Painting Contractor Calculator

Preparation is most of a good paint job and almost none of a bad quote. Filling, sanding, stripping, washing down, masking, moving furniture: all of it is time, none of it is visible in the finished room, and it is the reason painting quotes go wrong in one direction only.

This prices it. Preparation hours entered at cost as their own line, so they stop being absorbed. Extra coats beyond the first two, because dark over light is a third of the paint and a lot of the time. Masking and protection, which in an occupied house is hours rather than minutes. And a loading for height and access, because a stairwell is slower work at a greater risk.

Around that is the costing every trade needs: burdened labour rather than the wage, materials with waste, travel at what the van really costs, and overhead recovered from a real monthly figure spread over the hours you can genuinely bill.

It also tells you what it thinks you have got wrong. Overhead charged twice, a wage used as a cost, margin and markup mixed up, and a margin thin enough that one extra day turns the job into a loss.

The customer quote and the internal costing print separately and always have. One shows the price and the scope; the other shows everything you would never want a customer to see.

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