It is not uncommon for a painting contractor to ask what price he should charge per square foot. In and of itself, this may seem like a plausible question. However, the square foot involved is on the floor, rather than a paintable surface.
This type of pricing is common in new construction. It provides an easy (and I might add, lazy) way to estimate. I say this because the size of the floor has nothing to do with what is being painted.
Consider the following example: A room that is 20’ x 20’ with an 8’ ceiling has 400 square feet of floor space. The wall area is 640 square feet. There could be 80 linear feet of baseboards and 80 feet of crown moulding. If that room were divided into 4 equal size rooms of 10’ x 10’, the wall area would double to 1,280 square feet. Similarly, baseboards and crown moulding could also double.
No matter what you charge per square foot, the above example shows that the floor has little bearing on the actual work. But if you charge according to the floor area, your price will not accurately reflect the actual work to be performed.
Estimating paint jobs isn’t rocket science. But it shouldn’t be done with blind guesses, tea leaves, or Ouija boards either. Many factors need to be considered when pricing a job. And the size of the floor tells us nothing about those factors.
You may think, “But everybody does it this way. It can’t be that bad.” First, everybody doesn’t do it this way. Second, 90% of the painting contractors starting business this year won’t be around in 5 years. So if you want to do it like everybody else, you are probably going to wind up like everybody else—burned out, disillusioned, and broke.
Tea leaves make a nice beverage. Ouija boards can be a fun party game. But neither is a good method for making important business decisions. And neither is estimating by the floor area.
