Painting At £3.50 Per Hour?!!!!

[Tozzy]

Hi all,

Just wondering roughly how much a painter would charge for painting:

4 rooms:

2 large and 2 small ceilings (application of 2 coats)
4 walls @ roughy 20 feet long
12 walls @ roughy 10 feet long
4 radiators
All skirting boards
5 door frames

My friend and I had just started the work and we quoted £200 altogether for just two rooms which is half the work which we planned to have done in 2 days (only realising later on that the customer assumed the price included the other 2 rooms which we didn't quote for). In other words, the customer thought we were doing all the work mentioned above for £200 in total which would take 4 days to complete!! What do you think? Would you work for £3.50 per hour?

By the way, the place is fully furnished; not the most ideal decorating environment lol.

 

[kjacko]

Lol, where are you in Notts, i could do with a cheap decorator!

Dude, i don't think anyone doing trade work would do it for £3.50. There's certainly a skill involved in decorating, even just painting walls as i'm sure you know, so if it were me i'd make the customer aware of the misunderstanding and pose the same question to them.
"Would you work for £3.50? Surely you can see there has been a misunderstanding?"

Some people quote per what the job is worth, some people quote per hour, approximate how long it will take and offer that as an 'estimate', confirming the total once finished.
I've always preferred to quote 'per job', obviously taking into account how long i think a job will take, figure in the embuggerance factor etc and hopefully offer a fair price.

Ultimately it will depend on the nature and attitude of your customer and how you put across your side of the misunderstanding as to whether you can reach a fair price. But double that for 4 rooms seems fair.

 

[gas4you]

No, certainly don't work for that. Tell the customer they are breaking the law by not even paying you the minimum wage

Main lesson learnt here is to itemise all quotes in writing so there is no uncertainty of what work is included

Think of yourselves as a business, not just 2 decorators

 

[iaith]

Boys!! £200 for 2 rooms is outrageously cheap. Your not doing yourselfs any favours by working that cheap .

 

[Bilioustrumpstaine]

Jeez, that's way too cheap boys. Maybe the market is tougher around your way.

Are you painters/decorators by trade or is this a job you have stumbled upon ?

I ask this as in your post you ask how much would a painter charge as if you are not one yourself.

Who is supplying materials ?

I have a pre printed quote sheet that I use. It is very simple, just 3 boxes on an A4 sheet, one box per room, which has all the possibilities that you might come across in a room (window frame, window sill, door, rad etc etc) and I simply put a quantity next to each option or score them out if not required, a space is left for any notes like "treat stain to ceiling" etc.

This enables me to give a room by room breakdown of exactly what I am doing and how much per room to my clients.

People often ask me to give a price on the day but it is not something I do as I have been caught out in the past. What is in black and white cannot be disputed.

Hard lesson learnt methinks.

Good luck

 

[Tozzy]

Hi and thanks for all of your replies everyone. We just needed to get a 2nd opinion as we both thought we were being unreasonable with our prices . We both thought it was outrageous that the client could think we could decorate an entire flat (4 rooms) in 2 days for just £200 between us. If it was just the walls and ceiling involved, it would probably be forgiveable, but the fact she wanted every single piece of skirting board prepared and painted, every radiator cleaned and painted and all the door frames... Well that's another story.

Soon after the disagreement, the client slammed the door, leaving the situation unresolved. Therefore, we just had to leave the job without even being paid for the work we had produced.

She still has my work gear there, so I'm going round there tomorrow to fetch it. I just hope that I don't end up being greeted by a substitute painter wearing my overalls, painting with my paint brush and drinking from my tea mug .

 

[hairyben]

Don't beat yourself up over it, but like the others say, put quotes in writing. it's not difficult- evan if you bang up some letterheads on a mates photocopier or printer and handwrite them. the better clientel will appreciate it, the chancers will know there's less scope for them to muck you about, and believe me thats what it is.

On the subject of which, don't worry, we've all been there at the start of our careers. One of my earliest jobs was to fit some lights around a shabby end-of-terrace in illford- this idiot wanted it floodlit like some architectural monument Anyway, I gave him a price for the lights he wanted fitting and he agreed to provide a big ladder. When I turned up we had to "collect" the ladder, but first we had to go hire a van to carry it. Time wasted. So we do all that and then he gets out the the lights, which have, suprise suprise, managed to multiply from 10 to 19, must be magical breeding light fittings Anyway I point out thats a lot more lights to fit and therefore twice the money, he gets stroppy, I walk away with him screaming about me wasting his time and money over the hired van

Quotes in writing. Can't beat 'em.

 

[peteftw]

a bucket of paint and a brush doesnt make you a painter

 

[Zampa]

don't worry, we've all been there at the start of our careers.

So very true mate

Its almost if you price a job not wanting to offend the customer.

Tozzy..sorry to be blunt but all this is really your own fault isnt it..prices like that look like your trying to buy the work, theres enough suspicion of the trade as it is..if you have made a rick then live with it, deal with it and move on..you should have swallowed it and done the job.

Those rices wont do you imagge or reputation any good either..they are the sort of prices you'd expect from the swiss rolls or 'dole boys'

You might have lost money but you would have kept a customer and other potential ones..

Stand up dust yourself off and move on mate..put it down to experience, its an hard lesson but you hopefuly wont make the same rick again..its all about learning

We have all been there and done it beleive me..I once priced a whole house, very keenly becasue the customer seemed nice ..it was on recommendation from a pal..I didnt want to over price and look greedy, I didnt want underprice and look like a rank amutuer

I was really carefull..working the price out over and over..I knew I was tight but went for it anyway hoping that it would bring bring me more work

First day..opened the door, walked in and looked at a massive hardwood staircase and thought...'oops'...yeh I for to price it...three extra days work!!..the only good thing was it proved to me my original price was smack on...so i gained some confidence from that and swallowed the 3 days

Beleive it or not..i mentioned this to the customer about 4 years later when I was doing 20 houses for her..(small acorns and all that)...she insisted on paying me the extra to cover my mistake with the stairs!!..and couldnt understand why I hadnt said anything at the time

But you cant..imagine if you bought a telly from comet and two days later than rang and said 'sprry we made a mistake with the price..we want another 250 quid'..

Good luck and be careful in the future...youl get there and end up laughing about it one day.

 

[Tozzy]

Thanks for all of your replies guys. I've read them all and will definitely learn from this.

I think what happened was that the client didn't realise how long the work took so she thought that the 4 rooms could be done in 2 days which is totally impossible, unless you forget about preparation, slap the paint on really quickly etc, painting around furniture. Even then I think it would be very difficult to get it all finished in that time.

Anyway, so after we left, she tried doing some of the work herself. She only got 2 walls painted and I reckon it took her longer than she thought, so she called us back to carry on with the work! Good result. She might have even phoned for a quote totalling as much as £500 or more, who knows. Anyway, so we dropped our price from £200 to £150 and she agreed to pay once the work was completed. Problem was, we originally quoted to do the 2 rooms and 2 door frames, but she got it into her head that we quoted to do all the door frames which was really annoying, so we had no choice but to do them. Next time we are definitely drawing up a contract and pricing everything up in black and white.

Another good thing was, to our surprise, she gave us a bonus of £25! In total she paid £175 which is £25 less that what we quoted in the first place anyway!!!

Luckily, it's all ended well and she's offered us the work on the remaining 2 rooms.

Thanks again for reading.

 

[Zampa]

Anyway, so after we left, she tried doing some of the work herself.

How familiar does that sound eh?

 

[gcol]

Pretty sure I've seen them do a whole house in 60mins in ITV.