Painting Charges

[mayfieldh]

I purchased a $500 Magnum sprayer from Home Depot to spray paint my house since the contractor's bids came in between $1,100 - $1,800. We have a small two story with bricks on the bottom floor only.

Now that my house looks pretty good in the neighborhood, my neighbors are asking me to paint their houses but I have no idea of what I should charge them. I don't want to charges as much as contractors do since I have a real job and I would just be doing this maybe on weekends

Is there some type of calculations I could use to figure out what I should charge for this maybe by the gallon or square footage.

Is anyone else doing this and if so, what do you charge your neighbors whom you know really well to perform work for them.

By the way, I'm the Vice President of my home owner's association so everyone knows me.

Mayfield.

[ejw]

Since you are just doing this as a slideline maybe you should just charge per house. Think of what you want for the average house. If some guy has a smaller house you can reduce the price, if someone has a larger one, tack on a bit. People like to know what they are paying so since you are the Vice President of the home owners association and don't want anyone angry with you, I would set a price of say, $600, and let the people know that they have to buy the paint and do any work on the house, like any cleaning, priming, etc that is necessary before the actual paint job. This is to decrease the chances of you being held liable in case anything goes wrong. I suggest this, not because I am a painter, but because I have a small business. If someone comes back and complains, then they have less to complain about. I.e, you just followed their instructions. You merely painted the house. Good luck. Sounds like a profitable sideline.

[LazyPup]

I once had an instructor in refrigeration school who stated that if you work for friends and familiy you either do it free or charge them double because everytime you see them after they will want some touchup, adjustment or modification. You either plan on that and get paid in advance or simply tell them they got what they paid for.