PainterKevin

I have been kicking an idea around in my head for a while and wanted to get some input from everyone. The idea is to start a painting business where the focus is on doors. I have read many threads about the pain of painting doors and have gained first-hand experience with homeowners who expect their entry doors to look brand new. So, my thought is to start a painting business that does only doors. The business would work directly with homeowners and as a subcontractor through other painters. For a flat fee, the service would entail the following:
- Pick-up of the homeowners door from their home and transportation to the spray shop.
- Temporary replacement of the homeowners door with a temporary door that was hinged and used the homeowner's original locks.
- Scrape, sand, and prime the door
- Two coats of their choice of paint sprayed by an HVLP.
- Installation of the door after painting, including hinging and attachment of the door knob and deadbolt.

For interior doors, I would just remove the door and not install a temporary door. Painting process would be the same.

My question is, would painters who do interior and exterior work use this business if the cost for an exterior door were $350 plus paint cost and $150 plus paint costs for an interior door? Turnaround time for this would be roughly 5 business days. Everyone's feedback is appreciated.

Joewho

Seems like an extra service to offer with painting. It wouldn't fly as a stand alone business.

plainpainter

you would have to team up with fine paints of europe and offer Holland type quality front doors. I don't care what anyone says - Americans treat everything as throw away - not enough people care about exquisite quality.

Restoration of front entrances/doorways are on the caliber of $70/sq.ft. I've done several for probably less than 10% of that rate to kick start specialty door painting - and it never panned out. Some folks got exquisite restoration for dirt cheap.

Rich

my thought exactly...I really dont see how you could generate enough business to pay the bills and make a profit

I'm not saying you can't do it...because anything is possible, but these are my thoughts

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NuView Painting

I made my business as a Painter residential and commercial and cant seems to pay the bills doing that...lol na sounds good... what I would do is combine all your over head materials all of your living expenses and what you want your profit to be and divide that in to 4 weeks and see how many doors you would need to do every week to make that happen....then start hoofing it and make people think they need their door redone..see if you can come up with that many doors every week to survive.. if so its a no brainier DO THE DOOOOOORS

The paint whisperer

$350 to paint just a front door? I don't know about the market in your area. But here in KC, it might be a bit steep.

slickshift

*No*

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Ken S.

"My question is, would painters who do interior and exterior work use this business if the cost for an exterior door were $350 plus paint cost and $150 plus paint costs for an interior door? Turnaround time for this would be roughly 5 business days. Everyone's feedback is appreciated."

It would not fly here.
There may be a need for it, but few and far between to be profitable as a stand alone niche.
I think most experienced painting contractors have the equipment and experience to do this caliber of work "in house", and at a lower cost,
with profit.

regal

you would have to buy so many temporary doors of different sizes! Then the fit to the hinges...... I wanted to invent an adjustable job door for new construction that was made of high dense light plastic that could adjust to many sizes including the hinges that could slide......dreams.....perhaps leaving pamphlets with builders that install doors or smaller lumber yards.

PainterKevin

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. Regal...I was actually thinking of just making the temporary doors out of particle board to save on costs. However, the adjustable door idea certainly would be good!

CobraCDN

I do all my doors like that, bi-fold and passage, haul them to the shop, spray them with an airless. Meanwhile we spray all the casings and frames while the doors are off. Been doing that for 20 years With Ext doors, we'll simply board over the opening, sheet of OSB screwed into the hinges and a blocK on the striker side. Course we always leave them a working door.
Cheers

Tmrrptr

Kevin,

I just don't know of a painter who would sub out an exterior door for $350.

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FoilEffects

Your looking at your venture the wrong way... Dont go to painters and sub work go to the place selling the door and leave some cards. Many homeowners want a brand new door to be painted with a perfect finish. Pick up and delivery would be a plus but I cannot imagine you getting more than $200 per door. You could also talk to contractors and tell them you spray doors in shop and give them the benefits and see if they go for it. Unfortunatly I cannot see a full time business just doing doors unless you know a bunch of people.

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Tmrrptr

I would charge at least $350 for a large entry door w/sidelites done on both sides, etc... But I'd do it on site.

We've had far better luck doing doors and cabinet parts on site.

Something almost always gets dinged in transport and requires t/u once re-hung. And we had a whole truckload of doors wrecked once when a bozo wasn't cautious with them.

How many doors are you gonna inventory for temps if doing repaints in occupied residences?

Frankly, I don't think it will work as a dedicated biz.

Prove me wrong!

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DeanV

I would doubt the 5 day turn around also, waterborne paints are still far from cured and I think you would find a lot of touchups.

For front doors, if the money is in anything, it would probably be complete stripping, sanding down, restaining, and finishing wood front doors. But, the cost to do it right would scare a lot of people off. However, if you tie it in with an annual check up/recoat every 2 years for sure maintenance program, it might work.

vermontpainter

We got one of them pivot pro door painting systems a couple of years ago and all we do is set up some zip walls on site and spray and rack them...works like snot on a doorknob. The old timers used to say never to specialize because eventually you know everything about nothing. Or something like that.

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