Painting Contractor Shares Production Rates for a "Painter for a Day"

painting business, painting contractor, painting, business coach, painting

How much do you charge for all those odd requests you get?

Something like painting a shed, for instance.

There is a shed here that needs a new fresh coat of paint or stain, but what do we charge?

What do we charge when someone asks us to stain four sections of a fence?

We need an answer.

We can start adding all these up; the trim boards and the door needs to be sanded down, maybe it needs to be oil primed, or maybe it just needs a couple of coats of stain.

What do we charge when we don’t want to scare the customer away?

You know your abilities and you can stain this and paint this all in one day, so let’s get together and put together a cost for a ‘painter for a day’. Here is what you need to do;

Determine Your Hourly Rate

What’s your hourly rate?

We are going to start from there when we are putting together our Painter For a Day.

Is it $45 or is it $70 an hour? If you don’t know your hourly rate, schedule a call with Steve and he can walk you through the process using a tool he created.

Multiply Your Hourly Rate By 8 Hours

Whatever yours may be, let’s base our example on $50 an hour.

So, $50 an hour, of course, 8 hours a day is a $400 charge.

Add the Cost of Sundries

We don’t want to charge them just $400, because we are going to use some sundries and such: some sandpaper, some caulking, maybe you need to wash it first –different costs like that should be added in.

Let’s add a few dollars for the supplies that we are going to use, $29, so you have a $429 Painter For a Day.

Add the Cost of the Paint/Stain/Primer

What else do we need to charge here?

We always have a lined item which we use, and here it could be a gallon of solid stain for this, and we need a coat of paint –the paint would be for the trim, the solid stain would be for the siding.

I am assuming we are going to stain the front door as well.

So, right there, we have $50 for a gallon of stain, $20 for a coat of trim paint, so that’s another $70 on top of our $429, which adds up to $499 painter for a day.

For $500, you are going to come in and you are going to prep and stain this shed.

Put Together and Share Your Standard Pricing For ‘Painter for a Day’

But there are other things to consider. Sometimes you have 4 sections of fencing, sometimes you have just one little bulkhead and a couple of other things, some odd things.

You’ll want to figure out your pricing for Painter for a Day and then have it on your website and talk about it at your networking groups where you have 30 seconds each week to talk about your business.

If it takes six hours, you win, if it takes eight and a half, okay, you might want to reconsider your hourly rate and reconfigure your Painter for a Day pricing, so you have healthy profit margins.

Having a price like this ready to go, so you can quickly tell that customer, will help you sell more jobs on the spot.

So, get your hourly rates figured out with healthy profit margins and start letting your clients know you have Painter for a Day to help them with their odd jobs.

I am Ron Ramsden, a DYB Coach. Shoot me a message and let’s see how I can help you – Ron@DYBCoach.com or find me on Facebook, I would love to chat.

Have a great one and happy estimating!

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About the Author

As many of you know, my journey has been one of grit, grace, and transformation. At 19, I was a high school dropout, single father, and struggling paint contractor in Michigan. I later moved to Florida, where I faced both personal and professional hardships. With nothing left to lose, I turned to prayer—and was blessed with a relentless hunger to learn. I devoured books, attended seminars, and discovered better ways to streamline and grow my business—even through the Great Recession (and yes, I did hit the wife lottery along the way!). In 2014, I published How To Double Your Business and later sold the painting business, launching a new chapter: coaching others to grow their businesses. For the past 10 years, I’ve dedicated myself to helping business owners scale through the DYB System, while also drawing from frameworks like EOS, Scaling Up, and The Four Disciplines of Execution. Yet something was still missing—something more adaptive, integrated, and complete. Then I found Pinnacle. After months of research and interviews with other Guides, I joined Pinnacle. Their tools and strategies have exceeded every expectation. Now, as a Pinnacle Business Guide, I help leadership teams implement a custom-tailored operating system that draws from the best in the industry—but flexes with your unique business. It’s a dynamic, proven approach to achieve clarity, momentum, and lasting growth. I’m no longer taking on any more 1:1 coaching clients… Instead, I now specialize in working with visionary business owners who are ready to get their leadership teams aligned—around a clear vision, a focused strategy, and an actionable execution plan. With the tools and process I now have as a Pinnacle Business Guide, I help turn alignment into momentum, and momentum into results. If your business is growing—but your leadership team isn’t fully rowing in the same direction—let’s talk.