Painter's Log Blog
Pricing, job costing, and the lessons of running a painting business — written by Kevin Spahn, owner of Paintcrafters LLC.
Cabinet painting is a finishing process with a callback tail, not a paint job with small doors. Here's how to price it — per-opening hours, loaded labor, materials, and the risk margin the surface demands.
A working painter's method for pricing an exterior — prep hours first, loaded labor, materials, overhead, margin — and why prep blowout and weather are the two line items that decide whether the job makes money.
How a working painter prices a whole-house interior — crew hours by scope, loaded labor, materials, overhead, and margin — and why per-square-foot shortcuts quietly lose money on trim-heavy homes.
A working painter's method for pricing a single room — real hours, loaded labor cost, materials, overhead, and margin — plus the setup-time trap that makes small rooms the easiest jobs to lose money on.
One clock-in, two job sites, a Home Depot run in between. Most time tracking bills the whole day to one job — and quietly lies about what both jobs cost. Here's the fix.
A complete, no-nonsense guide to starting a painting business — deciding to go solo, the legal setup, startup costs, your first tools, finding customers, pricing your first job, and getting paid.
How to turn a price into a professional paint-job bid that wins work and protects your margin — what to include, how to present it, and the one step that makes you better at it every time.
A simple, honest method for pricing a paint job when you're just starting out — how to build the number from hours, materials, and markup without lowballing yourself.
Most painters know what they billed. Almost none know what the job cost. Here's a simple, repeatable way to find out — in about ten minutes, with numbers you already have.
You did the revenue. The profit isn't there. This is where it leaks on a painting business — and how to find the jobs that quietly cost you money.
Estimated vs. actual hours is where painting margin quietly dies. Here's how to measure the gap on a real job — and why the customer paying in full doesn't mean you won.
Booked solid and still scraping to make payroll? There are two different reasons a busy painting business stays broke. Here's how to tell which one is yours — and fix it.
Cash in hand feels like profit. For a side-job painter it usually isn't all profit — and the difference matters more than you'd think. Here's the simple way to know.
The smartest way to start a painting business is on the side first — while you still have a paycheck. Here's how to do it, and the real number to hit before you quit.
Whether you need a contractor's license to paint houses depends on your state and the size of your jobs. Here's a plain-English guide to figuring out what you actually need.
A realistic, itemized breakdown of what it costs to start a painting business in 2026 — tools, legal, insurance, and the hidden cost most new painters forget.
Notes, lessons, and real numbers from a working painter who built software for his own crew.