Faux tin ceiling

“How much is this going to cost me?” Whether our customers say it or not, the price of their painting project is a primary concern.

We like to be upfront with our pricing, meaning that the price we give you on our written quote is the price that you pay at the end of the job.

“Is there a situation in which the price on the quote will change?” Fair question, the price on the quote will not change unless there is additional work added to the scope of work, in which case we will give you the additional cost in writing and ask for your approval before going ahead.

Let’s take an example, if you have us price the painting of ceiling and walls in a room, and later decide that the trim should be done, there will be an additional charge for that in writing and we will not proceed with it until you have approved the extra cost.

How do we arrive at the price on our quote? It’s actually rather simple, when I quote a painting project I figure out how long each aspect of the project will take based on setting up, production rates for each task, and clean up afterwards.

I take the total number of hours and multiply it by our hourly charge rate, which is $40/hr (as of summer of 2015) for basic painting services.  Material costs are added to the labour cost and that is the price that ends up on the bottom of the quote.

“Can I just pay you $40/hr instead of the fixed price you’ve quoted?” The reason we give fixed prices is for your benefit, it eliminates the risk of not knowing what the final price will be.  A fixed price turns your painting project into a stress-free endevour.

We’ve just dealt strictly with pricing here, and we don’t have time to get into the most important aspect, which is “Cost vs. Value” which will be the subject of our next post….