Hello,
I am hoping for some reasonable opinions on the amount of time necessary to do some painting.
Some background:
My son in his early 20's and has spend the past 11 summers doing a variety of chores for neighbors. He has done light electrical work, mowing, landscaping, light HVAC, light plumbing, powerwashing, painting, moderate construction and demolition, auto detailing, gutter cleaning, some carpentry, snow removal, varmint control, etc, etc.
His current minimum hourly rate is $15 per hour up to $25 per hour, depending upon the job. Through Boy Scouting and Eagle Scout projects he has a lot of additional experiences, such as window repairs, hardwood floor refinishing, some trim work, painting, ceiling & wall replacements, etc.
He has had almost no complaints over his 11 years or work. He has had a few "complaints" from divorced women who think that $12 to mow an average lawn is about twice what it is worth. A few of these tightwads have commented that they work for $7-8 per hour and they feel that a kid mowing a lawn shouldn't be paid any more than that. We always offer to go with then to Lowes to assist them in buying their own mower, gas container, and service contract. :) They always decline. :)
Ok. In this specific case, he has had his first significant complain for a job. The customer wants to paint a 20x24 foot garage which had green walls. They wanted the garage re-painted using white "Kilz" stain blocker. Two coats of paint for the walls and ceiling, plus two cycles of trim painting and cutting in at boundary areas. This also included a few hours of prep and clean up: Spackling, sanding, priming, emptying the garage, sweeping, vacuuming, drop cloths, etc.
Specifics: Approximately 1088 feet of wall and ceiling area to be painted. Almost half of that is ceiling work. This includes the 20x24 garage, with a few cut-outs, included a double door.
200 linear feet of "cut in" painting. For corner areas, we are counting each linear foot twice, since he paints one side then comes back later to paint the second surface. Over half of the "cut in" work requires a ladder and frequent ladder moving.Over 100 linear feet of "trim" - this includes case molding, difficult 2x4 rough trim around the garage door, attic access opening, etc.
There are several items to work around: A variety of cables and wires running through the garage, a concrete chimney, garage door rails, garage door, garage door opener, etc.
The customers were extremely surprised that the prep work plus the first coat took him a rather long day to finish. They had expected all prep, 2 coats of Kilz, and clean up in an 8 hour day. Comments?
I stopped by and watched my son working on this job. He is not a professional painter, but he does have experience and he worked extremely hard with no breaks except a 15 minute lunch break. I felt that he started off overly careful and slow for the first hour or so, but worked at a very fast pace after that.
I've worked with Kilz before. I've done large areas with it and I love the results. But the coverage is a lot less than with regular paint and I feel that it takes much longer to apply. I felt that my son was working at a very respectable rate for this material.
The customers are not particular happy - they feel that he should be moving much faster. As I said, we discovered after the first coat that they expected all prep, 2 coats, and clean up done in 8 hours. My son is also not particularly happy. He busted his ass and isn't coming close to half the pace that they expect.
Obviously, we are going to suggest that they get somebody else to complete the job. But, how far off is my son in his performance? I had my first employment as a painter exactly 45 years ago this summer. I've done a lot of painting since then and I'm starting to wonder just how quickly a pro can do a decent job of paint and trimming. I certainly can't come close to working at the speed that these customers expect.
One final comment: The homeowners claim that they got an estimate from a "pro" who paints for $10 per hour. They got an estimate from him for several painting tasks. Without telling my son, they used those low-ball estimates in their expectations on what my son (at $15 per hour) should charge for the jobs. Which says to me, that they expect him to work 50% faster than this $10/hour hack who gave them an estimate. If they hire this $10 "pro", I am very eager to stop by and watch him work.
Once again, I'm going to encourage my son to drop this job. He is worth $15-$30+ per hour to me for work that he does around the house, and I can put him to work every hour this summer that he is not employed for somebody else. But I still need some input for the future to determine what is a reasonable hourly rate and hourly performance for any future painting jobs he may get.
As long as I'm requesting opinions: The customers also want their basement walls painted. They have concrete block walls, approximately 160 linear feet by 7" high. This is about 1120 square feet of painting - a lot easier than painting a garage, but still non-trivial. Any estimates for applying one coat of Kilz? He will probably turn down this job also, but what is a reasonable estimate to complete it?
Thanks, Gideon