Painting Price

[demoniakal]

My friend said she'll pay me to paint her house but I don't know how much to charge her. She's painting about five rooms and I think each room is different color and different hight. (9ft to 12ft) Do I charge by sqft? If so, wat is the average price going around right now? Does a higher wall cost more? If so, how much should I charge extra? If it's different color, should I charge a higher price because I have to clean my paint gun every time? If so, how much more? If there is anything I left out, please fill in the blank. Thankz!!!!!!!

[Rich]

This is very vague but - you should charge the cost of the materials, labor, and any overhead you will have. That will include the time it takes to clean your paint gun, the time to setup scaffold for high ceilings, the time it takes to mask, the cost of the masking, the cost of the paint, rent on scaffolding, paint, tool rental. Is this your business? If so do you have a phone? How many jobs do you do a year? Take that and divide into how much it costs you to run your business to figure out a job cost for overhead. Do you print contracts? You'll need to cover that cost... etc...etc..
As far as price per square foot - it's however much the market will pay. In Chicago they will probably charge more than if they were in Montana. Go to the library and look up RS Means for painting - they should be able to give you a ballpark number for your area. I wouldn't trust it - but it'll be a starting point.
You could charge by T&M (Time and Materials). Give her an hourly rate that you want to make (include profit and overhead in that rate) plus the cost of the materials - paint, masking, rollers, brushes, etc. Give her a copy of the receipts so she knows what everything costs and keep track of your hours.

[jcampb11]

No qoute intended.

[jcampb11]

If you are doing this as a prt time venture I would use T&M. Pick an hourly rate that you can live with and insist on cash only.

[The Pict]

Lets talk alittle bit more about prices.
I own a construction company, and we do all kinds of construction. Lately, we have been doing alot of painting. Since we do all kinds of construction, we do our fair share of painting, but never just painting. But like I said we have been asked more and more to just paint. I don't know what the price is for just painting. I have always had many tasks to do at a time, and most of our pricing has been lump sum prices.
I would like to know what the average price is for painting your typical 2 coat.
The way that I have been charging is, what it costs me to do business. It is usually working out to about $1 a sqft. plus materials. Now in our price, we move the furniture, tarp or cover everything, fix all holes and imperfections in any walls or cielings, 2 coats of paint...we use Graham ceramic flat, clean all woodwork..even the old paint, move all furniture back into place, vacuum, wipe down all furniture and woodwork.
If the moldings are a different color, then we charge extra.
So for the most part, that is your typical paint job. I have seen some painters on our addition jobs that the homeowner has hired to do their painting and I thought they were way overpriced and the work was not up to my standards. Usually the initial price was low, but the painters whacked the homeowner with ridiculous extras. Is that a norm in the business? I like to put everything up front for the homeowner so there are no suprises, but then is my price too high?

I guess my question is, is $1 a sqft, too high?

[Rich]

As a subcontract cost I would say 3.80-4.00 for good quality - 2-3 coats. This includes material, labor, etc. For labor only I would guess around .10 / sf for walls and .15 / sf for ceilings for flat latex which covers well and that's per coat.

[doyle]

A local painter told me that he charges materials times 4. Wonder how that works out to the price per SF mentioned above. It's too late at night to do all the math.

I try to avoid doing painting on my sheds since I absolutely hate to paint, so my prices are kinda high.

[plunkinberry]

Since this is a friend, you need to factor that into your equation. My opinion is to figure out what it'll cost in materials and guess at how long it'll take (for everything) and determine how much you want to charge your FRIEND on an hourly basis. Discuss the fee with them and negotiate as necessary.

If it weren't a friend, I'd recommend a more detailed proposal breaking down costs and items necessary to complete the job. Like The Pict mentioned, how much more is involved in this PAINTING than just merely painting? If you're using a gun, you're gonna need to tarp, mask, cover, etc... This takes time and material. Is that included. Will your friend help?

Working for friends is a touchy subject... but good luck. I make quite a bit of extra money, primarily working for 'friends'.