[diT]

Mine is exterior residential repaints or anything exterior.
I painted apartment buildings for 30ish years so painting the outside of a house is gravy.
I stay busy year-round and being in Oklahoma the weather lets us for the most part.
MOST of the time I can walk in one gate and out the other and I'll have a price so the estimates are quick and the work is easy.
Can't stand cabinets and occupied interiors so for the most part we don't do them.
When I was younger I would do ANYTHING that came my way but thankfully I've worked myself into a niche that seems to pay well and I enjoy it.

 

[stelzerpaintinginc.]

Fully agree that it's key to recognize your strengths and where you're most profitable. I've all but given up on any lead abatement work. It's never been profitable for me. Exterior repaints are also my wheelhouse. Unfortunately, I live in Portland, OR, so I only do exteriors from April-Oct. Pressure washing and roof cleaning are better for me than painting, so I've focused more efforts on that for the past 9 years. Christmas lights is by far the most profitable, by a factor of 7 approximately. To the OP, you are blessed if your wheelhouse is actually your most profitable and what you most enjoy doing. Good for you.

 

[RH]

When we restarted our business we chose to do interiors only. At the time, we were repeatedly told we would never make it. When we finally retired 15 years later, there were four more interior only outfits in the area we served.

We also live in Oregon, not far from Troy, and I hated always wondering and worrying about the weather. Even in the summer the wind could pick up or a summer rain could pass through. Nothing most outfits anywhere don’t have to deal with but I still disliked the uncertainty. I also wanted to avoid pressure washing exteriors and hefting bigger ladders around - and although I wasn’t old, I was OLDER and realized the necessity of trying to avoid excessive demands on my body.

Like “full service” guys, we also got busier in the summer because the exterior outfits didn’t even want to consider doing interiors. Understandable, but I always felt there was some shortsightedness involved on their part since many of them wouldn’t even do bids for interior jobs which they might have done later. So when fall and the rains arrived many of those outfits found themselves without work lined up. We never found ourselves in that spot - even in December when I figured we would be really slow. Turns out, many people simply didn’t decorate for the holidays or would be out of town and wanted work done while they were gone.

We have been retired two years now and we still get calls weekly about jobs (most from former customers) and I still get a pang from having to say no. I enjoyed the work, interactions with customers, and the satisfaction of doing a job well and the resulting appreciative (generally) homeowner. And, of course, the money was nice too.

 

[Rbriggs82]

I've been steadily moving towards interior only. I'll do some smaller exterior stuff for previous customers but everything else gets referred. Like RH said I've yet to sit home idle during the holidays and not having to look at the forecast everyday is a big bonus.

 

[Vylum]

i like residential repaints, away from the weather and everything is already sealed up so i can see what im working with. slapping on one coat on already filled and caulked trim is easy money. also i like being far away from the construction process, i cant stand painting the same wall over and over again because someone else made a mistake.

 

[kmp]

I still do exteriors, you really would starve if you only did interiors here where I live. I pretty much stopped doing commercial work, I only have one now and will only do them if I can do them by myself as I got rid of employees several years ago. I like being slow in the winter so I can go skiing mid week.

 

[Redux]

Given there were 48 licensed paint companies combined with only 1655 residential homes in my primary geographical market, it was a lose-lose race to the bottom without having a unique wheelhouse, or better yet, a life raft, which for me was wood finishing which kept me afloat with little to no competition.

 

[thepm4]

This is an important question to ask and re-ask during ones career.

For me it was decorative finishing until the Great Recession, where I had a staff meeting (talked to myself..😉) and chose to diversify into paint grade carpentry. It gave me another revenue stream within current projects/clientele.

Currently, with decorative treatments for the most part remaining off-trend (in my location..maybe not elsewhere) the carpentry diversification has really helped.

I also realized I didn't want employees. I tried it and hated it. I knew it could potentially put a ceiling on earnings, but it was the right decision for me.

It all about qualitative adjustments. One newer, sad factor of any project i look at or quote, is physicality. Being closer to 60, (I just cringed) I can't throw myself at a job like I used to..

 

[Redux]

This is an important question to ask and re-ask during ones career.

For me it was decorative finishing until the Great Recession, where I had a staff meeting (talked to myself..😉) and chose to diversify into paint grade carpentry. It gave me another revenue stream within current projects/clientele.

Currently, with decorative treatments for the most part remaining off-trend (in my location..maybe not elsewhere) the carpentry diversification has really helped.

I also realized I didn't want employees. I tried it and hated it. I knew it could potentially put a ceiling on earnings, but it was the right decision for me.

It all about qualitative adjustments. One newer, sad factor of any project i look at or quote, is physicality. Being closer to 60, (I just cringed) I can't throw myself at a job like I used to..

