"Gideon" wrote in message
.. .
Specifics:
Approximately 1088 feet of wall and ceiling area to be painted.
Almost half of that is ceiling work. This includes the 20x24
garage, with a few cut-outs, included a double door.
200 linear feet of "cut in" painting. For corner areas, we are
counting each linear foot twice, since he paints one side then
comes back later to paint the second surface. Over half of the
"cut in" work requires a ladder and frequent ladder moving.
Over 100 linear feet of "trim" - this includes case molding,
difficult 2x4 rough trim around the garage door, attic access
opening, etc.
There are several items to work around: A variety of cables and
wires running through the garage, a concrete chimney, garage door
rails, garage door, garage door opener, etc.
I paint professionally, and I charge 65¢ per square foot for the entire
job. I adjust that rate up or down, depending on the situation. Mostly
I adjust it down. The customer's attitude is part of the situation. My
bill would have been about $700. Your son's bill will be only about
$250. That's a great bargain.
The customers were extremely surprised that the prep work plus the
first coat took him a rather long day to finish. They had expected
all prep, 2 coats of Kilz, and clean up in an 8 hour day. Comments?
The customers are not particular happy - they feel that he should be
moving much faster. As I said, we discovered after the first coat
that they expected all prep, 2 coats, and clean up done in 8 hours.
My son is also not particularly happy. He busted his ass and isn't
coming close to half the pace that they expect.
The second coat needs to go on the second day.
Obviously, we are going to suggest that they get somebody else to
complete the job. But, how far off is my son in his performance? I
had my first employment as a painter exactly 45 years ago this
summer. I've done a lot of painting since then and I'm starting to
wonder just how quickly a pro can do a decent job of paint and
trimming. I certainly can't come close to working at the speed that
these customers expect.
I recently painted a garage, and it took me several days. Granted, it
hadn't been painted in 40 years, and I had to retape and rebed all the
joints, but that was only one day. Moving the client's "valuable stuff"
out and back multiple times took WAY longer than I expected. It was
maybe a half-day by itself.
One final comment: The homeowners claim that they got an estimate
from a "pro" who paints for $10 per hour. They got an estimate from
him for several painting tasks. Without telling my son, they used
those low-ball estimates in their expectations on what my son (at
$15 per hour) should charge for the jobs. Which says to me, that
they expect him to work 50% faster than this $10/hour hack who gave
them an estimate. If they hire this $10 "pro", I am very eager to
stop by and watch him work.
No professional painter will work for $10 an hour. I work for $40 an
hour if my client doesn't want to pay the 65¢ per square foot. And they
pay for the paint.
Maybe the "pro" was planning to use an airless sprayer and get it all
done in 30 minutes. I took over painting once at an apartment complex
that used to use painters like that. They did an entire one-bedroom
apartment in about two hours, but the manager had to replace all the
lightbulbs that had been painted over. Plus, I don't know if Kilz can be
sprayed.
Once again, I'm going to encourage my son to drop this job. He is
worth $15-$30+ per hour to me for work that he does around the
house, and I can put him to work every hour this summer that he is
not employed for somebody else. But I still need some input for the
future to determine what is a reasonable hourly rate and hourly
performance for any future painting jobs he may get.
As long as I'm requesting opinions: The customers also want their
basement walls painted. They have concrete block walls,
approximately 160 linear feet by 7" high. This is about 1120 square
feet of painting - a lot easier than painting a garage, but still
non-trivial. Any estimates for applying one coat of Kilz? He will
probably turn down this job also, but what is a reasonable estimate
to complete it?
Here's a web site that I use in estimations.
http://www.costestimator.com/proj_bid_sheet.asp
You can sign up for a free trial.
--
Steve B.
New Life Home Improvement