While offering residential or commercial painting services, how many times you’ve just got yourself into trouble because of improper painting estimating or takeoff? Some misreading measurements, double counting, and other such frustrations will negatively impact your performance on a commercial paint project.

Let’s review the painting trade, the painting estimating process and also how S-max • Painting Estimating Services & Takeoffs can help you! Don’t hesitate to ask for a FREE quote.

A painting job requires more accurate and in-depth estimating wherein you need to exclude unwanted areas like doors and windows if not part of your scope. It is without a doubt that accurate estimates for commercial paint jobs are notoriously difficult to make especially while you’re already overstretched and over-extended by several responsibilities.

Besides estimating the cost of the paint job, you have to schedule your projects based on priorities, creating contracts, advertising, and providing customer services including selection of materials and mix colors for the clients.

So, if you’re looking to start your own house commercial painting business or are finding difficulty in managing your day to day works in commercial painting job, here’s a thorough guide…

Commercial Painting Business Trade

Commercial painting services include something more than just registering your company with the state. No doubt! The work is super exciting, painless, and doesn’t require hefty investment but things can go wrong if you’re not sure to where you’re heading. You need a plan of attack and you have to follow some certain steps to make sure your project is a success.

Surface imperfections and watermarks can be a pain to cover up, especially for commercial projects. You need to work hard against the stains by multiple coats to cover it. You need to protect surfaces as you don’t want to paint the carpet while painting a skirting board. Applying paint without splashes takes years of experience and it is better to take your time because a cost-effective quick lick of paint can turn into a much longer task.

Common Painting Techniques

Well, to brighten up space and achieve a flawless paint finish you have to follow some definite painting steps. First, you need to plan your approach. You have to be pretty sure what sort of finished project your client requires and you also have to be clear about the mix-color they desire. They can either go with the same color on all four walls or they can consider an accent wall with the bold hue or shade. So, whatever shades are required it is better to visualize it. A lot of paint manufacturing companies are offering free online tools to let you view the space in real-time.

Now you’re ready to empty the commercial space from all the fixtures and furniture. If you’re facing space constraints, you can cover the pieces with a drop cloth or lightweight plastic sheeting. Repeat the same step with the floor.

For the border, you need a roll of painter’s tape unless you have an artist’s steady hand. Apply it to the edges of the room’s corner, base and crown moldings, and door and window casings. Don’t hesitate to use a putty knife to seal if needed but make sure the paint doesn’t get under the tape.

Now is the time to mix your paint using a wooden paint stick but make sure to stir thoroughly to achieve uniform color. You can make use of a larger bucket if needed.

For painting techniques it’s about what your project requires and what you think will be the best way. But make sure to plan and finalize your strategy before picking that brush up.  You can work from top to bottom, starting from the ceilings. For dark walls with a brighter hue, you’ll need at least three coats including one coat of primer to ensure nothing shows through.

It’s always a good practice to take one wall at a time and first cut in paint along with the molding and the corners from top to bottom.

Common Painting Tools

Although every painting job requires specialized tools and gadgets there are essentials your toolkit must-have. It includes paint (obviously!), paints roller, paint sprayer, adjustable ladders, paints roller extension pole, drops cloths, paint brushes, paint tray, sandpaper, painter’s tape, rags, and putty knife.

General Painting Estimation Process

The first thing is first, spend the time to thoroughly review your plans and specs to understand what areas will need paint finishing. Determining how much paint you need can make or break your entire project. You need numbers and accurate one not only to plan your resources but also to know if the project is feasible or not. As a professional painting contractor working on a commercial scale, you have to deal with the number of buildings and rooms. And you’re not always lucky enough to get straight rectangular faces of walls.

For such you require to utilize your reckoning techniques but that manual calculation will let you with no time to undertake a job. Painting estimating also require knowledge of colors and shades. If you’re planning to white paint a charcoal-gray wall, you’ll probably require more paint and more number of colors.