Painter crews - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Mike Finley · 11-23-2005, 06:30 PM

I was talking to my friend who own his own painting company. He does almost 95% new homes for custom builders.

He was telling me about his crew structure and it kind of shocked me. He does a lot of 6000 sq ft and up customs and runs a few different crews. He has one crew that does the painting, and another crew that comes back to touch everything up and then at least one other I think, but I can't remember the details (beers). But he was telling me the touch up crew goes back in after the finishing work has been done and fixes all the stuff that has been done to the house to damage it, such as change orders moving cabinets or something around, the electrictians cutting holes, or audio guys, the drywallers patching stuff up.

He says the touch up crew is there for 3 days sometimes! Kind of shocked me. Then he said the touch up crew becomes the prep crew and goes to the next house to prep it before the main crew rolls off their current house and goes to that one.

Is this pretty standard the way everybody else works?

**ProWallGuy** · 11-23-2005, 08:48 PM

Yeah, that roughly sounds like most new construction painters.
3 days t/u? Sounds about right.
That is why I don't do new const. Even the most expensive houses painted by this type of crew would not pass my seal of quality, and probably not yours either.

AAPaint · 11-23-2005, 09:55 PM

Sounds pretty close to what I've seen in my area. Last company I was with used subs to spray out the houses, inside and out...walls and trim. Then, they had crews of employees that did all the finish work from that point on. A lot of times there are more than just wall patches. Missing/damaged doors and trim, shoe molding (quarter round) over tile/wood floors all had to be done because it isn't in when the houses are sprayed.

BTW, we don't do any new construction homes for the reasons PWG stated above. Quality is the last thing you'll get. The last contractor I worked for would prime the walls and trim with the same paint (SW Master Hide) which is self priming on drywall, but not WOOD!! Then the trim would get topcoats and be considered good...doh!