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How big has your biggest job been?

8K views 27 replies 22 participants last post by  painter213 
#1 ·
Just out of curiousity, how big are the projects you guys usually take on? So far for me my biggest interior paint was an oler home that was completely redone from top to bottom. Nothing except the glass didn't get a coat of somehting.. It consumed us for 2 full months this past winter, but boy was i glad to see it go. Wallpaper wise we did a century home last summer which was fun, nice big entry way with 2 story stair case bedrooms and everything. Exterior would be last summer aswell a complete house which was 3 stories tall, with a brand new front porch, gables, a back deck, storm windows, a back shed, a two car garage aswell as doing the interior. I am now learning that sometimes bigger isn't always better. It definately ties you down and sometimes it is tough to explain that to somebody who is looking to get work done. I always try and leave a little space open for the customers who NEED somethin done right away but always price them a little higher. a "convenience fee" if you will.... how about you guys? I am sure there are some big commercial guys here? Whats the biggest you have tackled, whether it be price wise, size wise or time wise.
 
#2 ·
We did a 134' water tower, we did a set of water clarifier tanks that were coated with the nastiest crap known to man. I myself rebuilt the entire exterior of a house & painted it that took 1 month to complete... If the project is long, and the people are happy you can usually take on small jobs and they will understand. I say that because I used to repaint townhomes and would have a couple come up.. did an entire interior that took me 3 weeks. It was hell, they had a TON of original wallpaper on the walls (sometimes 2 layers) wanted it all taken off. The toughest part was taking the wall paper off the walls where they started.. got "some" of it to come off and the rest they just painted over.. when they painted it over, that wallpaper decided to bubble and delaminate.. H/O are great! :rolleyes:
 
#3 ·
the rest they just painted over.. when they painted it over, that wallpaper decided to bubble and delaminate..
NO SH!T SHERLOCK !


Gee, I'm glad no one on on this list ever mentioned the problems with painting over wallpaper :whistling2:

My biggest job was in the 80's. A really nice old LARGE farm house in Dover MA (If you knew Dover, you'd know a "farmhouse" is not what an Iowan would think of. - this was a Gentleman Farmer's house - ie, landed gentry who never touched a hoe or a hay bail). Just a beautiful house built in the 1800's. We stripped the exterior and repainted and then did an extensive makeover of 90% of the interior. "Makeover" included taking most of the gazillion 12 over 12's down to bare wood and repainting. One second floor guest suite had a fire place totally stripped and refinished with hand rubbed furniture oil. Ceil was re-canvased, walls papered. Total cost for that suite was over $3000 (1985 pricing). I had a crew of between three and five employed for just over a year. OH, and they had a REAL barn that we painted the exterior, plus various "out buildings".

Everytime I drive by it, I am happy to see that the next exterior repaint by the new owners replicated my color very well - which must have been next to impossible - either that, or that paint lasted 24 years :no: The most gorgeous subtle yellow I have ever created. Too many yellows look orangeish against the snow and reflect green from the trees in the summer and scream green-yellow. This color held it's bias throughout the year !
 
#7 · (Edited)
Hi all I have been in the business over 30 years and have seen alot of large jobs but now I only do the decorative stuff and teach faux finish techniques, But my last one was back in 04 where it was a 22,000 sq/ft home on Marco Island Florida where it took a 7 man crew 2 years and 9 months to complete inside and out....
 
#13 ·
The largest paint job we have ever landed was close to 20,000 SF. It belonged to one of the GreyHound founders. It was on the ocean and a master piece.

The sick part was it was only his Summer Home. The man was single and no kids. Just for entertaining his closest friends he told me.
 
#25 ·
say huh what the what!?!?? you're telling me you did a job that was only 70,000sf and painted in 28 man days (or calendar days with crew), and was $8.3MM. Holy hell.... I assume you retired immediately after and own the 20,000sf beach house that 4thGeneration was talking about?
Wow...
 
