# How to price a paint job?



## Mordekyle (May 20, 2014)

Max101 said:


> Best advice ever! I often do offer a lower price, specially when I am face to face. I am learning not to mention anything about pricing until I get home and write an official estimate. I always regret face to face estimates. Thank you for the information you provided.


Tell them you will match or exceed the highest quote they can get from someone else.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

I still have to bite my tongue in order to not drop my price or give my labor away cheaper.

One thing I noticed, 30 bucks a gallon won't even get you cheap paint around here and I don't use cheap paint any more.

I don't see much for less than 45-50 a gallon. Better paint, easier and better job.

Plus, you should be putting a percentage on top of materials and the job should be buying roller covers, new brushes, masking, tape, patch materials, etc.

Good luck and stick around. You will learn a lot.

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## KAP (Feb 19, 2011)

Max101 said:


> Best advice ever! I often do offer a lower price, specially when I am face to face. I am learning not to mention anything about pricing until I get home and write an official estimate. I always regret face to face estimates. Thank you for the information you provided.


Do they give something up for you to offer that lower price or are you purposely paying you and your company less on the hopes of getting the job?

When you're meeting with a potential customer, they're mainly concerned with four things... Company, Product, Service and lastly, Price in that order... do a thorough job on the first three and the Price either makes sense to them or it doesn't... 

If you drop your price for any reason, without them giving anything up to do so, YOU are paying for it out of your own pocket, and the kicker is, they have no idea how low that discount well goes, so they'll either push for more or put you off thinking they can get a cheaper price...

If you're an experienced professional painter/contractor, let that show through in your confidence in pricing... you're a professional, be compensated as such...


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## wallmaxx (Jun 18, 2007)

Some wise man on here said he never lost money on a job he didn’t take.
That’s genius.
I fully get the feeling of desperation when needing work. If you take jobs where you try to be the cheapest, a few things will take hold:
1. You will be money stressed the entire time. 
2. You will not enjoy the job. 
3. You won’t have wiggle room for small adjustments that the customer might dream up without going all-business change order. 
4. They will tell their friends how cheap you are and all your future referrals will be bottom feeders.....that will kill you.
5. You have to maintain one standard of excellence, even if you’re not being paid for it. That can be very trying on one’s character.
6. If you thoroughly understand how to be a great painter, then you should be able to make a sequential, linear list of all the steps it takes to prep and paint a room and some of those tasks will be similar regardless of room size and others will be completely dependent on the surface area square foot that you will be covering. Use this experience to determine a realistic timeline for completion and then determine what your operational costs (including profit) are, broken down to a man hour rate. 

The thing I always forget, is that I need to treat my business like it is a living entity and deserves a paycheck.


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

Price it up in parts for yourself. Add it up. How do you feel about the number? Really think it over. Get to where it feels right. Then quote with confidence. (Looks like a 7kish job to me for around here, but it can vary greatly. )


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

Btw, get that quote done and presented before they call someone else and feel more confident with them, etc.


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## Ohio painter (Dec 4, 2011)

Max 101, I too always regret any face to face pricing. I have a method that works for me and I stick to it.


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

You can get really cheap paint at Wal-Mart. At one time, SW made their paint, I don't know who does now.

If you're all SW and you're a little guy, volume users may be getting the same product 40% or more lower.

I put a ton of Glidden on walls for a few years. One of the Glidden paints was just a well performing commercial PPG product in a different can.

I also took advantage of a new Glidden product introduction driving the price of the prior product down to $17 a gallon for what was $30 or so.

That's opportunism on my part, and I spend a fair percentage of painting gross just on trying new products. If I did more painting, the percentage would come down. SW does a new tint system? Can you still color match to the old tint system? 

There's way more to paint and painting than HOs know.


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## dbbii2 (Apr 27, 2017)

Take a look at the data sheet on the paint. Just because I have it in front of me, SW Promar 200 says you should be between 350 and 400 SF per gallon. I tend to use 200 since 4 mils is kinda thin, plus you have some waste, etc. So since you know the wall area, you can get a pretty good idea of the amount of paint you need. Make sure you have a paint rep (think outside sales guy). If you try to buy most of your paint from one company (SW, etc), the more you buy, the more your price goes down. Paint reps tend to have some type of commission arrangement, so they have an interest in you buying their paint.


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## StabMasterArs0n (Nov 17, 2020)




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## mpaintz (7 mo ago)

Just saw this thread. Very easy to do this. Estimate each room on its own based on the scope of work and surfaces they want to paint in each room and then add up the small parts become the whole. I price and sell paint jobs over the phone full time and thats how I break it all down. Ill put an example below. This is for a job I quoted yesterday. I base everything on man days and then price accordingly from there. Last year I estimated, sold, and had our guys execute over 200 jobs like this without going on site for a single one. 

Bedroom 1 2 Guys
Bedroom 2 2 Guys
Bedroom 3 1.5 Guys
2nd Floor Hallway 1 Guy
Stairwell .5 Guys
Foyer (textured wall to be painted as is - natural wood trim in this room to be sanded, primed and painted as well) 2.5 Guys
Living Room 3 Guys
Dining Room 1.5 Guys
Sunroom - 1 Guy

15 Guys 
22 Gal Walls
1 Gal oil primer
8 Gal ceil
5 Gal trim


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## avenge (Sep 25, 2008)

mpaintz said:


> Just saw this thread. Very easy to do this. Estimate each room on its own based on the scope of work and surfaces they want to paint in each room and then add up the small parts become the whole. I price and sell paint jobs over the phone full time and thats how I break it all down. Ill put an example below. This is for a job I quoted yesterday. I base everything on man days and then price accordingly from there. Last year I estimated, sold, and had our guys execute over 200 jobs like this without going on site for a single one.
> 
> Bedroom 1 2 Guys
> Bedroom 2 2 Guys
> ...


