How to Estimate Paint Quantities (for US Painters)

How can you estimate how much paint you will need, using blueprints? This video shows you the professional way to calculate paint quantities, using spread-rates.
Don't just guess, estimate properly and save paint, time and money. Featuring imperial measurements and US terminology for painters based in the US.
For more detailed information and training on how to estimate properly, enrol in the Pro Painter Course, available on-line, anywhere, and anytime.
Check out: painters.insti...
#estimating #paint #training #courses

[@dennisgarber]

Unfortunately, the can coverage is pretty irrelevant to real world coverage, due to base viscosity, and wild pigment coverage variation..... Also, dry brushing and dry rolling, as well as thinning, can allow folks to easily double the coverage. While others who are more worried about minor ghosts, streaks, pin holes, tiny misses, textural hide, might get 1/6 the coverage....
You can't calculate the coverage until after the first hour of applying the final color choice and the real product.
When I am supplying paint, if the expected range is 18 to 55 gallons, I always charge for the 55 gallons, even if it takes 33. Because I do work like it were my own house, I tend to use 55 gallons. However, if I went by the label, I am supposed to only use 18 gallons. Rarely ever happens. It is best to ignore the label and the sales reps. Remember, their job is to rope you into buying lots of paint, while promising you will only need to buy a little bit of paint.

[@PaintersInstitute]

ALWAYS follow the Technical Data Sheet and recommended coverage rate. You probably are not putting on enough paint. No manufacturer will ever tell you to do 'dry brushing', 'dry rolling' or to thin down the paint unless spraying. The coverage rate will help you apply to the correct thickness. Failure to meet the minimum thickness of paint will result in your warranty being void, and the paint failing. Learn how to become a professional painter: painters.institute/USA-Pro-Painter-Courses.htm

[@dennisgarber]

@@PaintersInstitute the technical sheets lie about coverage rate. If you do not know this from experience, then you have zero real field experience. This is self evident because each base covers at a different coverage rate. Plus which pigment means more to coverage than anything. Some pigments need 9 to 12 coats to cover, like true reds. Green or yellow typically need 3 coats. There is a host of colors that need 5 coats. Mid range dirty colors cover well with one generous coat. While some deep blues and browns get 800 square feet and cover great... A high quality paint that hides texture may get 100 square feet per gallon first coat, 200 second, 300 third. Yet the label and sheet says 300 to 400, which is a lie. If they printed reality people would get confused, they would sell less paint, and they would need to lower the price per gallon to get people to buy the product..... I certainly don't dry brush like 89 or 100 of my competitors. The more paint you blast and grind off the more you need to reapply-rhe other area most painters fail. I get 18 to 30 years between repaints on old wood houses up north. Unfortunately, done correctly, the paint can cost more than vinyl siding materials, especially if you don't negotiate like the dickens.

[@PaintersInstitute]

@@dennisgarber if you are worried about the cost of paint you don't know how to run a business. The cost of paint is minimal compared with the cost of labor. Our team has a combined 200 years experience in 'the field', or an average of 30 years of industry experience, so if you want to start comparing field experience bring it on! We do paint inspections as well, and one of the main reasons paint jobs fail is because the painter did not put the paint on to specs. If you are using 'one generous coat' your jobs would fail an inspection instantly. You should not be painting until you learn how to paint professionally. The color of the paint has NOTHING to do with how thick you put it on.

[@dennisgarber]

@@PaintersInstitute. I disagree with the assumption that the cost of paint is trivial. Back in 1987, I would spend $500 a month as an employee trying to raise the quality of the brushes, solvents, drops of the 4 painting contractors, for whom I worked. In 1990, working on my own, I realized I was only getting 110 square foot per gallon, and easily using 45 to 60 gallons of paint per job, and when you add ap, I was writing Sherwin-Williams checks for $2200 per outside job, when I was was trying to charge $2200.... Today, I never do less than 3 coats, with much thicker, much more expensive paints, and I get and average of 66 feet per gallon... In truth, I could thin the paint, use a paint system that gets 350 sq feet per gallon, but I would be doing the same 4 year jobs as the guys in the 70's and 80s, and not the 18 to 25 year jobs of the 90s and onward..... The associated products alone, I rarely spend less than $600 per job, because if you don't, your quality goes down.... I realize most of the people here are amateur contractors, and can only do rooms, not real jobs... Even then, you have the choice of a cheap way, or expensive, quality way. A roll of tape can cost anywhere from $1 to $10, and that tape can be skipped, if you don't care about how sharp and crisp your interior wall trim line is. I am sorry but the Chris trick of caulking the tape doesn't leave crisp lines, like Frog Tape-plus, it only works for one coat of paint, for example. However, buying 5 gallons of paint and single use products for one room ( anywhere $120 to $250 to even $400, depending on the brand) is not in the same league as doing an entire large house exterior repaint, or even large 6000 square foot interior for a cheap GC... If your bank account have not been wiped out by your suppliers, then you have never contracted, especially if you start out with an attitude that labor is so much more than materials..... I have literally gotten anywhere from 110 to 600 square feet per gallon on pigmented products. I have gotten as much as 900 square feet on clears (soya alkyd primer and glazing clears). On schools and hotels, as little as 50 feet per gallon for the filler.... Taking the suppliers as a benign variable, will put you in bankruptcy. We think of labor as expensive, only because most experienced men and women are only worth $2 to $4 per hour, yet they think that they are worth $30. They don't have the real skill, they don't practice most efficient practices, they take breaks, they don't have the stamina, they don't have the basic bodily gifts, and they don't push themselves. If you get 50% per day out of them you are happy, and labor rate goes up. A young college kid (not high school drop outs, who generally suck), have the bodily skill, push themselves, but the don't have the skill, and you get 50% per day... And their consistency negates any ability to evaluate them... They do not realize how much time you spend fixing their work, teaching them, supervision, and logistics..... You simply cannot make statements to another contractor that materials are nothing compared to the labor. Save that one for the customer.