Painting A Lowes

APTPAINTER

I'm Bidding the Int and Ext Painting of A lowes in the North east has anyone ever done one?Any input would be great,pricing etc

WisePainter

I have done 4 Home Depots from the ground up in Michigan, there are a lot of factors to consider.
Union scale?
Poured floor to shoot the deck or no.
Alkyd or latex dryfall for the deck.
Size of the office package.
Local rates.

etc.

You have a lot of homework to do before asking such an involved question for your first post.

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Traditions2

wisepainter- what does deck mean?

rezi69

$250,000

Bender

The deck is the corrugated part of the roof. The joists are the "v" shaped parts. Commonly called "deck and joist" ceiling.

WisePainter

Satan's invention.
I hate shooting alkyd dryfall all night onto that black pig iron "V" angle cacca. At one location the floor had not yet been poured so we rented 4x4 scissor lifts to navigate the interior as concrete trucks roared in and out doing their thing.
I drove my lift too close to one of the support poles and sank the front left corner into the soft backfill that was about 3' in diameter around the base. Soft soil could also be found in my whites after that...




Before I solidly recommend signing a commercial contract with a National box store, I would first recommend having some experience with such ventures first.
We learned the hard way that we were ill prepared to deal with that monster. We had our **** together by the last one.
Since then I have worked for other companies that built entire strip malls around new Super Targets.

That's a whole other fresh kind of hell...

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My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

vandyandsons

i've done a Lowes before while working for a contractor so I don't know the exact prices.
incidentally I passed by it today on my way home from another job.

i was at that job from start to finish so here's some pointers.

-waterborne dryfall works just as good as the alkyd inside on the decks.
(but you have to use what they specify)
-have your regional rep recommend a product to use on the deck outside at lawn and garden.
-don't use SW Loxon XP on the outside precast...it blows


-if you have never bid or sprayed a big deck...don't take this job cuz you'll loose your butt.....seriously.
-if you do bid it, once you get your price....double it.
-make sure that you can staff the job with competent help.
-don't forget to budget lift rental.

-good luck

WisePainter

All great advice. Especially the competent help, shooting a deck is something that is not for the weak.
Latex or alkyd.

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My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

Wolfgang

Bid it with Behr paint and you'll be fine.

vandyandsons

"whats so hard about shooting a deck?" everyone says...until they get 40 ft up in the lift and star trying to do it. then they see whats so hard about it.

and a 600,000 sq ft commercial space is no place to learn.

you's better know what you'r doing, or you'll be selling your house to make payroll.

a good experienced spray guy can knock out around 3 50x50ft bays per 8 hr day/night...at 40-50 gal/bay. that time doesn't include someone covering (floors if necessary and sprinkler heads and fire alarm wire) ahead of him.

get the picture? and the deck is just the start of a job like that.

WisePainter

ugh, you returned me to the Home Depot days....

We would order around 10~50 gallon drums of dryfall. Drive around all day in a scissor lift bagging the HID lights (not sealed at the bottom for ventilation), cover the sprinkler heads with aluminum foil, lay out the largest plastic SW sells on the floors (even with dryfall the floor can be damaged because of the lift tires driving over it all night), break out the 1795 dual hose pumps, burn 1, drink 2, suit up, vaseline the peepers, and do the bad thing!
Our lead guy pierced a 50 gallon drum of alkyd dryfall with the fork on the high low one time.
Oh that was bad.
It took 3 1/2 guys (one was an old school Union drunk) about 4 days to kill the deck.
I will never do that kind of work again, as a matter of fact when I go into a box store I never look up.


Again, good luck.

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My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

Dorman Painting

This is an interesting post, I've done a small deck for a gymnastics studio. I guess it was only about 2000 square foot, what a pain in the butt that was. Someone said 600,000 square foot, are these stores that big. I never thought about it but I guess some are.

What would you charge to shoot a deck in a typical Home Depot? 75-100 grand?

Bender

I had a guy drag the line (tied into the lift) to far and knock over the pump, the 5, and a 5 FULL of dirty thinner.
Anybody need to know how many square feet a gallon of thinner will cover

WisePainter

I believe we were pulling about $45,000 for the deck, that was in 2000.

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WisePainter

I dragged the pump about 4 ft. before I noticed my line was out of slack. I would tie off and leave about 3' of length.
Did you ever get static electricity shocks from the material running through the house and zapping you?
That actually hurt pretty bad.


my guess would be the entire floor was covered by the dirty pot.

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My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

vandyandsons

the Lowes i worked on was closer to 300-350K sq ft total, and most of that had exposed deck that got sprayed.

600000 was an exaggeration, but if you've never done that type of work, it may as well be a million sq ft.

for the interior deck:
-7000 gal dryfall
-45 man days labor (just to spray, nevermind prep, triggerpulling only)
-15 man days prep (covering, containment if necessary, demasking, cleanup, setup, busywork)

$45,000 material
$45,000 labor

so roughly speaking $90,000 for the deck, but if I know my shop, they probably got 100K.

that was a huge union shop with huge overhead though.

on op of that, there were all of the steel columns, the interior precast walls, the buildouts and bathrooms, striping the floors, exterior precast on 2 sides, exterior deck ceiling @lawn and garden

who knows what that job went for by the time it was all said and done, but that shop knows how to make money.

vandyandsons

[quote=WisePainter;580440]ugh, you returned me to the Home Depot days....


I will never do that kind of work again, as a matter of fact when I go into a box store I never look up.


Again, good luck.


sorry, didn't meat to take you back to that not so happy place.

side note: have you ever tried a full faced respirator?

they are expensive (about 180-200 bucks) but after having one, i'd pay twice that to get another one.

vandyandsons

I will never do that kind of work again,


i always say that too, but i'm too young to be picky, ya know. i take what i can get as long as i can make what i need to.

WisePainter

Sure felt that way to me.


Don't forget the bumper poles inside and out around the parking lot.
Safety yellow anyone?

I would use one for major commercial interior lacquer spraying but to clean that mask off every 10 minutes would drive me crazy!!!
I tried goggles with and without the film, it was a burden.

The large commercial work required too many days away from home, and I learned quickly that I want to be an available Dad to my kids.
Besides, living with a~hole old school painters that smoked, drank, and snored all night in a tiny Motel room for 2 weeks is not for me.



But I do not turn down local jobs even if it is only a powder room.

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My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

world llc

if your using a sprayer smaller then a speedflo, we use a dolly with a half sheet of plywood mounted to it so you can move it around easially. it's supposed to be pushed by the ground guy, but i'v impatiently pulled it with me a few feet