# Apartment repaint (turnover) newbie



## Logic444 (Feb 17, 2018)

Hi my name is Alex and I am new to the contracting world and I started out cleaning homes and then got into commercial properties then landed a contract cleaning luxury resort style apartment communities and was asked by one of the communities if I offered painting and carpet cleaning and if you know me well then you know I answered yes to paint and carpet cleaning... With that said I now offer apartment turnover services whereas we paint each apartment units and clean carpets and clean the units in preparation for a new lease. 

My question to the professional painters of this group is how do you handle apartment (repaint) when the pay is so little? They are paying me 18 cent per square ft for same color repaint and 24 cent for color change but it's mostly all same color. Do you only do touch up paint and skip over what looks good? I am making $155 to $250 a unit not including cleaning and carpet cleaning. I am trying to figure out how to pay my painter hourly or by the job? I service all 5 of their properties and each property is from 250 units to 500 units all new construction. I am currently doing 30 units a month between 2 of their properties and will soon be asked to expand into their other 3 properties so I want to make sure I have my pay method and work method on point so I can make sure i turn a profit and look good to the service manager at each property. Thank you in advance

I will mention this I am doing very well at one of the apartment complexes (my home base complex) I only do touch up painting and the paint matches up perfect so there's no need to repaint the entire unit and I am turning a nice profit on each unit. Some service manager are a little more picky than others. They provide all paint (contractors paint)


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

If possible, touch up only. Full paint would be with a spray rig.

The paint they supply and the color choice will have a long term impact on how often you have to do a full repaint. Fading will mess up touching up. If the tinting system gets changed, it will mess up touch ups. Some factory mix colors may be available for 20 years with no change to the tinting system, so touch ups can be done for a long time.

From the pricing / business side of this, try Driftweed, he has done a lot of what you're doing.


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

Is your pricing based on foot print or actual pai ted surface area (walls and ceiling)?


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## Logic444 (Feb 17, 2018)

They pay me by the square ft. For example when they send me a purchase order the purchase order has the square footage calculated and I am paid for the entire square ft of each unit.


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

Logic444 said:


> They pay me by the square ft. For example when they send me a purchase order the purchase order has the square footage calculated and I am paid for the entire square ft of each unit.


Yes, but is that sq ft of the walls and ceiling?


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## Logic444 (Feb 17, 2018)

No ceiling just walls.


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

OK, so the customer calculates the square footage of the walls, and gives you the price.

Besides just spot painting, painting doorway to doorway (stop over the top for easier blending) or one or two full walls is also done.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

Maybe the pay is so low because it isn't high enough. I can't imagine that touching up looks good. Maybe for crap apartment rentals, but not 'luxury" units. Sheen and slight color variations bug me.

For 250, touchup is all they would get, but it wouldn't be pretty.

I know you want to make it up in volume, but that just seems way low. Especially if you need to fully repaint. If your contracts say touch-up only, then you are fine, but If it is up to each manager, they will talk and eventually they all will expect full repaints for that price.

No way will you make money on other guys at that rate if you are paying the full freight on them.

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## sparehair (Nov 21, 2008)

Can't get much lower than these rates.

I tried making this work early on.

You make more at 15$ an hour working for someone else.

Talk to driftweed.

He does a couple hundred apartments a year to make 30k.

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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

I can get sheen and texture match on touch ups so if you know it's a touch up and where it is, you still can't tell. If the paint faded or it isn't an exact mstch, you can forget it.


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## Bull Trout (Dec 6, 2016)

all that volume will do at these prices is make more volumes of losses, 

at best the paint might be a loss leader, but that is a dangerous game to play, especially for a new contractor


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## Logic444 (Feb 17, 2018)

So here's my method I found to work after tonight's first job at one of the properties.

Roll your paint from one foot below ceiling to one foot above baseboards and allow the roller to fade into the bottom and the top losing paint and creating a blend or fade out. Focus on your baseboards the most and touch-up the doors and your golden same for bathrooms.

I did the painting and my girl did the cleaning and I did the carpet cleaning and managed to keep all profits in the family sort to speak. Next time I will pay someone to do baseboards for me.


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

Interesting twist for apartment painting. How long did it take you?


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## Logic444 (Feb 17, 2018)

4 hours total with one person doing baseboards and doors one person rolling one person doing carpet (I do both carpet and rolling) and my girlfriend cleans the apartment I kinda help her to make better timing and because I love her ?


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## AustinDB (Sep 11, 2006)

So, three people for a total of 12 man hours for $150-$200? That’s $16-12.50/hr. Your girlfriend ‘counts’ in the equation, if she’s not producing results you would have had a paid worker or you doing the labor. 




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## Logic444 (Feb 17, 2018)

Update I now do all the painting myself I have created a system that is working for me. I also invested in an auto feed roller and airless paint sprayer.


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## slowsol (Aug 27, 2005)

Is that after tax? 


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## Logic444 (Feb 17, 2018)

Carpet and Painting and Cleaning are all individual pricing.


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