Low Bid Painting Scenerio

A guy I handed a painting flyer to, tells me that his daughters boyfriend is a painter who gave him a bid of $1,200 to paint the outside of his home. I asked him if the paint is included and if he is using a quality paint. He said yes to both.

So, lets take a close look at this scenario. A good paint from Dunn Edwards is Evershield and it costs $30 per gallon after a huge contractors discount. The home he lives in would need at least 20 gallons of paint for the exterior. Paint cost for the quality paint will be about $650 with tax. Material costs will run about $30 more. $1,200 bid for the total, minus $680 equals $520 profit for at least seven (7) long, hard days of work for one person ... if the job is done the right way. That equals $74.29 per day profit for 8 hours of work or $9.28 per hour and that’s if absolutely nothing goes wrong.

Any painting contractor will hire an experienced painter for $12 to $15 per hour. If someone, who supposedly is operating a legitimate painting business, will do a job for $520 profit when they could work for someone else for more money, there must be something wrong.

For Joe Blow to make money on the job, he will have to do a blow-and-go paint job. Here is how that looks. More water in the paint and spray the paint on thin. Don’t clean the surface properly and don’t do the necessary repairs or prime surfaces that need it. Get over spray on roof tiles and sidewalks or bushes and flowers.

If Joe blow cuts all the possible corner, he can get out of there in four days with five gallons less paint applied on the surface. Reduced paint cost is now $450, so you have $480 total in paint and materials, which means his profit is now $720 or $180 per day times four days ($22.50 per hour.) That is not a bad profit.

The problem is, you just got ripped off. Two years from now, you’re looking at a bad paint job when your paint job should have lasted at least 8 to 10 years or more. Did you save money? Nope!

It only takes one time to experience a bad paint job and it will never happen to you again. It’s almost guaranteed that you will want to do the next job yourself or you will do a lot more homework before hiring another contractor.




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