Been reading the magazine for years but just joined the forums and hope this is the right place to post this.
I have talked to some contractors about doing some painting and got some estimates of hours to do some jobs that just don’t make sense and seem really outlandish – like 30+ hours to do the room and 10 hours per door!
I was hoping some people with experience here could give me some idea on how long they thinks the jobs should take a pro painter:
1) Paint the walls of a 15 x 15 ft room. Just walls, no trim or ceiling. Walls are a reasonably dark gold and brow. Doing light gray so I am assuming a coat of tinted primer plus a finish coat and maybe some touchup should do it.
2) Paint front exterior door, solid door with two sidelights, inside and out.. Going to Blue door with white exterior trim and all white interior. Door was dark before so again I assume a coat of primer plus finish coat.
3) Paint interiror french doors. Door is raw wood, 5 ft wide and has multiple individual lights on entire door. All white, so I assume one coat of primer plus finish coat.
Appreciate any info you can give me on how long you tnink these items would reasonably take.
Replies
Assuming that 2 coats would do the bedroom I would budget 4 hours to paint it plus paint. Front door would be in the same neighborhood and the interior French doors 6 to 8 hours. Of course you don't care how long they take, you care about a good job and a reasonable price. Should be under $1,000.00.
In process of painting churchparsonage, so recent actuals: here is my DIY time - painting is easy, and labor TAX-Free, or are you disabled?
Not counting travel time
1. I have a Graco ultramax with new tip so would make short work of this. Plugged in sprayer at 10 AM on a 30 ft by 20 ft room plus a 12 ft by 20 foot wing, all wall and ceiling. half hour for taping up windows, laying plastic on floor (had a volunteer helper for that) , just 15 minutes to paint, do other taks for an hour, 15 min for 2nd coat, another 15 min to clean the gun and pump. Other folks were coming in to move some furniture in, went and got them "you done ALREADY!!"
2. If already painted, less than one hour each coat, including prep and cleanup. If not painted, see #3
3. It is anathema to me to paint any decently grained wood. - stain and poly, Twice the time as to paint due to prep work and 2 coats of oil based poly.
DIY without the airless is 2-5 hours for #1 depending on your age and brush skills.
Think what you can do with the $$ you save?
PS: Try here, you will get lots more replies: Delphi formums, Breaktime 3 (link willnot paste)
From an experienced, talented remodeler..
Here's how I see it. Virtually any object to be painted needs some prep. work: sanding, filling in dings and voids. Some masking may be required. Floor protection and final clean-up must be considered. Let's talk about labor only. As an experienced remodeler with a wide range of skills, I will not settle for anything less than a good-excellent job, with clean cut lines and an even sheen across the walls. I assume baseboard and casing must be worked around.
1) Paint the walls of a 15 x 15 ft room. Just walls, no trim or ceiling. Walls are a reasonably dark gold and brow. Doing light gray so I am assuming a coat of tinted primer plus a finish coat and maybe some touchup should do it.
1.5 hr labor to get materials to job sit. 1 hr to protect floors and set up equipment. 2 hrs. to fill in voids, deal with popped fasteners and so forth. 3 hrs to prime. 6 hrs to apply TWO finish coats. 1 hr. to clean up. Total 13.5 hrs X $60/hr= $810.
2) Paint front exterior door, solid door with two sidelights, inside and out.. Going to Blue door with white exterior trim and all white interior. Door was dark before so again I assume a coat of primer plus finish coat.
Two finish coats to create aprox 3 mils of dry paint protection. 1 hr to mask glass inside and out. 2 hrs prep sanding/dings et al. 2 hrs priming. 4 hrs finish coats (2). 0.5 hr clean-up. Total 9.5 hrs x $60=$570 (Labor to get materials was listed in 1) above. I don't advise spray painting.)
3) Paint interiror french doors. Door is raw wood, 5 ft wide and has multiple individual lights on entire door. All white, so I assume one coat of primer plus finish coat.
"Multiple individual lights". These are the time-consuming "killers". It is essential that you count them! I shall assume there are at least 16 lites. This being the case, I advise taking the doors off their hinges, masking them as needed, and spray painting in the shop. I shall assume that the casing and door frame are not to be painted. One primer and two finish coats. I would allow up to 8 hrs to prep and do both sides in 3 applications (primer and 2 finish); then re-hang the doors and clean up. $480
TOTAL $1,860 You can adjust these numbers to your situation.
total $1860
Squeeze the goose?
No wonder the DIY approach attracts so many folks and is going well and even the idiodic DIY shows on TV have a good viewership. ?
I'd be embarrased as a DIY to not be able to do that all in 1 day for under $50. Your won labor is tax free too.
Ah Junkie it's all so subjective. I can spend a day doing it or a week. Depends on whether I'm slapping on some cheap latex withno primer or prep or I'm stripping down to wood and finishing with marine epoxy. True cost of the work is somewhere between $50 and $1860.
Depends on what you want.
But those french pane small glass mullions sure are a pain to do....
Thanks, Sawdust! You got that right! There is a wide range of opinion regarding what constitutes a job well done. Prep work usually gobbles up the lion's share of my time. My clients value protection, cleanness, punctuality, no call-backs. They know that if they are not satisfied I'll do my level best to please them. These features come at a price :) The rate quoted is not suitable for every location. Skill level (experience) also is a factor. I happen to work in a University town environment. If I were working in the back woods the rate might be lower.
The more important question: are the hours I allotted for each task reasonable? What is your take, Sawdust? I am interested. Thanks
The question should be "how many days?'
I almost always estimate based on the number of days rather than hours. A day involves getting to the job, unloading, working, cleaning up, loading and getting home. Some times on small jobs don't work out for full days of labor. Let's say it takes 5 hours for a coat of paint, if it;s not quite dry then you maybe can;t do any more that day. Sometimes you don't want to switch hats in the middle of a day. That's still a day's work. It's a lot easier to say I can do so much per day than per hour. Estimating hours often leads to under bidding.