Is your commercial building in sore need of a fresh coat of paint? If so, you need to hire a commercial painter ASAP. Nothing puts off customers more than a dingy store appearance.
In this article, we’ll answer the question on everyone’s minds: “How much does it cost to hire a painter?”
Keep reading to learn all about the formula that you can use to estimate how much this paint job will set you back.
Cost Breakdown
When determining the cost for a commercial painter, you must first understand how the cost breaks down. There are two separate things that you will have to pay for.
The first is the paint itself — commercial painters do not include the cost of the materials. The second is the cost of the labor, i.e. the commercial painter. In the rest of this article, we’ll take a look at how much you can expect to pay for each of these two things.
Cost of Paint
Paint costs depend heavily on the type, quality, and color of paint that you’re using. As with all things, you get what you pay for when it comes to paint. For a commercial building, you’re going to want to pick a high grade of paint that won’t be susceptible to cracking and peeling in the short term.
A single gallon of paint costs between $15 and $40 and can cover 300-350 square feet (one coat). You’ll have to decide how many coats of paint the building area will require. If you choose to buy paint wholesale, then your costs will decrease (wholesale costs are typically 50% of retail costs).
So let’s say that you want to paint a building that is a square shape. It’s 20 feet high and 100 feet on a side. That means that you have a total of 4 * 20 * 100 feet, which equals 8,000 square feet to paint. You also want to do two coats for extra security, which works out to 16,000 total square feet.
To cover that square footage, you’ll need around 50 gallons of paint. If you’re paying $20 per gallon, that’s a total cost of $1,000 for the paint. Use this formula to estimate costs for your situation.
Paying Labor
There are two ways to pay for labor: by the hour or by square footage.
The one that you decide on will depend on the relationship you have with the painter in question. The best commercial painters won’t loiter around and will get the job done quickly and efficiently. You’ll want to pay these folks by the hour.
But, if you haven’t done business with these painters before and don’t have a good reference to go off of, then you may want to pay by square footage. This will help ensure that they don’t try to take a little extra coin off of you by wasting time as they paint. For commercial service, painters charge upwards of $20/hour and $2-5 per square foot.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Painter? Now You Know!
There you have it — now that you know the answer to the question of how much does it cost to hire a painter, all that’s left is for you to decide how much paint to get and how you want to pay your labor. Remember to hire good painters — don’t just go with the cheapest option, or you may have to have the whole building repainted a lot sooner than you wanted to.
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