Always Painting

I'm going to be estimating some new construction homes for a contractor. He has always had a painter bid the job by the floor square footage which I am not to familiar with. This is probably the reason why those painters are not working for him anymore.
I have only done wall and ceiling sq.ft. on commercial jobs and bid it between $.30-.50 per square (paint included) depening on product and difficulty. I mainly do custom repaints and bid it by the amount of hours it would take plus cushion, plus paint and materials.
The contractor is going to be buying the paint and materials for every job. He wants 1 primer coat to be sprayed and backrolled on ceilings(plus 1 finish on ceiling) and walls,prepped and 2 coats semigloss sprayed on trim & doors and 2 coats eggshell (1 color) on walls. The amount of trim and ceiling height varies from job to job.
Any advise on how I should bid these homes out would be appreciated. How do I bid the trimwork?sqare feet? Is there a standard for wall square footage on residential jobs? I have been biding jobs for only about a year, so any advise would be greatly appreciated.

straight_lines

I wouldn't bid by the square unless they were all the same. You can loose your shirt, and pants.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



Primer makes everything better...

ReNt A PaInTeR

Please post your location so we can help you better

__________________
RENT A PAINTER -
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|

Workaholic

In my area you can get your figures anyway you want but the builders like it submitted in a sqft fashion. So for me I work my numbers and then submit in sqft. I would imagine you may just want to do it the way you did the commercial work and then add in for the trim.

Gibberish45

That's great advice. Stick with what you know and give him your number the way he wants it. Good luck! New construction scares me.....

RCP

I agree with Work, you can convert your rates to square feet. But it is the extras that will get you. If you are not used to reading plans, or the plans don't have detail, you can get screwed, "I didn't bid it for crown molding, cased windows, stairs, etc".
You have to be really efficient for NC, and have a builder that knows what he is doing.
I sometimes use square feet, but have rates for all trim, vaulted, doors, etc. Some are lineal feet, some are by each. You also have Single, Two or Three Tone rates.
Are you able to spec the paint? Is he going to provide all the materials? NC takes a lot of caulk, sandpaper, plastic, paper? How many hours of touch up will you have to figure in? Don't forget all the time you will spend cleaning and vacuuming before you can spray.

__________________
Chris

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Workaholic

I knew you would express what I wanted to say but was to lazy.

Always Painting

I appreciate all of the advice everyone. Its pretty much what my gut was telling me but its good to hear it from others with more experience. Aside from getting the work, biding has been a major learning experience this past year. I am working out of eastern Tn. for the guy who was wondering. Thanks again

RCP

Another thing is to have "extra charge for materials not installed at time of painting". My guys showed up to a house this week and there was no base, they had decided at the last minute to put all tile floors in. That will be an extra charge to go back.

__________________
Chris

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Precision-TBay

new housing is to painting what weddings are to photography. That means run away, fast!

daArch

and make sure you get details spelled out in the contract, like job sequencing with all the other contractors, accessibility to areas, electricity, etc.

A look at the PDCA standards http://pdca.org/governance/standards will give you some good points to touch upon.

__________________
"Glazed Donuts Are the Building Blocks of the Universe"

"Are we having fun yet"

Always Painting

Thanks all good advise. Does anyone have any advise for what kinda wording to have on my contract to cover the scheduling issues and the little add ons at the end of the job that contractors always want you to do for free?
I have the repaints and commercial/light industrials contracts written out properly so I don't loose my shirt but I think I might want to make up a new proposal sheet for this contractor. He said he does from 30-40 houses a year so there's gonna be alot of chances for stuff to not go as planned.
I want to have lots of ammo for this one. I have had some bad experiences with contractors before. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
This is my first time on this site an I have already had my confidence go up because of it. Thanks everyone you've all been a great help.