# How should I charge for this job?



## Renovators (Apr 18, 2019)

I'm a contractor and always find myself struggling to put together a good estimate that will benefit my clients and myself. I currently have a potential client that has a loft in Soho they want me to paint that is about 10,000 sqft. Now if I charge per sqft, which I have 1.49 on my site, I find that it may be too much and they wont go with me. Online I'm finding sites saying they would charge up to $5 per sqft and I'm finding the numbers to be outrageous. So I always get stuck here. I have a good connect with the paint so that's running about $1700 for about 75 gallons of flat and eggshell. I'm charging this seperate from the 1.49 per sqft I'm assuming. Another thing is that walls are not the same as ceilings. So if I have 10000 sqft of ceiling, the walls would be about 7000. So in total I would have about 17,000 sqft of painting to do. I'm also patching holes. Is 25k plus the materials too much to charge for this job?


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## jennifertemple (Oct 30, 2011)

@Renovators No one here would be permitted to say whether 25K is to much or not. Pricing jobs is frowned on here. That said, if you know how much material you will require and you know how long you expect the job to take for completion then ask yourself how much you want to make in a day and do the math. If $1.49 per sq ft is your rate, then you estimate that + materials and make your bid. More sq ft is always going to be more money. I have no idea what your competition wants but if you have been in the game very long, you should have some idea what other companies are charging. You never want to be that guy that is on the bottom and working under the table for minimum wage!


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## Brushman4 (Oct 18, 2014)

No one knows what you're paying per hour for labor, what your overhead is, is this a brush and roll job, a spray and backroll job, how many coats, is their elaborate trim and doors, is this a quality job or get in get out? From the figures for the paint, it comes out to about $22.66/gal., so I assume this isn't top of the line paint!


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## Rbriggs82 (Jul 9, 2012)

Thanks for posting on PaintTalk.com. Straight pricing questions are frowned upon here, as are 'Going Rate' questions. If you are a contractor seeking advice regarding your pricing structure, the Moderators of this forum would like to direct you to this pricing thread - Pricing, Estimating and Success.



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