You my readers request more information on paint job estimating than any other subject. I try to think about why this is. I think that a lot of folks want to find a system or program that will make a time consuming job both faster and easier. Maybe some newly established painting contractors don’t have past experience to use when creating a paint estimate. Maybe some think that there is a program or software that will win jobs for them without actually understanding the estimating process.
Paint estimating is more of a subjective process than an objective one. What I mean is that the estimating process is more of an artist’s painting than it is a photograph. There is no exact price that is perfect for every paint job and for every painting contractor. Why? Every painting job is different. There is no labor estimate or material cost, no estimating tool that perfectly fits every job. As just as each job is different, every painting company is different. There are not two painting contractors that have the same productivity, labor cost, the same overhead, and the need for the same profitsee page.
Paint estimates should always be customized for each job, if you want the best estimate. The best proposals will be created by using the contractor’s past productivity, paint cost, price of labor, overhead and profit. No book, no software system, can account for all the different conditions that make every paint job and every painting contractor different. The way to professionally estimate a paint job is by using professional judgment and a reliable estimating system.
There is not a simple way to do in minutes what an experienced paint estimator might take hours to do. Judgment is needed when estimating paint jobs. It’s your responsibility to decide what makes this job that you are bidding on different or similar to other jobs. Where conditions are different, you’ll need to use your own judgment to arrive at a realistic proposal. My friends there is no magic answer to creating a painting proposal.
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