#19 ·
Don't want to sidetrack - but is bigger always better? I've noticed a trend from McMansion homeowners in that they don't have a realistic expectation of how much to paint their home. When it comes to paint time - they think their exterior shouldn't cost anymore than 1950's cape with a shed dormer and breezeway converted to living space kind of home. I guess the monthly bills are stacking up or something - but one lady thought a fair price for her 4,500 sq.ft. McMansion was 6k! And I estimated at least 6,500-7,000 square feet of exterior surface. A buck a square foot to power wash, scrape trim - spot prime, caulk and one coat of paint on body and one coat on trim - including materials - no thank you.
 
#20 ·
Bigger isnt always better. There are spending patterns within certain demographics, at least in my market.

Everyone defines "big", "custom" and "high end" in very different ways. In my experience, Dan is right that it can be very difficult to establish proper budget on homes valued from $350-700k. Alot of these people are "ten cent millionaires" as defined by Stanley and Danko, whose series I highly recommend for a better understanding of demographics. The ten cent millionaire has the mcmansion and the beamer in the yard, but the old furniture from the raised ranch they upgraded out of and no curtains in the windows yet. Its a world of appearances.

I find that in the million and over demographic, budgets and expectations are usually much more appropriate to the task at hand. That can be a two edged sword also though. There is no promised land for paint contractors!
 
#21 ·
We are currently doing our largest job ever . It is an old air force base that has been mothballed for a few years . Our province is hosting Canada's finest young athletes for 2 weeks in August in an event called the Canada Games from which our next Olympic hopefuls are chosen in various events .

Our part of the restoration project includes redoing a lot of living quarters that we are just winding up before we start painting the interior of the arena...all oil paint...yuck ! After that is completed we will move on into the 18,000 sq ft gym which is being converted into a cafeteria . The outside of that same gym area has a shed like structure all around it with the dimensions being approximately 250 feet long by about 30 feet wide multiplied by 4.

In a lot of these buildings the old paint is literally hanging from the ceilings because of the fact that no heat has been on in a long time . I found out today that the gym walls...30 feet high and covered with conduit and old metal supports will be done in 6 colors for the walls !!! There will be squares measuring about 200sqft painted one of the 6 different colors and all interlocking throughout the whole gym .

Initially we were told by the general contractor it was being painted all one color . He got quite a jolt when I told him how much higher the cost would be with the new color scheme . What is even worse is that they want it done with only 2 coats and it is oil paint now and they want latex and some of the colors are purple , red , orange , yellow and they are mostly of the brighter end of the spectrum which means that coverage will probably be an issue on some some of them .

Every day on this job seems to bring about a new challenge . The only smart thing that we did was that we took the job on on an hourly basis . Going into this job I had a feeling that the schedule would be very tight and that there were too many things that could go wrong versus going right...and I was right and instead of being bound by a contract...hourly was the way to go on this baby !

As a rule I would prefer to spend no longer than a month on a job because it starts to get monotonous after awhile and the crew gets complacent and irritable as well as the boss :D unless he is making good money !
 
#24 ·
the biggest job I’ve done and we have done a decent amount of big jobs that are a couple hundred gallons but at the moment we are doing a job that is 350 gallons of roof coating and 50 gallons of paint on exterior walls which would be more if they hadn’t replaced some of the metal, the roof is 17,000 sq ft. Done to many entire houses to remember but I’ve been doing this for 6 years now and I’m 23.
 
#27 ·
Not the usual type of paint work discussed here but I was in the marine industry for 10 years. We were known for high quality topsides paint work. These are photos of the ship Innisfree, a commercial vessel used for tours. It's 92' if memory serves correctly. The owner wanted it painted the same colors as the Queen Mary. Cunard has their own unique color codes. Most people think the Cunard hulls are black but they are a dark gray. Owner signed off on the color sample cards and we epoxy primed and sprayed it with SW Acrolon, Red boot stripe, white, gray. The gray hull against the Mahogany woodwork and white canvas looked terrible. I called the owner and asked him to take a look. He came to the yard and agreed. We shot it again this time with pure black. This project involved shot blasting the hull to white metal, Coast Guard Inspection, steel panel replacement and x-ray work. Fun times. BTW, the SW rep was an amazing book of knowledge.
Water Cloud Sky Watercraft Vehicle
Water Sky Boat Watercraft Vehicle
Water Boat Watercraft Naval architecture Vehicle
 
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