You're a year and a half late and I look at every job no matter what.


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## mpaintz (7 mo ago)

avenge said:


> You're a year and a half late and I look at every job no matter what.


We call that right on time where I am from lol.

What about jobs where people are in contract to purchase a home and they have no access until they are closed but want to start right after. Its a huge market that can only really be done over the phone/through listing pictures. This is where I am able to set us apart from all of the other companies in our area. Last month I sold 62K in business. I would say 50k of it is from those situations where there is no access due to the new home purchasing process.


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## Kingcarpenter1 (May 5, 2020)

Any painter would be a fool to price a job off of pictures. A potential buyer would be a bigger fool to purchase a home & walk it after purchase..... I mean really.


Mike


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## mpaintz (7 mo ago)

Kingcarpenter1 said:


> Any painter would be a fool to price a job off of pictures. A potential buyer would be a bigger fool to purchase a home & walk it after purchase..... I mean really.
> 
> 
> Mike


They aren't purchasing the house without seeing it. The purchase is the exact same as any other house purchase. Vie a listing, do all inspections, final walkthroughs etc. But they are unable to have contractors to come in to look between signing the contracts and the closing date. 

I used to be in your same mindset that it needs to be seen but with the technology these days that has changed.

1.25 million in remote sales in the past 2 years at a 58% labor rate and 95% man count accuracy (in our favor) said otherwise.

Cant remember if I mentioned it before but the company I work for doesnt do this for all of them, I am just full time in this role. All of our other estimators are all on site estimators and view every job. (although they are at around 65% labor rate and 85-90% accuracy rate so the phone sales are actually more effective)


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## avenge (Sep 25, 2008)

mpaintz said:


> We call that right on time where I am from lol.
> 
> What about jobs where people are in contract to purchase a home and they have no access until they are closed but want to start right after. Its a huge market that can only really be done over the phone/through listing pictures. This is where I am able to set us apart from all of the other companies in our area. Last month I sold 62K in business. I would say 50k of it is from those situations where there is no access due to the new home purchasing process.


So you're a year and a half behind because you price your jobs based on pics, sounds about right.


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## mpaintz (7 mo ago)

avenge said:


> So you're a year and a half behind because you price your jobs based on pics, sounds about right.





avenge said:


> So you're a year and a half behind because you price your jobs based on pics, sounds about right.





avenge said:


> So you're a year and a half behind because you price your jobs based on pics, sounds about right.


Huh, that doesnt even make sense. Just bc you dont agree with the strategy doesnt mean it isnt something that works. 673k in jobs sold last year with nothing but happy customers and great reviews at a at a 58% labor rate. What part of that is bad to you?


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## WBailey1041 (Jan 31, 2014)

mpaintz said:


> Huh, that doesnt even make sense. Just bc you dont agree with the strategy doesnt mean it isnt something that works. 673k in jobs sold last year with nothing but happy customers and great reviews at a at a 58% labor rate. What part of that is bad to you?


It doesn’t work for the average paint contractor. A huge company with a huge budget almost guarantees success. Smaller contractors can go bankrupt if they mis-bid a few jobs in a row.

What’s your close rate?


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## avenge (Sep 25, 2008)

mpaintz said:


> Huh, that doesnt even make sense. Just bc you dont agree with the strategy doesnt mean it isnt something that works. 673k in jobs sold last year with nothing but happy customers and great reviews at a at a 58% labor rate. What part of that is bad to you?


Guess it's above your head. Your numbers mean nothing to me I'm at 100% for 34 years. Go try remodeling estimates based on pics. If bidding based on pics worked I would have been doing it a long time ago.


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## mpaintz (7 mo ago)

WBailey1041 said:


> It doesn’t work for the average paint contractor. A huge company with a huge budget almost guarantees success. Smaller contractors can go bankrupt if they mis-bid a few jobs in a row.
> 
> What’s your close rate?


I can absolutely agree with that. I do work for a decent sized company, at least now they are, when I started with them about 7 years ago it was just a few of us running around without any resources. Now they are in 5 or 6 states and selling 2.5-3 million a month. So they market heavily and there are a TON of leads. For a smaller company its not ideal but can be a good way to add revenue to the business (especially in the ones I mentioned that dont have access). Im not knocking the on-site estimate at all. In fact when the company asked me to transition to this role I was hesitant since I had been in the field for years prior. As long as I am provided the right info and pictures I need there is no guess work involved. That's how I can be so accurate. If there isn't the proper info I need I will just set the quote up for one of our field estimators. You are also right about the mis-bidding for a smaller company. I am the only one that does this for the company, they have tried with another guy that had worked here a while but he couldnt bidjobs properly. Key is to break it all down into small pieces. Close rate is tricky since there is a lot of garbage mixed in such as work we dont do, or people that have unrealistic timelines. I will typically do 20 or so phone pricings a day, 10 of those will be a waste of time. 4 wont answer or respond, and i will sell probably 2 on average of the other 6. Some days I will only have 10 phone pricings, other days I will have 30 or 35. Every day is different.


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