6 Tips to help you do a painting job estimate
Whether you are bidding on a particular paint job or just simply shopping around for someone who can offer their painting services to do your home painting project, it’s important to fully understand what really goes into estimating the price. A quote – whether for doing a house painting job or other businesses – is generally based on the total cost of the materials needed, plus the skills and time spent by the worker, although there may still be other factors that could add up to the overall cost of the job. To help you prepare your pockets for your paint job, here are some useful tips that you could use to calculate a painting job estimate on your own.
1. Assess the job that’s to be done. To create a rough estimate on your project, take a look at your job site and take note of the basic job that will be done, as well as the factors that will determine whether the project will be a quick or a long and painstaking one.
If your house painting job will involve working around outdoor obstructions like hose mounts, bushes or water meters, then there’s a greater chance that your project will consume a lot of time and that a number of complications might arise as the job progresses. For indoor jobs, include and factor your cupboards and other built-in fixtures into your time estimates.
2. Compute the square footage of the area to be painted. To come up with an accurate assessment of the amount of paint needed for your home painting job, you’ll need to get the total square footage that your contractor will be painting.
Add up all the length of the walls to be painted and multiply the total length to the wall’s height. To get a rough estimate from your best painting service in Singapore, deduct 15 square feet for each window and 20 square feet on each door. For more accurate numbers, measure and add up the square footage of each door and window, then subtract total square footage of the area to it.
[Total square footage – (total door + window square footage)]
3. Calculate the painting materials needed. Calculate your paint needs using the total square footage, and plan out on using two paint coatings beforehand. Assume that a gallon of paint will cover roughly 350 to 400 square feet of smooth walls, while 300 to 350 square feet is enough for the textured ones. Also, add up 10% for the underestimates and waste then round it up to the nearest gallon. Don’t forget to include a coat of primer in your calculations, since this can also be a factor for both time and material estimates.
Apart from gallons of paint, you should also include an estimated total cost of paint job items such as booties, masks, painter’s tape, paper, cleaning supplies and other disposable items that will be used for the job.
4. Add in the labor for the work. The labor for the paint job will vary on how easy the job is and how experienced your contractors are. If you happen to have hired an experienced painter, then expect that the job will be done quickly and that their service might come off a bit pricier. If there are some obstructions on the wall to be painted on, such as frames, windows, and moldings, then anticipate that it will take a longer time before the job gets done. Add up these time factors up to create an estimate on how long it will take to finish the paint job, then multiply it the hourly rate that you gave. This is now the base price that you’ll be paying for your contractor’s painting services.
5. Figure out the market rates. Knowing the range of market rates in your area in Singapore is one of the basic factors when trying to come up with an estimate for a painting job. Ask different painting companies on how much their painters usually charge for a paint job. This will give you an idea on how painting companies or contractors charge for their painting services.
6. Keep in mind that experience does count. It’s given that even local Singapore painting companies would charge a bit higher if they have already been in the industry for quite some time. So before you decide on the choosing the contractor that you’ll hire, don’t just consider the kind of Singapore painting services that they can offer but also their years of experience as home painters.
Creating an estimate before starting your project is a good way to prepare your wallet for all the expenses you will have to make, and with these tips to go by, you can now easily do all the calculations and estimates that will definitely help in getting your project done efficiently and at just the right cost.