Posted on July 02, 2024
Answers to this question could be very different and will depend on a whole variety of factors. Is it a person who does painting on a side or is it a business? How busy are they at the moment? Is that commercial or residential project that you need done? Are there any deadlines to complete the job? Let’s have a detailed look at all those scenarios:
Private painter’s hourly rate VS professional painting business hourly rates.
There is a big difference between one-person private painter and a painting business with hired employees.
Typically, you can divide private painters into two categories:
Full-time private painters
Full-time private painters operate as a small business in the face of one person. You have to realize that this person does it all – estimating, accounting, billing, advertising, taking calls, etc. You must be mindful when hiring painters like this by the hour, because they could easily get distracted with phone calls and other business multiple times a day, in which case you won’t be getting a 100% production out of billable time, unless you stay with them all day and deduct any time they don’t paint.
Currently, the average rate for business owner-operator painters is around $40/hr + applicable taxes.
It is worth noting that these types of businesses may or may not have a professional liability insurance.
Painting as a side hustle
Painting is not a rocket science, so many people can do this work as a side hustle after their day job or on the weekends. The only downside of it is that they will be painting your project when you are at home and only on their own schedule, which will take more time.
In average, these painters charge about $30/hour, but it may vary depending on location and the way people value their time.
This kind of painting contractors most probably don’t have liability insurance policy in place.
Professional painting company’s hourly rates
Professional painting companies operate a little differently from small businesses. If they are a bit bigger painting business, they would have 2 to 3 crews (2 or 3 person each), office administrator and project manager/estimator, public office with some sort of storage/warehouse and so on and so force.
Each crew will require a van or a truck, company’s office must be paid for (lease or mortgage with property taxes and utility bills on top), administrative employees will have to be paid for their work, and this list doesn’t stop here. All this is called overhead, and one way or the other, it needs to be passed on to the client.
To catch up with all these bills and meet payroll schedules, professional painting companies should have enough work scheduled for at least one or two months ahead, which makes it a lot harder to have them working on your project at the snap of a finger.
However, there are quite a few advantages in hiring a professional team to paint your project:
• Warranty.
Any respected painting company will warranty their job for at least one year.
• Professional Liability Insurance.
This will come handy when contractor does not want to recognize their negligence, errors or poor workmanship.
• Schedule.
Once painting company penciled your project into their schedule, you can be assured that they will come on the date you agreed upon and will meet your project deadlines.
• Quality.
Professional painting companies always try to hire the best personnel and thoroughly review their professional background.
• Safety.
Since painting company employees will be allowed to enter private properties (inside of your home in particular), a lot of businesses will run a criminal background check before hiring an employee. Knowing this, you can rest assured that no shady workers will be wandering around your house.
Considering all the information above, provided that the average wage of experienced painter is in $25/hour range, and the fact that company must cover overheads and make profit - the average rate of professional painter working for a reputable company is around $55.00/hour.
How workload influences painter’s hourly rates.
As painters’ schedule fills up (regardless of their business model), the amount of work they can take gets limited. At that point they can start picking and choosing which job they do want or don’t want, can do or can’t do with resources available. In this instance, rates usually go up as companies should hire more workers or stretch thin and work long hours in order to take on more work and complete ongoing projects on time.
In some cases (job cancelations, lack of work on the market, etc.), painter’s rate might go down to fill up their schedule and continue to bring revenue.
Taking this into account, you should never limit yourself to the number of painting companies you request quotes from.
Painter’s hourly rates on commercial/industrial projects VS residential projects.
As it was mentioned above, running a painting business (just as any other business) requires a lot of planning, scheduling and coordination to keep the best painters employed with your company and make profit at the same time.
This is where commercial projects kick in. Usually, they are bigger by size, have more specifications to follow, have deadlines to be met, have safety rules to be observed and have potential for more things to go wrong compared to residential painting jobs.
To compensate for all the inconvenience listed above, and considering overall projects complexities, painter’s rates on commercial jobs are hovering in $75-$90/hour range.
How tight project deadlines affect painter’s hourly rates.
It’s not a secret that nobody likes pressure, and painters are not exclusion. The sooner you want them on site and the less time you give them to do the work – the more money they will charge you.
The best way to keep your upcoming painting project within budget is to plan it ahead of time. If you manage to line up your painting contractor in the off-season period (when their calendar is wide open), you will get way better deal and better experience overall as it will give yourself and your contractor more time to plan the job.
Assumptions.
None of the above stated hourly rates include any materials (paint, tools, tape, scaffolding, etc.), overtime charges, mobilization or demobilization charges. Each project is different, and it is very hard to generalize the price for those items.
Recap.
Private painters on residential project will charge anywhere from $30-$40/hour for 1 crew member (typically, jobs require 2 to 3 crew members).
Painting company on residential project will charge $55-$60/hour for 1 crew member (typically, jobs require 2 to 3 crew members).
Painting company on commercial/industrial projects will charge $75-$90/hour for 1 crew member (typically, jobs require 2 to 3 crew members).