How to Save Money on Home Painting

Some Cost Saving Tips You Can Try

• Do the easy painting yourself. I can provide effective training and you can borrow some equipment for the paint job. Try out an airless sprayer.
• Trade! Do you have a product or service to trade? Make an offer. Ex.: Vacation rentals, dental or mechanic services, event tickets and food will be of interest.
• Be on a low budget wait list. If you have flexible timing, ask painting companies to contact you when they can lower their quoted price. Example, "Can you call me within 6 months if you can make a discount?". Wait for the lowest price calls.
• Say you can have interior painting done at anytime during the year.
• Try making an offer. Ex: "Please call me when you can paint my living room for $400."
• Post your paint job in the jobs or gigs category on Craigslist. Do good screening.
• Try to get a quote based on hourly rate with a limit on the total price. (Check that the limit compares nicely with competitive quotes.) This way you have a chance at saving if the job finishes earlier than expected.
• Post your job through BBB. Painters have 1 hour to reply and perhaps the less busy painters are charging less.
• When you hire Valois Painting for a contract over $1000 get $20 credit per competitor quotation that you submit by email or have hard copies. Limit is 4 submitted competitor quotes per address. Competitor quotations must look authentic with letterhead and lists all job detail.

19 Tips To Reduce Interior Painting Prices

• If moving out, get quote for one coat of same colour.
• Move furniture and delicates out of the way. Totally empty rooms are cheapest.
• Remove and put back electrical cover plates.
• Clean soap residue off washroom ceilings and walls.
• Hire a drywaller for extensive drywall improvement before painting.
• Cover new rugs with rug protector plastic
• Remove and reinstall door knobs.
• Avoid drastic colour changes and/or many colours.
• Choose trim and wall colours with the least amount of contrast.
• Skip on painting closets.
• Clean up after painting. (Dry-fall paint and dust from patches.)
• Specify the quality level in all areas.
• Check to see if it's cheaper to replace than to paint it. (ex. French doors)
• Select areas seen the most to be painted.
• Skip items that require precise brushing and masking. Ex. Stair spindles.
• Prep surfaces for painting such as vacuuming, cleaning, scraping, sanding, hole filling or wall paper removal.
• Wash wall paper glue off the walls.
• Paint during the off season. Painters in Surrey and Langley BC may drop prices during December, January or February.
• Try cleaning the surface in case it doesn't need painting.
• Install air conditioning before painting. You may get a discount for cool conditions during the summer heat. Mention this during the estimate.
• Test out a new painter by getting a quote on a small area (ex. a room) before requesting a quote for the whole house. This enables you to gauge if the painter doesn't do much for lots of money.

11 Tips To Reduce Commercial Painting Prices

• Produce a final painting plan/blue print copy for me ready at quote time.
• Arrange sufficient lighting, ventilation and regulated temperature (~20C )
• Grant a dedicated parking spot.
• Ensure there's water, hydro and a washroom nearby.
• Make floor free of obstacles during painting.
• Schedule interior painting during the Winter.
• Dodge setting tight deadlines.
• Provide on site scaffolding or lifts.
• Avoid scheduling painting after 6pm.
• Allow cross-matches to the nearest paint supplier.
• Before the estimate, say 'I have many projects for you if the price is right.'

