# Whats acceptable sq. ft. coverage per hr?



## DLK

Hi everyone. I am new to being a full time painter and am currently employed by a company that is itself only in its first season of painting. (I have about 4yrs of painting experience scattered over 20yrs).

I really enjoy painting except when winter starts to rear its head. Which is why Ive never stuck with it in the past. Anyway I am in a situation now where me and my former crew lead simply cant get along, (he's a total ....... simply put). So I told our boss I wanted my own truck and he accommodated me.

Now however I find myself wondering if I am getting enough work done. I know that with my crew lead we could have gotten this interior house done other than touch up in a day. Ive already been on it (by myself 2 days).

We do only new construction, and I backroll the entire surface. So I spray about a 6 foot section then I backroll it. Anyway how much sq.footage should I be getting done in an hour, by myself? On walls I am doing about 110 sq ft per hour.

The ceilings and walls in this house are extremely different in color (both satin), walls much darker. Too dark IMO. So my former crew leader told me to just shield the ceiling when doing the walls and deal with touch up later. That sounded insane to me so I have been doing it the way my brother taught me which is to spray out the ceiling in the entire house, then spray up with the gun at a downward angle to about neck height, have a bucket and screen setup and fill in the rest to the lid, which also needs to be cut in. I think its a little slower this way, but I have minimal touch up. This way Im doing a little over 100sq ft of walls per hour. Am I going to slow? It just seems Im not getting as much done in a day as I would like to.

Thanks.


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## welovepainting

dont have much advice other than when we prime out new constuction we spray prime walls first, then spray ceilings, then finish coat walls. no touch up what so ever...


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## Rich

DLK said:


> This way Im doing a little over 100sq ft of walls per hour. Am I going to slow?


Here's what the "2006 National Painting Cost Estimator" says (this is a book used as a reference by contractors to figure out things like speed, coverage, estimating, cost, etc, etc). I'm not taking into account backrolling (which you could also figure out from the book) but just for spraying it's saying:

Walls, drywall, smooth finish, spray 1st coat, latex:
Slow- 750 SF per hour
Medium- 850 SF per hour
Fast- 950 SF per hour


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## Workaholic

welovepainting said:


> no touch up what so ever...


Ahh you are truely living the dream my man.:thumbup:


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## Mandrake

100 SF/hour would seem a bit slow for new construction since you don't have furniture and possibly flooring to deal with. I know that painters all have their own approches to new work but I have never been a fan or shielding the ceiling and touching up later. If you are cutting and rolling the top section why not just cut and roll everything, and cut out the spraying. Sounds like too many steps. 

For typical residential interior repaints I figure 100SF/hour for walls when estimating. as you know there are lots of factors to contend with in repaints - furniture, etc...

One of the problems with new construction is that quality has become so poor that the "blow and go" crews are the only ones who can do the work at the prices GCs will pay - a vicious cycle

You'll get faster as you get more experience under your belt.

mndrk


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## DLK

Oh. Thanks guys for input. I think I did my figuring wrong. The room is about 11x10 with I think 8ft ceilings, not including a small closet appx. 2x6). I'm painting that in just under 1hr. 1 coat satin + backrolling.

I think I'm doing alright cause my boss gave me a buck raise today.

However they told me they want me to shield the whole thing and blast away. So I did the rest of the house that way and did a comparable room in about 15 mins, but now I have to go back and touch up the ceiling quite a bit. I really dont like all the touch up doing it this way... Oh well orders are orders!


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## Workaholic

I would do it the same way Welovepainting does. 
Spray walls, spray ceilings, then trim. 
We do not spray our walls, just ceilings and trim.


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## Joewho

At 4 yrs. you still don't know how much your back will hurt going between the sprayer and the roller. Keeping the paint wet etc. also comes into play.

The paint estimating guides estimate for only one operation. ya, you can spray out 900 ft. an hour, but that's all you do in the hour, no back rolling.

commercial construction has painters and and touch up crews. Touch up crews take many times longer than the painters. Cutting down on touch up is time effective.

The 10x11x8 room comes out to 336 sq.ft. of walls and 110 sq.ft. of ceiling.

446 total.


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