Hello all, just a question pertaining to losing money on jobs.
How many of you painting contractors actually notify the homeowner or general contractor that a certain job is turning out to be more work, or take more material than you estimated and then ask them for more money?
I am currrently painting a historic chapel in my native town of Gilroy California. I bid the Interior at $2800(its a small one room chapel) and i came out good on that bid.
The exterior though, is a different story, I bid that at $5700 since it required quite a bit of prep since the chapel hadn't been painted in 30 years.
After pressure washing the chapel, more paint loosened up hence requiring more scraping,sanding,priming,caulking and puttying. Its like a domino effect.
This is something that i never could have predicted until actually getting started with the work. After doing the math, i predict i am going be about 500 dollars short on labor.
The general contractor is really cool, and since he knows that i am just starting off, and therefore lack experienc in bidding, he said that if i came up short, to let him know and he would see what he could do.
I still feel kind of weird about the whole thing. I always hate to ask for more money, it makes me feel less proffesional. When i straight up underbid the job i usually eat the cost, however in this situation i feel that i had no control over it. I couldn't have seen the extra work involved until i started.
What do you guys think? should i ask for the extra money. or just eat the cost.
How many of you painting contractors actually notify the homeowner or general contractor that a certain job is turning out to be more work, or take more material than you estimated and then ask them for more money?
I am currrently painting a historic chapel in my native town of Gilroy California. I bid the Interior at $2800(its a small one room chapel) and i came out good on that bid.
The exterior though, is a different story, I bid that at $5700 since it required quite a bit of prep since the chapel hadn't been painted in 30 years.
After pressure washing the chapel, more paint loosened up hence requiring more scraping,sanding,priming,caulking and puttying. Its like a domino effect.
This is something that i never could have predicted until actually getting started with the work. After doing the math, i predict i am going be about 500 dollars short on labor.
The general contractor is really cool, and since he knows that i am just starting off, and therefore lack experienc in bidding, he said that if i came up short, to let him know and he would see what he could do.
I still feel kind of weird about the whole thing. I always hate to ask for more money, it makes me feel less proffesional. When i straight up underbid the job i usually eat the cost, however in this situation i feel that i had no control over it. I couldn't have seen the extra work involved until i started.
What do you guys think? should i ask for the extra money. or just eat the cost.