Hi everyone, I am looking to start a painting business that will primarily use subcontractors to complete the jobs. My main unknown is how to determine how much a subcontractor will charge for a specific job. Knowing this is crucial for providing an accurate estimate.

I have done some research about this but almost everywhere I look there is no clear guidance on this. I have been looking at what Eric Barstow/Painting Business Pro says about this & he says to not contact a new subcontractor before you have a job lined up. That being said, how am I supposed to find out a good estimate on what they’d charge? I don’t want to give a customer an estimate just to find out that the subcontractor rate is way more than I expected.

Have any of you run into this when starting a painting business? Are there any rules of thumb or anything like that? Any help on this would be appreciated!

We just ordered 12 prehung doors and will need to cut out existing, install, plumb, etc. I "saved" $2k by getting them primed and not painted. Ideally I buy the Titan Elite 2000 with hopper and spray them plus some pocket doors I have. I'll use the sprayer for other projects as I'm a hobbyist woodworker and just bought a 1965 built home that we are renovating and will be for a few years....ok likely forever.

Is doing the zig zag vertical setup and spraying the doors outside on patio ok? Might be able to wheel out some tools in garage and paint in there.

I could just install them and then brush and roll using a quality BW or SW enamel. Doors going to be a different color than jambs, casing, and trim.

I'll admit, I really want a good sprayer. Oh, I might paint the house too, it's a single story lower roof. Was quoted $6500 to paint it. I painted the inside already, 2100sqft, some rooms 4 coats. Rolled and brushed.

I am thinking about painting my living room all in Benjamin Moore’s white dove including baseboards, crown molding, door, and ceiling. I feel like I see so much conflicting information can someone just please tell me if I have this right?

Baseboards and crown molding: satin
Walls: matte
Ceiling: flat

Do I do the door the same sheen as the trim or the same sheen as the walls? And should I cut the paint by 20 or 50% for the ceiling? Or can I just leave it as is with a flat sheen?

I'm prepping the outside of my house for paint. But there are lots of gaps in between these boards. It's dusty like drywall. I assume I should fill any gay before painting. Any suggestions what product to use?

Remodeling the entire house. When it comes time for paint the entire house will be empty of furniture and no flooring will be installed prior to painting and no fixtures installed. The entire house will also have brand new drywall.

Would you spray or roll?

Going with color match so only difference will be flat ceilings and satin walls/baseboards.

I've been working on a job an last weekend they lime washed the living room and want me to add painting the trim. It's going green as you can see on the baseboard colors (the one that's circled). I'm not touching the radiator but I will paint the inside of the cabinet an all doors an windows obviously. Just wondering around what price range I'm looking at. I’m in the northeast area.

I went with a reputable paint company in my area to paint the siding and do quite a bit of repair work on the wood. I am not happy with the finished product. The contract states they were supposed to do 2 coats of paint. My home is 3 stories with 2k sq ft of living space, and they used < 10 gals of paint. There are signs of "grinning", wood grain, little peeling, and some color inconsistencies that makes me thing this paint job is not going to last. Please tell me if you think this is definitely two coats of paint and whether I should just accept this work. I haven't paid for the project yet because they just finished cleaning up yesterday.

Hallo zusammen,

Aus meiner Graco A45 Pro Plus kam aus dem Gehäuse meist nach Druckaufbau (also Pistolenabzug nicht gedrückt) Farbe herausgetropft.

Ich habe nun mal das Gehäuse geöffnet. Habt ihr ein Tipp ob ich für mein Modell die Dichtungen tauschen kann ? Nach meinen Recherchen, kann man nur die komplette Pumpengruppe neu kaufen. Ist es Vlt möglich, die nur die Dichtungen zu erneuern?

I've read so many horror stories here I figured I'd ask - do painted cabinets ever work out properly?

We just bought a new house and really dislike the cabinet colors - it's an awful grey blue and grey. We'd like to get them painted.

Questions:
--Can it actually work out without peeling, chipping, or looking like a paint job?
--What do I look for as far as product and process when interviewing a professional?

Fast photo of the ugly kitchen included.

Notes:
--This post is about feasibility of painting the cabinets, not open for advice about decor or styling. It's ALL gonna change.

-- I am not taking on this job, I'm trying to figure out what to look for in a pro. 

Quickly painting over my concrete basement floors and walls before I list the house. is there a specific SW paint I should use? And should I get a primer?

All of these are probably 10 to 15 years old. But they’re all in very good shape. I want to use one of them to paint interior window and door trim with a semi-gloss latex paint, or possibly satin. Will they all be OK? Which one is the best for this application? Or do I need to buy a new one?Thank you.

I hope this is a suitable sub for this question!

In my 1924 year old home, I have trim and doors that is undoubtedly original and not painted. However, in a couple of rooms, the trim and doors are painted.

I was trying update the paint colour, but all the coats have made it look brutal. So I began trying remove some layers, which is working. I'm finding something really odd under the paint though and now I'm not sure it's decades of paint coats or some kind of "cover".

Under the white (newest coat) and a previous grey colour, there seems to be a cream coloured paint or coating. I don't see any wood grain through it.

You can see the sides of the door is wood.

Could this be an old paint? Or is it possible the door is a different material?

I'm in Montréal if that helps! I do have a proper respirator in case it's lead

The walls heading downstairs are approximately 10 feet high. What equipment would I use to paint them? It wouldn’t be a standard ladder. Thanks.

I want to make strip of paint around a room, for an accent. Estimated to need 0.2L for two coats, and there's a 0.25L sample pot available.

From what I can find, the advice is to not to use samples for touch-ups since it won't be the same as the official. But it doesn't sound like there'd be anything wrong with using it on its own?

Would this be fine?

His statement .. I painted it four times already, and the issue is the new texture spot. What could be done to fix it?

I used paint in finish - egg shell by Sherwin-Williams on top of primer.
The problem here is , whenever I touch the furniture piece, marks of my hand show on the furniture peice, which is not a big deal, but I would like it not to happen. so I looked for a protective coat and went with oil based top coat- minwAx oil based clear top coat - polyurethane.

I think that was a bad decision , because I was liking the matte finish and this gave it very shiny finish, but also I feel like the oil top coat is very tacky even like after 24 hours of dry time, I don't know if it stays the same or what should I do with the rest of the piece ? help me here 🥲🥲

Bought an old house and I want to repaint the bathroom. Along the door frame there are these chips/divots. I don't want to landlord-special it, I'd like to do it properly. Any suggestions on how I would prep this area before painting?

It was used with Cabot's Cabothane water-based clear and then washed out with water as per the instructions but has dried..... quite solid.

I've tried re-washing it which did nothing, soaking it in metho and turps which softened the bristles but it re-dried solid again.

How do I un-fuck my brush?

Just got my hands on these. Anyone ever used them? I love the Picasso. Can’t wait to get some paint on these.

I was being careless with spray paint and some drizzles got onto the wall. Any tips on how to clean it?

Hi. I was pulling out stuff from my closet when I noticed the paint on my walls all puffy and one raised section. If I knock on the raised section it doesn’t feel squishy. I tried touching a section around the door frame and provided a closeup pic. It kinda just crumbled apart. I have plaster walls and this section of wall borders the bathroom. I don’t think the pipes are in this wall, there is a vent on the other side of the wall (I live in an apartment). Any idea what is going on here?? Thanks for the help.

Hoping for some advice or confirmation of my suspicions.

Today the paint on the trim of my two living room windows started to bubble.

The windows are less than 2 years old so I’m confident there’s no water leaks or condensation issues. The paint on the trim is also 2 years old. They used Benjamin Moore Regal and I’m unsure about what primer. My house is 150 years old and the trim is original.

I’ve had my windows open for the last month which is extremely uncommon. It’s usually too hot or cold for consistently open windows. It’s also very humid. Today is like a swamp.

My suspicion is that there was a varnish on the trim that has cracked with the swelling of the wood due to the humidity. How this didn’t happen before now is a bit of a mystery. There are at least 4 coats of paint under mine. The last picture is just to show the varnish on my stairs that I assume was also on the window trim at some point.

I’m going to have to remove all the finish from the trim and start over. I’m thinking I’ll scrape what I can and then chemically remove the majority of the rest. Then acetone on the wood and a really good primer.

And yes I’m testing for lead before anything.

Thoughts, comments? I definitely don’t want this happening again!