Painting Costs And More
How have any of you paid for your interior painting that you have had done. Meaning did the person charge you a rate based upon how much time they would spend doing it, hourly.
Did they charge you based upon a fixed cost per sq. ft.?
Also did they actually come in and measure the rooms or just charge you based upon the sq. footage of the house?
Thanks.
I am typing this with paint stained hands. I just came back from the 10 room victorian that I bought last week in need of some serious updating including interior paint. Yesterday I had 3 people give me estimates on painting the inside of the house (huge rooms 9' ceilings).
Two out of the three were $7000 including materials. No that was not a missprint, that was seven thousand dollars. (and there is no way that they were in cahoots)
Both of thes 2 did not measure one took notes. One guy told me it would take 2 guys a month the other told me his crew would spray the paint on and "back roll it" and it would take them 2 weeks.
The third guy left a message on my machine with a price of $1200 if I bought the materials.
I think he might have to re-take estimating 101.
Not that I like to judge a book by its cover but if #3 did the work, I think I would hide my tools when he came. But as i sit here paint on hands even if he walked of with some of them I might still be ahead of the game.
It all depends on who you hire. I have a painter who I pay $13.00 an hour. If you
hire a contractor you are going to pay more.
My advice is find a painter that works for a company and pay them to do a side job for you. You could drive around your neighborhood and find someone who is getting their house painted and approach the workers. They all love those side jobs.
Another tactic is to find a painter and try to negotiate a deal for repeat business.
On a typical 2 bedroom 1 bath 800sq.ft
house I pay around $800.00 for the
interior paint and $1000.00 for exterior with minimal prep to a contractor I use.
I could get it done cheaper, but you get what you pay for. Anyone can hose down a house and start painting, it is all in the prep. You should request the exterior be pressure washed, scraped and caulked and a decent quality paint like Dunn Edwards. You would be amazed what a couple extra bucks on a good paintjob will do the the price of the house!
Best Riches,
Jeffrey Adam
[addsig]