[ondria]

Need to know what to charge to prime and paint a 3000 sqft ceiling in Texas

[ondria]

Just labor cost

[creahands]

cost of paint and supplies plus amount you want to make plus 10 per cent profit.

There are really to many variables to set a price.

Chuck

[dontknownuthin]

Uhm, I think the OP is asking because he's not sure how to calculate labor costs.

You have a few options. One is to contact other contractors and find out how they calculate their quotes. If they won't tell you, call some general contractors and ask them what they think are reasonable/average prices for painting - what figure they would use in calculating a larger bid. And if they won't help you, you could call someone in a different part of your state where the demographics are similar - other painters might be willing to help you out if they know you are too far away to compete with them. Yet another option is to go into a painting store that caters to contractors and ask what they would expect a commercial painter to charge for labor.

You might not charge exactly the right price the first time around but with experience you will improve on pricing right for the job. You might find it's best to quote by the square foot of painted surface, or might have some other formula for determining a cost per hour and estimated number of man hours.

Once you figure the labor out, I would open a contractor account with a hardware or paint store, where you will probably be able to get a good discount on the supplies and paint. I would guess a contractor rate would be about a 15% discount off retail. However, charge the customer the retail price for the paint and other items you purchase for the job except for durable items. What I mean is to charge them retail for the paint and things like that which you can't reuse, but obviously it would be unfair to charge them for reuseable drop cloths or ladders or rollers (just the covers). By charging retail and only paying the contractor price, you will cover your costs for those durable items over time.

If you have other overhead expenses such as a company vehicle, advertising, health insurance, liability insurance, take that into account when calculating your rate. So, perhaps you need to clear $20 pay for example, but you may need to calculate your price at $30 per hour to cover your other expenses.

Another means for finding out some of this information is to do a salary search online for contract painters. There are several sites where they show the average salary in a given geographic area for a particular job. You cannot charge exactly the salary you need to earn though - again you will have other expenses such as your vehicle, gas, ads and so on that you need to cover as well.

Best wishes.