I am just starting in the painting business. I am in the Midwest and would like to know the going rate for interior painting and wall paper stripping. Do I charge by sq. ft. or TM? :confused:

For minimal prep work and one entry door, one closet door and one window, I charge .33 per sq ft per coat. For example, a 12x12 room with 8 ft ceilings is 384 square ft. So if I am painting one coat on the walls (which I never do unless it's the same color), then I would charge $126.72. That includes the materials unless it's a $50/gal paint, then I bump it up $20. If I am doing the trim, then I would charge .66 per square ft for one coat on everything. So one coat on trim and walls would be $253.44. 2 coats on everything would be $1.32/sq ft. This is where there is none to minimal prep work. This is a short cut way of figuring rooms but you have to pay attention to variables such as louvered doors, or French doors which are more time consuming and how much sanding, caulking, etc that you have to do. These prices are not unreasonable especially when you factor in all the costs of running your business such as workman's comp, liability insurance, tool repair and replacement, travel expenses, expenses and upkeep on vehicles, etc, etc. And you still have to eat and pay rent or mortgage. Depending on your overhead, these figures can be low.

Coco, the best way to know the going rate in your exact area is to camm3 paints and ask them for a quot on your home. Now you will know the competition's rates

Also coco... Some paint companies have an online paint estimator such as CertaPro. You could do an online estimate with them using your zip and an anonymous email addy to find out what they charge in your area if there is a franchise in your area. I found that they were much higher than I was chargeing but I don't have to pay franchise fees, etc. But doing that gave me some perspective. I also have done what ballengerb1 says to do. I had someone come out and give me a quote on my house for example. I felt kind of bad about doing that but that was what was recommended to me when I first got started.

If you have painting contractor friends, maybe they would share with you what they charge. There's plenty of work to go round. You just have to find it and be open to receive. I have a couple contractor friends that I call for advice. Also, if you have a Painting and Decorating Contractors of America chapter near you, attend those meetings and you will find other painters who are open to helping you anyway they can.

This might help you also:

MYREMODELINGPROJECT.COM

Hi, coco77!

You say that you're just starting in the painting business. Have you ever had any experience painting for others in order to make a profit for yourself? If so, how much, please? If not, then I would recommend hooking up with and working with a painter who has been doing it for quite awhile or, reading a number of books on the subject and doing some experimenting on your own for practice. Doing interior painting really well is an art!

What kind of painter do you want to be and known as in order to build some kind of reputation so that you can get other customers? There are painters that do apartments, rehabs and foreclosure properties with just the simple brush and roller or spray where the person employing them is not so concerned with how the job really looks, but just so that it might pass the inspection of a building inspector. Then, there are painters that are able to do any kind of painting that a customer might desire such as faux, stamping, sponging, etc.

Interior painting, if applied by a roller, is ideally a two-person operation, but can be done by one person using the proper techniques. If your doing it by yourself and cut-in with a brush and apply the paint by the use of a roller, it's important to realize that if you don't apply the paint quickly enough to a particular surface area that you've just painted, then lines can form because of drying and the subsequent painting that's done over them, that might not be desirable to the customer.

I also paint and decorate the interior of homes in the upper-Midwest area of the U.S.

There are many factors to be considered when pricing a painting job. I.e. how the paint is applied, (roller, brush or spray), the type of painting that is to be done, the number of coats, whether any of the surface areas are textured or not, the amount of trim that is to be painted, whether a primer needs to be applied, the amount of repair that might need to be done, the kind of paint that is used, etc.

The painting of flat, satin, semi-gloss or gloss surfaces is something that also needs to be considered

Around where I live and work, if the paint is applied with a roller and if the surface area is perfectly flat and not needing any repair, the average cost would be around .80 to .90 cents a square foot for two coats of paint for a flat, satin or semi-gloss application. That wouldn't include the application of a primer and also wouldn't include the price of the paint or other materials used, or any repairs or other prep that might be done. For gloss applications of paint, and painting of trim by using a brush, you charge more. Prices for trim is usually figured by the linear and not square foot. For trim, around where I live, it's about 1.25 per linear foot for two coats brushed, not including the application of a primer, paint or anything else that needs to be done.

In larger metropolitan areas, the cost for painting could be substantially more than the prices that I gave to you. The cost would also be more on the east and west coasts of the U.S.

If you're going to need to be moving any furniture around or doing things outside of the actual painting, then you would charge more.

What I like to do for customers is to actually go with them to the store to get the paint and needed supplies, so that they can pay for it there. If I usually get a discount on the paint and supplies, then I pass on that savings to my customers. Doing that helps to build a good relationship with customers that might lead to referrals for me.