I’ve found the need to “reimagine” the wheelhouse numerous times over the course of my career in order to stay afloat by remaining on the cutting edge of market & design trends, as per the adage “what’s today is not tomorrow” as you noted with decorative painting falling out of favor..

 

[Nsomepaint]

New interior construction.

Seems to be pretty unpopular here but it's what I love. I definitely understand the cons but I rarely have to bid jobs, and most bids can be done over the phone, that allows me to spend time at the end of the day to spend with my kids and wife.

To make money you need a well dialed in system, a good quality/quantity ratio as well as a schedule book (that constantly needs to be tweaked, that is my biggest pain in the butt) and of course a network of builders. Also masking and spraying skills are pretty key.

%95 of the time I get the job site to ourselves. No HOs, no pets, no kids, no furniture on site.

 

[Joe67]

I've never operated as a contractor, so the question is somewhat less relevant. But my wheelhouse is probably in being a "creative problem-solver." There's your basic meat and potatoes int/ext painting which I can handle as well as anyone else. But then there are those situations where making things right and making people happy are very difficult for a myriad of reasons. I'm the one who figures that out. You take the lemons and figure out how to make lemonade.

It's the thing that keeps me interested in painting/finishing. It's obviously done to make money. But if that's all there is it loses the attraction. I like the creative problem-solving and craftsman side of things.

 

[finishesbykevyn]

I've never operated as a contractor, so the question is somewhat less relevant. But my wheelhouse is probably in being a "creative problem-solver." There's your basic meat and potatoes int/ext painting which I can handle as well as anyone else. But then there are those situations where making things right and making people happy are very difficult for a myriad of reasons. I'm the one who figures that out. You take the lemons and figure out how to make lemonade.

It's the thing that keeps me interested in painting/finishing. It's obviously done to make money. But if that's all there is it loses the attraction. I like the creative problem-solving and craftsman side of things.

I'm with you Joe. If it's not interesting or challenging, I'm just not as interested in it anymore. I'm doing a job now in a heritage home, where she wants the main bathroom all done in Stripes. Walls and ceilings! Got a new laser level. See if I can learn how to use it..

 

[Redux]

I'm with you Joe. If it's not interesting or challenging, I'm just not as interested in it anymore. I'm doing a job now in a heritage home, where she wants the main bathroom all done in Stripes. Walls and ceilings! Got a new laser level. See if I can learn how to use it..

Good luck! A couple we did decades ago..

 

[thepm4]

Good luck! A couple we did decades ago..

View attachment 115268
View attachment 115267

"Decades ago"..I remember....nice! Not easy.
Omg..did u ever do combing? (For others,, It's a stria technique done with steel wood graining combs... and it's textural). It the only way I would do it again....greeny base..ochre-ish OIL glaze with a sometime dip into an off white oil.

Other thing about this project that stuck with me is that the client was a custom builder with a home office and his accountant worked downstairs/lower level and he had a pneumatic bank-tube installed for document exchange...stuff of life right?

 

[Redux]

"Decades ago"..I remember....nice! Not easy.
Omg..did u ever do combing? (For others,, It's a stria technique done with steel wood graining combs... and it's textural). It the only way I would do it again....greeny base..ochre-ish OIL glaze with a sometime dip into an off white oil.
View attachment 115275

Other thing about this project that stuck with me is that the client was a custom builder with a home office and his accountant worked downstairs/lower level and he had a pneumatic bank-tube installed for document exchange...stuff of life right?

Have done tons of combed finishes, particularly in the not so distant past, being that combed dimensional striated effects have made a strong resurgence over the past 15 years or so, and were/still are in high demand with my former Manhattan interior design clients, yet for the more modern & trendy iterations we utilized smooth lime putty w/integral color as a medium, whereby the peaks are knocked down and burnished with an Inox trowel or VP spatula to a brilliant sheen..the burnishing also renders the peaks darker than the valleys which provides a neat nuanced two-tone effect, not requiring a glaze to differentiate the peaks & valleys.

 

[finishesbykevyn]

Good luck! A couple we did decades ago..

View attachment 115268
View attachment 115267

Just started a new thread on this. May need help!

 

[thepm4]

Have done tons of combed finishes, particularly in the not so distant past, being that combed dimensional striated effects have made a strong resurgence over the past 15 years or so, and were/still are in high demand with my former Manhattan interior design clients, yet for the more modern & trendy iterations we utilized smooth lime putty w/integral color as a medium, whereby the peaks are knocked down and burnished with an Inox trowel or VP spatula to a brilliant sheen..the burnishing also renders the peaks darker than the valleys which provides a neat nuanced two-tone effect, not requiring a glaze to differentiate the peaks & valleys.

Sounds beautiful...share a pic?