[Tashler]

Okay, I know what I'm setting myself up for. But I need help.

I do painting as part of my all-around home improvement business. But I'll admit that I'm not so much a pro.
I have a customer who knows that I am not a full time painter, yet wants me to paint the interior of her house. She wants me over anyone else.

I know not to use a 'going rate' type of approach, but I'm not sure of my expectations of how long it should take.

There is approx. 8600 sq/ft of walls and ceilings to be painted. 950 ft of base. 24 doors and 24 windows.

There are some walls that need to be cleaned, and one bedroom requires some fixing/patching. Plenty of furniture to move.

I've tried to guestimate the time it will take and the cost of the labor I will use.

I come up with $17850.

The basement adds 11 doors, 2 windows, and 1250 sq ft of wall to be painted. I priced that at $ 3600.

I don't expect that anyone is going to be able to tell me to charge a specific amount, but I'm looking to get aimed in the right direction. I'm in Northern New Jersey, and I don't want to give her a price that is out of line, but , obvoiusly, I want to make a profit.

I guess, if possible, I'm looking for someone who is more experienced at price quotes to help me determine if this is a good deal for both parties, or an outrageous quote.

I can have the job. But I don't want her, or me, to find out later that it was double what anyone else would have charged. Thanks for your help.


Glenn

 

[cole191919]

Welcome Tashler to the site.

I'll offer whatever advice I can from what I can understand from your post. When you say 8600 sq. ft of walls I am only assuming that you do mean the surface area of the walls and not just the house is considered 8600 sq. ft. (that would be one big home) This should help figure out material cost.

If you have the square footage of the area that you are painting you can from here figure out how much paint you are going to need. Depending on what paint you use, you would divide the area to be painted by the spread ratio for your paint. For the most part I use 400 sq. ft per gallon for a cut and roll repaint. So in that case considering that you are using one color whole area, you would need around 21 - 22 gallons. Now this should be give or take a few considering the spread ratio is pretty much an estimate or suggestion. So I would at first pick up less paint than you need and judge it halfway through. This covers the main part of your materials section, now you need to figure out your labor. Which is different for everyone, but a good way to figure out how long it may take you to do something like this is do a test subject. Take a 10 by 10 room (perhaps your own...) and time yourself and be on top of it. Record it and here you should be able to figure out a basic labor cost for a room that may be 20 by 20 and so on.

Just some thoughts, hope I helped.

 

[KCT]

Hi Tashler, I always figure 2 coats for walls, and I figure 300 sq. ft. per gallon. Also like Cole noted, I never buy all the paint I need right away.

To get the labor price I walk through and imagine how many days each room will take. Sometimes you can work on a few at the same time. Sometimes there's furniture issues like you mention. Be fair to yourself and to your customer but don't underbid. The price is what it is.

Average size door, $50 per coat per side works good. Add a little more for casings and jambs. Same with average sized windows. When you do your oil get a 5 gallon bucket, grid, good 4" sleeve @ 1/4" nape, put a tiny bit thinner in your paint (something that covers good like Satin Impervo), mix it good, and just go through and systematically knock them out. You should be around 30 - 35 minutes per door side. HTH!

More food for thought.. An average sized room (say 10' x 15') is a two day event for one guy. First day prep room and any wall/trim issues (fill holes and so on), paint ceiling, paint walls. Second day second coat walls, set up fan, oil the trim, clean everything up.

 

[slickshift]

Could be important...

There's a huge difference between flat doors and 6-panel doors, casement windows and old school 6 over 6es with muntins

With over 30 doors and almost as many windows this could be the difference between making money and ending up working for $2.75 an hour

You might want to post that info up

 

[NuView Painting]

from the info givin.. and my calculations just to paint the house and basement $11538.00 only you know how much furniture and repairs is needed tax an extra 20% for hasel $13845.80...then whatever for repairs bout $4000.00 off what you came up wit.. if shes gonna pay it id go with it

 

[A Colorful World]

Dude you need to think about what you charge per day with how many people you work with each day. I work with me and my wife. We need to make at least $xxx per day. Thats how I come up with labor. If your doing walls, ceilings and trim you can figure at about one day per room with two people (I'm talKing a normal bedroom or square room, like 12 x 15 or so, with moving furniture, taking down window treatments and stuff) Same for a bathrooms, they take as long as a bigger room due to the amount of cut work (unless it's a small poweder room maybe a 1/2 day). Ceilings and trim take a lot longer than just walls. Just walls I can knock out two rooms per day. Throw in ceilings and trim and it really slows down. Use that 10 miniute spackel from home depot for the nail pops. cracks and stuff it helps speed up the wall prep time. Then you have to look at two story rooms and entrys they take longer than one day. Go by days not square footage. Your square footage is used to figure out the paint cost. About 350 per gallon on the walls and ceilings. Everything will need two coats more than likely.

 

[KCT]

Don't look now Tashler, but you're gettin undercut all ready!:jester:

With over 30 doors and almost as many windows this could be the difference between making money and ending up working for $2.75 an hour

Right on. I assumed 6 panels, ordinary double hungs in my last post. But hell, after 30 doors, even if they're 15 lites, Tashler will be fast at them (especially if he's running to make money on them)! :thumbup:

 

[Rich]

There are some walls that need to be cleaned, and one bedroom requires some fixing/patching

Hope you have a helper or 5.