I really wouldn't recommend using the online calculators concerning painting prices because there are really too many variables to be taken into consideration. They're nice for a reference, but not really realistic.

If you would like to know more about formatting painting contracts, advertising or anything else, please let me know. I'm not the "last word" on painting advice around here, but I have had a lot of experience with a number of different situations concerning painting and decorating.

Concerning removing wallpaper - I would figure out how long that it would take me and what I wanted to make per hour and go with that. Depending on the wallpaper situation, there may be other factors involved that would go beyond the scope of this post.

Thanks!

Anyone who gives advice here stating that estimating any paint job per hour is giving you bad advice. First you should ask a professional company what a good price is. Then, make your slightly lower. Square ft. pricing has a lot to do with overhead. So if you're just starting your overhead may not be that high. I've seen people post that $22 an hour for painting someone's house is the norm. That is totally false. If you walk into someone's home you don't know they are going to laugh at you! No professional painter is going to work for an hourly rate first of all. Does that cover licensing, liability insurance, truck, tools, advertising? When you subtract all of the over head you are coming down to about $12 bucks an hour and are going to put yourself right out of business soon! A general contractor will never hire your company if you try to plug an "hourly rate" into a bid. And you will see no profit. A 9x12 heavy duty drop cloth costs $35 for pete's sake. That $22 an hour won't seem like much at the end of the year when you do your taxes and calculate right off's!

Amen brother!! I haven't seen anyone suggest such ridiculously low prices but I had a customer or should I say prospective customer think that $29/hour was too high. I only work with an estimate but for restoration work, sometimes it is necessary to give a time and material bid and this was the case that presented itself to me. Of course, I chose not to work with that client but like you say Goya, everything costs and it takes a lot of equipment to run even a small painting business.

Workmans comp for myself only costs over $2000 per yer. That means I have to come up with $166.66 / month for that alone. PDCA membership is over $400/yr. Being a member of the BBB is $395/yer. Liability for my small business is close to $1000 and that's cheap. And that's only a 1M policy. Phone book ads are astronomical. And it you have a web page, there's more cost and you don't stay in business unless you advertise. And the list of other costs go on. Do we have to say anything about the price of gas?? And upkeep on pressure washers, buying good brushes and rollers, and plastic, and tape and caulk... etc

I think a lot of what's going on today is DIY television shows and the economy. I live in Michigan on the border of Detroit and Grosse Pointe, a well to do suburb. These DIY shows are a farce doing room makeovers for $500 is impossible... if you hire a contractor. No one in their right mind would deal with the stress of owning a small business if they didn't want to make $$$$$$$$ You can make $20 an hour at a lot of jobs. Union Painters and Carpenters make that all day long. With benefits. The problem is so many people, around here especially are unemployed. So they by a truck and some tools and there in business. But they don't know how the business works. They don't even know what a square foot price is! I saw an ad in the Grosse Pointe news that read "Quality Painting, $16 an hour, it will look like you paid $40!" I laughed hysterically! What a schmuck! That guy should be working for someone! Not himself! I'm a young guy, I've been self-employed for two and a half years now. I worked for a Renovation Company for 5 years before I split. My company is licensed and insured. General Liabilty costs me about a thousand for a 600k policy. But I do more than just Painting. I do trim, bath remods, etc. So, unfortunately these homeowners hiring these hacks are going to get burned eventually. $20 an hour seems like a deal but is the work good? Are they milking the job? How can you tell a homeowner I'll work buy the hour? So they bill you for 25 hours equaling $500 and the homeowner bought the materials? Any respectable contractor is going to but there own material. It makes sense, Contractors get better prices! I can get a $55 dollar gallon of Oil Base Trim Paint for $30 bucks. I don't make money off my material, I consider that a deal to the Homeowner. So the guy working by the hour for cheap, in many cases isn't working for cheap and possibly is some hack milking a job, and the homeowner is paying top dollar for Paint. Charge a fair square foot price and you'll make money. Factor in Furniture moving as well. 2008 I charged .75 a sq surface ft. for walls, 2 coats, with base included. I coat ona white ceiling .45 a sq ft. . 95 a lineal ft for door and window casing, 2 coats. Doors prices vary. Figure in Plaster repair and caulking with time. I use oil on my trim because it prduces a harder, more durable finish and it looks better, tapes easier. My profits ranged from $250 to $400 a day for painting. Before the right offs it seems like a lot of dough but it really isn't! So homeowners looking for "deals" should paint their house themselves, or hire a friend or family member. Sometimes what looks like a deal really isn't! Ive seen guys buy 7 dollar paint brushes, it's a joke. Any decent brush is going to be over $15. So really in essence these guys are making the same as us, but doing complete work! You think there going to work an hour on the job to pay for a $22 paint brush? That's why they buy 'em for $5!

I am with you all the way. What we need to do is start a thread that educates the homeowner like we are doing here. I use the good brushes, the elastomeric caulk (because it doesn't crack and split but costs more), the $3-4 rollers, the better paints, etc. I don't skimp or cut corners and my work gets a good rep.

I decided to add doing non-skilled labor to my service just to pull in some extra income during these more difficult times. What I mean by non-skilled is that I'll help someone clean out their garage or screw a light bulb in. Also, non-skilled means that I don't use any of my tools. As soon as I use my tools, then it's skilled. With non-skilled, I decided to charge $15/hour. It gets me in the door and creates a relationship with a potential paint customer. They get to know me and see who and what I am about. It sort of like a lost leader that retail stores use.

So, I get a call, a friend referred my name to a friend of theirs. Their friend has an office they want cleaned out. I go look at the job. Tell'em when I can do it and about my fee. They offer me $12/hour. Now here I am, a painting contractor with insurance, etc. and they want to pay me $12/hour. I said no. He said he'd ponder on it and call me back.
I'm thinking, "What's to ponder?" So you pay me $24 more in an 8 hour period than you wanted to. That's what we're dealing with I think sometimes, not all the time but sometimes.

My reasoning for sticking to my guns. 1) I wasn't overcharging in the first place... in fact, I was undercharging. 2) I am not going to cheapen my work, my business, or my reputation by ering with my fee. My fee is my fee. And you attract what you put out there. If I am willing to settle for anything, then anything is what I'll get. Let the guy hire a college student who doesn't care if he damages a wall or scuffs up a piece of furniture. Or better yet, hire a temp agency and pay them $20 or more an hour to find someone to help him for a day. Or just do it his self.

I really think that a quality painter/contractor has to stick to their guns and charge what their worth. We'll be doing the re-dos when the customer calls us to fix what the other guy screwed up.

I was in a home recently where I gave them a little bit lower bid than normal and they thought it was "steep" It was a hallway, and 2 BDRMS. One coat on the halls and one of the bdrm, walls only... same color, and 2 coats on the walls only with a drastic color change in the 2nd bdrm. The bid was under $500. And they thought that was steep? And the job was 35 miles from my base. BTW, they wanted the kid's room painted John Deere green so they gave me a ceramic John Deere coffee mug so I could match the color. After I emailed them my bid and they turned it down, I still spent $10 to mail the mug back to them as an act of good will. I had no hard feelings and I wanted them to have their mug back.

But the home had all kinds of video equipment, Xboxes for the kids, TVs in every room, etc so it's just a matter of what people see as a priority and how they want to spend their money. If someone ownes a TV that takes up half the wall, and thinks I am charging too much then I run in the other direction.

They can afford me, they just don't want to. And it's my responsibility to not cheapen myself or my profession or what I do by giving in to fear of not getting the job. There are enough customers who do understand what it takes to be in business and who appreciate fine craftsmanship. I don't need every homeowner's business, just a few. And it's a heck of a lot more pleasant to work for the informed and those who respect you than the uninformed.

I can't agree with you more Mr. Painter. Unfortunately some people, especially now want to bargain, bargain, bargain, because they know how bad the economy is. They also may think we are hurting for work. In my case, right now I am. So unfortunately we may have to take a lower price for the time being. If someone is beating you down to the point where it isn't worth it then that's different. Its not worth damaging your rep as a guy who works for cheap. Id rather have a rep for doing fine work then being "cheap". Maybe that's why I'm sitting on my typing this right now. I love Painting, and finish work in general. But I'm not doing this to be known as the "cheap" neighborhood contractor. I want to make money! Its tough in these times! Craigslist for example is a culprit. Every guy posting for skilled trade service says they do it all, Plumbing, Eletrical, Carpentry, Painting, Masonry. I highly doubt there are Licensed to do all of this work, and they say they are and post a false id number! It's a sham! No one working out of a truck and home office that is respectable at what they do is going to work all the trades. How do you master one if you perform all? They must be working 20 hrs. a day, 8 days a week! Which I doubt because if they did, they wouldn't have time to post bs ads on Craigslist! You get it Mr. Painter. Stick to your guns because when we come out of this recession all the hacks will be working at the local Home Depot for $12 an hour! And we'll be back to making real money and keeping our quality work reputation!

Painting Services help to improve the interior look of your house and can help to increase the amount of you flat when you want to sell it.

The problem with homeowners expecting a low price is;

1. they can do painting their-selves (so they say).
2. they can not differentiate the workers rates from the business owner profit
3. they don't understand the concept of overhead
4. they only think wages and materials are what they should be paying for
5. painting is a no brainer job