survive, but my essential needs are met.

slickshift

Not here
That's a weekly take home of what, $380...$400?
The absolute cheapest one room over the downtown liquor store apt. is $875 a month
But you can also get $11 an hour working at the convenience store
Which I'm sure isn't helping my shock at the $125 paint job

To be sure, dw, it's not that I don't believe you, or ever doubted you, it's that I don't believe them
I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it

dwbrooks

Around here a one bed is approx $450 a month, not a palace but not a complete dump. They figure your rent should be approx on weeks check to be able to afford it. I'm sure in your area nobody could live off $450 a week though. Its cheaper here, thats probobly why we make less your cost of living is so much higher.