Painting a Friends House, how much to charge?

I'm painting a friends house soon. I offered to do it for free but he's insisting to pay me. I don't know the square footage of the walls to be painted but I do know the floor plan is roughly 3800-4000 sq ft. I will be painting every room, all ceilings, as well as all trim. I'm just wondering what would be a reasonable price.

Thanks!

 

How much do you need or do you get per day ? .... $200
How many days will the work take ? .......... 4

Multiply the two together for the total. ..... $200 x 4 = $800

Deduct 20% - 25% for a friend. ...... -$200 (25%) = $600

Prices in red are just an example.

 

I just have to say...this is something I would never ever do! Helping out with a project of some sort is one thing. Even a small job like replacing some shingles for $0 or so would be ok. But talking about a job this size? Now you are a contractor. If he (or she) is not happy with the end result, you will wind up as not friends. If you did it for free and they weren't satisfied...well, thats on them...it was FREE.

Are you a Pro painter?

 

It's next to impossible to give a price, site unseen. I normally figure out what I expect to make per day, cost of materials [probably doesn't apply for you] and add 10-15% to cover anything I missed. My overhead costs are included in the per day figure.

Since a contract price, especially since you're not a pro painting contractor could affect the friendship, IMO it would be better to do the work [since you've already offered free labor] and then let them pay you whatever they think is fair once you get done. Alternatively they could get an estimate or two and go from there.

 

The only thing I'm going to add, is if you do charge, I wouldn't give a friends discount. Only close relatives might get a discounts (parents and kids free ). Like Vic said, if there's a problem, you don't want to lose any more money.

 

Painting the entire inside of a home falls outside of domestic help, babysitters, lawn mowing, and such which are to some degree covered under your home owners insurance. You fall off of a ladder and get hurt or a paint can spills and causes some major damage, who pays? How about the paint color doesn't match what they selected, how many times have I seen that. Who is going to re-do the job and supply the new paint. Contractors carry insurance for those issues.

A relative just went the "good old friend" route and ended up hiring real contractors to repaint and tear out some drywall that was horrible.

One more, if you have ever worked along side an experienced painter you would have seen they do better work 4 times faster. So, if they charged $40 per hour, you should charge $10 per hour and all will have to live with the results.

Time to twist an ankle or develop a bad back and explain you just won't be able to do it.

Bud