12 More Tips To Reduce Painting Prices

• Check the painters address. Painters away from Surrey or Langley may cost more.
  (I'm centrally located between Surrey BC and Langley.)
• Avoid requiring painting during hot weather.
• Make sure all job detail is specified and there is agreement on the price, quality level and deadline. This is to reduce the chance of surprise extra costs later on.
• Request painters to estimate again at a later time.
• Don't be committed/obligated to a company/painter. Get multiple quotes every time you have a different painting project. Sometimes you'll hire the same painter, sometimes not.
• Check out HandyCanadian. This is a reverse auction website (reverse Ebay where it gets cheaper with bids) where competing contractors lower their prices to undercut each other.
• Don't tip the painter. It's not customary to tip trades in BC.
• Schedule your painting away from holidays, weekends and special events.
• Choose an appropriate brand of paint. Paint in Surrey BC can range between $22/gal to $80/gal.
  Less expensive paint can be used on ceilings. More expensive paint can be used on trim due to low volume used. Chemical resistant paint used on garage floors.
• If possible, have painting start at any time and can be completed within 12 months.
• You purchase the paint. I let clients use my contractor account to get discounted paint at all paint stores. Pay with a rewards type credit card and collect points.
• Check if you can purchase the paint. Some painters mark up the cost of paint or over estimate the quantity.
• Make sure the painter is painting and not cleaning. Cleaners are less expensive than painters.
• Hire a healthy athletic looking painter. They can get more done with less labour time.
• Sometimes it's cheaper to hire a painting company directly instead of through a renovation/construction contractor. Compare prices.
• Don't paint. If selling, the buyer may not like the new colours or may repaint everything with preferred colours. On the contrary, marked up and damaged walls with wild colours may turn off buyers.

Off Beat Ways to Reduce Painting Prices :P

• Get a quotation from a painting company. Then ask all friends, family or employees if they'd like to paint for that amount minus some amount.
• Invite and fly in good friend Jose Ricardo Valdez from Mexico to stay at your place. He's the painter you saw painting your beach hotel when you were on vacation.
• Move to a place with better looking paint.
• Hire tall painters. Tall painters can reach everything faster (long arms too) and therefore less labour time and cost.
• Hide the walls with posters, pictures, drapes, flags, fancy fabrics and furniture.
• If painting yourself, buy the paint through a painting contractor. Expect around 30% saving. Contact the contractor and meet up at the paint store.
• Try to get quotations from painting companies used by home builders. Home builders profit more by using the least expensive painters. Go where homes are being built and find the painters.
• Hire business newbies. Some painters are experienced with painting but are new at business. They maybe clueless about industry rates and may bid lower than average.
• Catch the painter in a good mood during quote time. The price might depend on if the painter is hit by financial hardship or misfortune.
• Trade. Offer vacation rentals, dental and mechanic services, food and entertainment deals in trade for painting.
• Say you'll provide home cooked lunches during the job. This is ok. Lunch at a restaurant can be $7 to $15. Done each day, it adds up during the work year. Imagine that canned spaghetti can lower the paint quote. :P
• Invite the contractor lunch or dinner at a restaurant or have a BBQ before the quote. Professional circles use business dinners to get impressions and negotiate a price. A burnt hot dog might save you a bit. Additionally, BBQ's are a means to get familiarity. The belief is the more you are liked, the more likely you'll get a "friendly" quotation.
• Mistints from paint stores are often 50% off. Some recycling depots that collect acrylic paint allow the public to take paint away. It's free.

13 Tips To Reduce Exterior Painting Prices

• Prep surface such as cleaning, scraping, sanding and hole filling.
• Remove all vines off walls and cut back bushes.
• Clean off organic growths such as mold, algae or moss.
• Pull off door weather seals. Replace and/or reinstall after painting.
• Relocate wasp nests.
• Move all obstacles at least 10ft from exterior walls.
• Repaint with nearly the same colour.
• Pick up dog poo in the yard. It gets on my sprayer hose.
• Move vehicles far away during spray painting.
• Take down Christmas lights and anchors.
• Remove and re-install door knobs and handles.
• Don't paint. There are alternatives to paint such as granite, slate, stone, decorative concrete, brick, marble, tile, colored stucco, custom colour vinyl or aluminum. Perhaps Google for best tips on saving money on siding.
• Also, see sections below.

Not Cost Saving Tips but Yield Better Painting

• Be involved. Check early and often that the painting is up to expectation. If there's something you don't like immediately say it and demonstrate it. You're the boss.
• Be assertive. Before, at the beginning and during the painting state what you want. For example 'I want these 50 year damaged walls with 20 coats of slopped on paint to look like brand new drywall!'
• Before painting, complain about the existing paint job (cracks, chips, drips, hairs, misses, blobs) to show the level of quality you are expecting.
• Have all the neighbors come by to get cards off the painter during the job or during quote time. Your project may become a shining example otherwise the other potential jobs are lost.

More Tips to Save on Painting