Charging too much?


  #1  
Old 01-20-11, 04:44 PM
D
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 1
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Charging too much?

Hi,

This is my first time on this forum, but I was hoping that some people with more experience painting for hire than myself might be able to help me out.

I have done a fair amount of painting growing up, but mostly in places that I have lived so I haven't been paid that often. A friend and I are now painting the interior of a house for some friends of my parents. We are both very proficient painters, but not professionals. We take it seriously though and have enough experience to know what we are doing.

We agreed on charging $27/hr total, which seems pretty reasonable if it is for two people. The first room we did, and are about to finish, is a bathroom that is 8 by 7, with 8 ft. ceilings. But before painting, we had to strip wallpaper, sand off glue, caulk the corners and apply quite a bit of spackle in various holes in the wall. It was a pain, and took about 14 hours before we could even start painting, and we were working hard!

We've now put on a clear coat and a white primer, and will put the final color on tomorrow. We have also done trim, (windows and door frames) as well as the two doors. After we put the final coat on we'll probably be at 27-28 hours, which is around $750.

Like I said, the hourly rate seems reasonable, and we have been working our butts off, not slacking at all, and the prep was a pain, but that just seems like a really large number for one bathroom.

Does this seem reasonable, or would most people have some sort of price ceiling in their quote? Thanks for any and all advice, cheers.

Drew
 
  #2  
Old 01-21-11, 05:00 AM
M
Forum Topic Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: USA - N.E.Tn
Posts: 45,659
Received 835 Upvotes on 732 Posts
Welcome to the forums Drew!

What does the customer say about the cost?

Generally paint contractors charge by the job, it's rare to get a customer to agree to time and materials. T&M jobs can raise the cost of job because the worker doesn't have as much incentive to work hard or efficiently. I'm not trying to say that describes you.

Stripping wallpaper is rarely fun and I have stripped some that made me fight for every square inch

You said you applied a clear coat, was that zinnser's gardz?
 
  #3  
Old 01-21-11, 06:17 AM
S
Group Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: WI/MN
Posts: 19,125
Received 1,263 Upvotes on 1,204 Posts
$27/hour for two people sounds pretty cheap to me

The big issue, IMO, is how well you can explain the number of hours to the customer

Removing wallpaper can be a nightmare, so you hours look reasonable to me
 
  #4  
Old 01-21-11, 06:41 AM
B
Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: New England
Posts: 9,460
Received 47 Upvotes on 43 Posts
Just an opinion, but painting is painting and stripping wall paper and repairing the walls is prep work. Some painters will do prep work, others come with brushes and rollers ready to go and will paint what is there. One approach for presenting this to the home owner might be two invoices, one for painting and the other for prep work. That way the home owner will see the painting charges were exactly what you/he expected, very reasonable. The other bill will be part of the unexpected difficulty with getting the room ready and if you are going to give him a break, that is where to do it. I'm not saying you should give a break, but if you are going to, apply it to the work that wasn't fully discussed/anticipated.

Bud
 
  #5  
Old 01-21-11, 01:20 PM
M
Forum Topic Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: USA - N.E.Tn
Posts: 45,659
Received 835 Upvotes on 732 Posts
Bud makes a great point about breaking the invoice down! It wouldn't hurt to give a good bit of info concerning the prep work.
 
  #6  
Old 01-21-11, 01:56 PM
ray2047's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 29,711
Upvotes: 0
Received 15 Upvotes on 13 Posts
Always presented a proposal to the customer that included the phrase: "Final cost may be more due to hidden structural or other problems. If cost will be more work will stop till new charges are approved in writing." It goes with out saying you need signatures on the proposal and any approvals of changes changes.
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description: