Painting, oh paintng

I was going to buy an 1,800 square foot apartment in estate condition about 25 years ago. A contractor working in the building gave me an estimate of 75 K for wall prep, painting, and floor sanding. The apartment had not been painted in over 25 years. I was living in the building at the time in a smaller apartment. Based upon the condition of my apartment when I had moved in, this was not an unreasonable price. I had one room where they had to go down to the lathe in patches, requiring extensive drying time between layers. Just a little crack with peeling in the area turned into an extensive patch as the surface just crumbled away without much effort on the painter's part.
The floors weren't as bad because they had been covered with large area rugs. They had been cleaned on a regular basis but you could see a difference in color where the rugs had been.

Prep: one day, three laborers
Spray paint: one day, two laborers
Done.

4 chimps
100 feet of sandpaper
10 cans of primer
20 cans of paint

2 weeks

= Jackson Pollock
$200 million, plus bribe for the super.

uesnewbie2015,

Are they skim coating all walls and ceilings? How many sq ft is the apt?

I have the same question regarding paint pricing. I have a 900 square foot pre-war and have received estimates of $55K and $72K and the walls really are not that bad pre-renovation. When I asked one guy, how long it would take. He said 5 guys for two weeks of skim coating and two more weeks for painting. And the apartment is only 900 sft...

cal, Why do you want skim coating for a 900 sq ft apartment? Without it you can get a nice paint job with moldings etc for $3-4k. Just talk to your super.

BTW, you can get it done even cheaper if just get some one from Janovic at $200 per day. They will finish off in 5 days. Material cost probably $500-750.

Honestly, I wasn't looking for skim and paint job. I was getting estimates for rehab of the apt. and that was part of the estimate. I thought the first person was crazy until the next person said $72K. Really $80 per square foot?!?

In that case, I would think 6-10k as the contractor needs to make some money. Skip the skim coating. Just go for egg-shell paint rather than high gloss. If they are going to do the new drywall, you certainly do not want to pay for skim coating in an apt this size. You will not get your money back. What is your project size in $. I may have a referral.

Referral for painting or for contracting? I need to rehab 2bd, 2 bath and kitchen. If you have a contractor you want to refer, please feel free. As for $80 psft skim/paint jobs, I will have to pass.

Contractor. Email me at 300streeteasy@gmail.com

Cal, Talk to Keith. I gave him the contact.

Thanks so much, Mercer! Keith reached out.

Contrator did our high-end reno recently and we were happy with the quality, speed and price.

Painting is a very difficult item to price because of expectations. When I first started in this business my painting price (didnt know this at the time) was very inexpensive. Its just paint right? No it isn't. It depends on ones expectations. Anyone can come in and roll some paint on a wall (just ask the super) but most people do want a very nice paint job, and why wouldn't they? I would point out problem areas on a wall on clients would say" thats ok, I don't mind that". When we finish and ask for payment... "can't we do something about this" and point to the same problem area. Thats why painters prices are high, they have to assume that it will be a high end paint job. Calbear, I would be happy to take a look at your project, I am sure my painting price would be a lot less.

Jeff
primerenovationsnyc.com

No matter what, that painting price is exorbitant, which I assume really comes down to 3 rooms since there is little or no paint in the kitchen and baths. Are they stripping moldings or doors? If these are plaster walls and they are being cut into/damages/moved/connected to new drywall you may have no choice to skimcoat if you want a high quality finished product. Are they proposing to skim coat ceilings? That can be expensive, and probably unwarranted. Not $70K expensive, but expensive.

primer, What do you charge per sq ft for skim coating with your admin add-on etc for old walls? Appx range would be great. Guessing price will be much cheaper for new drywall.

300 Mercer,
It really depends on a couple of factors. What condition are the walls in. What level of skim coating are we talking about? It goes back to expectations. Take a pre war building with a lot of beams, some people want each beam and corner to be perfect while others just want all walls and ceilings to be uniform. It also depends if it is just a part of a bigger project. I think skim coating could be anywhere from $4-10$ sq ft

Thanks a lot Primer.

Most of the cost is in the prep/skim coating not the painting. My last apartment I spent an exorbitant amount of money on the skim/painting, but then I did not have to re-paint in the 20 years I was there at all.

Calbear, Let us know how much lower the estimates ended up being and if you need skim coating or not?

you guys are paying a lot for painting... wow. we painted our rental a few years ago. spent i think 2k for the painting. got our handyman from our old building to do it for us.

10K max for this paint job. The highest quality paint. The highest quality finish. You are being ripped off. It's simple.

Hudson Home,

How do you come up with 10K max? Does that include skim coating?

A decent skim coating alone would be twice that.

how many hours would it take to skim coat the apartment? still think you guys are getting ripped off.

Batraa,

Why do you think they are getting ripped off? Having the super paint your rental apartment is far different then a professional skim coat and paint to a level 5 finish. How much do you think a skilled painter should get an hour? How many hours do you think it would take?

I had my 550 square foot apartment on the UWS skim coated and painted for $4k including all supplies. This included painting and sanding doors, moulding, around the windows, etc... They did perfect work, took about 1 week and 4 people.

Let me know if you want the contact info,

nycLT, can you send their contact info to fd7329@gmail.com? Thank you very much.

Do they also do skim coating of concrete ceiling?

NYCLT,

One week? For level 5? Impossible. How many coats?

@FireDragon - sent and yes, they skim coated the entire ceiling which was concrete, primed and painted.

@Primer05, yes I was very surprised myself at the quality of the work this team did, everything was top notch.

nycLT, it seems that you did not have a contractor involved. Or in other words, I am guessing that the contractor was one of the workers. $200 per day per person is $800 and 5 days is $4k.

nycLT, Will you be able to put me in touch with your painter? My email is 300streeteasy@gmail.com. Thanks a lot.

@300_mercer, correct, there was no contractor involved, I dealt directly with the main person of the paint company.

I sent you the contact info,

Thanks a lot.

primer - you seem to be much more knowledgeable about painting than i am. i am just telling what we got our three bedroom painted for - two bedrooms and a big living room, and dining room. it was white prior to them painting it. we paid very little.

Batraa,

I can appreciate that you had your apartment painted for a great price. Everything is relative. . A person can buy a 1,000 sq ft apt and do a gut renovation for 100k. Another person can buy the same apartment and the renovation could cost 1 million dollars. The person spending 100k would say the person spending the million was getting ripped off. Except, that might not necessarily be true. Its like anything else. You can stay at the Holiday inn for $150 a night or stay at The Four Seasons for $800 a night. Just because its more doesn't make it a rip off.

yep, and that's what i was trying to get across. you don't need to pay that much to do a basic paint job. we didn't want to go overboard on a rental.

batraa, I think if all the painter is doing is applying a fresh coat of paint, it is very cheap. However, if you have significant moldings with some sanding required and high gloss paint on them which is different from the walls, multiple colors within the same room, and some wall sanding involved, the cost is much higher. A handyman can not do it. For the type of space you describe, at least $5k with Ben Moore Aura paint and without a contractor and insurance. If you are going via a contractor, you need to put at least 50% mark up as the contractor needs to make a living and is overseeing the work. Skim coating is completely different cost.

batraa,

makes perfect sense.

yes we just put a fresh coat of paint.

Great. I think we have solved the mystery about people paying very different amounts for painting.

nycLT may you send me the contact info for your painter please? NYCkid2005@gmail.com