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How to estimate a paint job by square feet

Some customers ask for a price per square foot, and one painter in that spot wrote, “I have no idea what to bid.” Square feet are only a starting point for a price. Before you price 2 rooms of the same size the same way, count the trim, the doors, the ceiling and the prep in each.

Price by production rate instead. A production rate is how many square feet (or linear feet, or pieces) your crew finishes in an hour on each surface: walls, ceilings, trim, doors, cabinets. Measure each surface, divide by its rate, and you have the hours. Multiply the hours by what you need to earn per hour. Add the paint, with the gallons worked out from the coverage on the label and the number of coats, then the sundries and the prep. Add your overhead and your profit last, as set numbers, so they don’t end up as whatever is left over.

Write the prep out room by room as you walk: patching, caulking, sanding, spot priming and masking. Give each one its own hours in the price, and list it on the estimate so the customer sees it.

How much to quote for painting

If you need the work, the pull is to bid low and hope. One painter wrote, “I feel like I’m way under selling myself.” Build 2 habits:

• Know your hourly number before the walkthrough, and don’t drop below it to win a job.
• After every job, compare what you bid with the hours and materials it took. That way, your production rates come from real jobs instead of guesses.

One painter wrote that kitchens, closets and stairways are hard to bid. A way through is to give them their own rate, or a time multiplier, then track the hours on the next few you paint and set the rate from what they took.

Win on quality when someone bids lower

Another painter can always bid lower, with cheaper paint or less prep. Make the difference visible. Spell out the prep, the exact product and the number of coats in the estimate. Offer good, better and best options, so the customer picks the level of work they want. Show photos of finished jobs like theirs. A detailed estimate shows the customer what your price includes.

Follow up on every estimate

Don’t let an estimate sit without a follow-up. Set a simple rhythm: a short text 2 days after the estimate, a check-in at 7 days, a last note at 14. Make each one personal and useful: answer a question, offer a start date. In a story about how it improved its sales process, one painting company pointed to “knowing that our guys are following up after we send a bid out.”

The 3 texts, to copy:

• Day 2: “Any questions on the estimate? I’m happy to walk you through the colors.”
• Day 7: “We have a start date open next month if you want it.”
• Day 14: “Last note from me. The estimate stands for 30 days, and I’m here when you’re ready.”

Get more painting clients without buying bad leads

Google suggests “how to get painting leads for free” as you type. Paid lead services can send you all over town, wasting time and gas on people who are only kicking tires. Build trust in the places people see you before they call:

• Your Google Business Profile, full of photos of real jobs, with every review answered.
• A review request after every job, sent the day you finish.
• Your truck, your yard signs and a door hanger on the neighbors’ doors during a job.
• A website that shows your work and lets people ask for an estimate with a short form. On the one we built for Trifecta Pro Painting, customers see their home in a new color first, then ask in 3 steps.

Answer every inquiry the same day, even if the answer is a time for the walkthrough.

The slow season

Exterior work slows when it gets cold. Plan the winter in the fall:

• Book interiors and cabinet work for the cold months, and tell your past customers that’s what you do then.
• Sell next spring’s exteriors in the winter, with a deposit to hold the date.
• Look at commercial repaints and property managers for indoor work in the cold months.

Deposits and the payment schedule

Ask for a deposit when the customer accepts the estimate, and put the rest of the schedule on the estimate itself: a progress payment when the prep is done on a bigger job, and the final payment at the walkthrough. Write what each payment covers. The deposit holds the date and pays for the paint. A progress payment on a 2-week exterior keeps you from carrying the whole job. The final payment comes after the customer walks every room with you and the touch-ups are done. Send the invoice from your phone at that walkthrough, while the customer is standing in the finished room, with a way to pay from their phone. Put the schedule in writing on every estimate, so nobody hears about a payment for the first time on the job.

The painting app we’d build

We’d build it around how you bid. Walkthrough: room-by-room measurements and photos on your phone. Estimate: priced from your production rates and sent from the driveway. Jobs: the crew’s schedule and notes. Money: deposits, invoices and what each job really took. Pro adds an AI teammate that drafts follow-ups for your okay, plus automated review requests. It would run on your phone and your computer.

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