Painting Quotes – How to decipher them

Painting quotes

How and what goes into a painting quote and how do you make sure you are getting what you pay for!
Time after time I see customers caught out with there painting quotation. Usually because the quote they receive has little to no information on it, then the follow up contract does not exist at all or has no detail.

With painting quotes, like most other things 20 years ago it was all done on a gentleman’s handshake.  That worked for most and still does, until something goes wrong.  Now when it does go wrong there is heaps of literature available from Master Builders, Master Painters, QBCC on how and what you should have done…………..but, before you sign on that dotted line here are just a few tips on what to watch out for.  This is not a guide to contract law and is certainly not a guide to all the questions and expectations you should have.

• Make sure your painter has QBCC license and insurance.  You can perform your own search for their license HERE.  If your painter is licensed they are trying to protect their business and have more reason to keep contracts, communications etc in order.
• You are about to make a massive investment, trust your instinct!  Yep, I hear this from customers too. If you think they are dodgy, or trying to pull the wool over your eyes or the quote seems too good to be true or much lower than the others, chances are they will leave out crucial prep steps or short change you on paint quality to make up for their low quote.  Others will hit you up for extras after they start.  Low balling is common in most service industries.  People quote low and then hit you with extras during the job to make up the shortfall.  I recently had a customer ring me back and said they went with another quote that was $500 cheaper, then proceeded to tell me the painter was going to charge them $450 for extra patching they did not see when they did the quote! How can someone charge extra after pricing a job and get away with it!  Needless to say their was nothing I could do about it for them.
• Make sure your know what is written in the quote.  I quote against different painters every day.  I get to see a lot of other painters quotes on jobs.  Some contain no detail to the scope of work to be carries out. When you dont get detail, just bin the quote.  In my experience people leave out detail when they dont want you to know what they are doing, or how little they are doing.

• Make sure you get the paint you pay for.  Interior Paint can cost anywhere from $80-$250 per 15L drum depending on brand and the quality of paint.  Ask your painter for detail on the paint, ask them to include that in the quote, then double check the drums that come onto your project to make sure you get what you paid for.  I have sen painters bring drums onto the site that have been refilled with cheap paint.  3-4 different colors running down the side of the drums!
• Make sure you check quote is for paint to obtain coverage.  So we all know paint can have different rates of coverage, depending on colour, quality of paint used, technique of putting it on etc.  Problem is, if your painter quotes you on two coats to complete your job and it is still not looking solid on the wall or you can see the underlying colour still showing through, who’s fault is that.  Lots of credible painters I know personally will only quote for the amount of coats applied and they are happy with that, they may quote for two coats of paint, when it is not covered they ask you to pay for the third coat.  In all fairness I cant quote that way.  You as a home owner or commercial factory owner should not be expected to know how many coats it will take to cover an existing paint colour.  From RepaintPro point of view, we are the professional painters and we will quote to paint until we have coverage.  yep, if that job needs 4 coats then it will get 4 coats.  Simple as that.  No lowballing a price from this perspective either.

• Make sure you Read reviews or references.  Getting good reviews is really difficult.  Even happy customers sometimes dont have time to place reviews from their paint job.  Google is a great place to look at reviews of a business.  Have a look at our reviews HERE or google repaintpro and look for our star rating.

Hope this article helps a little bit about getting that painting quote and understanding some ins and outs of making sure you get what you pay for and dont get shafted in the process!