Pricing finish

[JOHN GILLOTTI]

Hey all, I'm new here to posting. Followed this site for a long time. I'm curious how you all price finishing. Not dollar amounts but the methods used to come up with price. We do custom kitchens and millwork and have been figuring a percentage of the job cost for finish. Recently I started doing some unfinished furniture for a store and don't know what the easiest way to figure it is. Anyone charging based on sq inches . We spray mostly pre cat lacquers and post cat cv. Thanks in advance

[Andy Pratt]

Start keeping exact track of your direct investment (mostly finish but include mask filters, fan filters, finish filters, masking tape etc. in the equation), and exact square footage of finish coverage for each finishing job you do, also keep exact count of time spent spraying. Once you have enough of a variety of jobs recorded to accurately represent your typical project then you can use those numbers to get a pretty close figure worked up for your materials cost per square foot of finish applied. Once you have that, you know what it is actually costing you personally to spray finish a given square foot of material. At that point you can add in your labor rate based on however you do that for your shop. Keep in mind that some items waste more finish lost to the air than others. Don't go off manufacturer specs of sqft/gal because what you actually get in your shop, with your equipment/people to get the quality you expect, is what matters.

[Brian W Smith]

Time divided by,hassle factor.

Trying to keep the two separated......IOWs,in the perfect world;the part/s would be easy to shoot,weather is perfect,spraybooth clean,easy wet storage,yada yada.Then it's just an educated estimate on how long and how much material."I can name that tune in" sort of thing.The issue is that,it's rarely a "perfect world".Hence the equation.Here temperature and humidity control is at a value high enough to effect the situation....obviously dependent on material choices.

I used to just figure the % of build time(as you posted).....but as we got more into refinishing and more exotic materials the game sort of changed.It was one reason we upped our game so to speak on equipment and techniques.The more versatile we became on the hdwre side,the easier it was on some parts of the "hassle factor".For instance,air dryers and super clean hoses.....or an arsenal of guns......ability to weld up specific racks/carousels..etc,etc.All done very matter of fact and quickly.

Good luck,it's an often overlooked issue.

[scott vroom]

Are you trying to figure out what it costs to finish, or are you really trying to price your unfinished furniture?

[Prashun Patel]

I'm talking out of school here, because I'm not a pro. However, the marginal effort of spraying extra inches doesn't seem to be logical.

Seems to me the effort is proportional to the number of units, the number of coats, and whether there's a dying and or glazing step.

(Happy to be respectfully put in my place here.)

[JOHN GILLOTTI]

I'm trying to figure out the most effective and fast way to price finishing in general. Obviously a 4 step color process (dye,ws stain, glaze , toner) is more than a stain and clear. I was once taught , how to figure how much material (laquers etc) you would use on a job by multiplying the surface area x your average sprayed wet mil thickness divieded by the solid content. Or something along those lines. That's why I brought up by the sq in. Spraying a few extra inches on a few peices of furniture isn't much work

[JOHN GILLOTTI]

Hit enter by accident.... But if you multiply the 5 or 10 extra dollars across a few hundred peices of furniture throughout the year it is. I was just calculating a table say 18"w x 24"t= 432 sq"x $.30= $129.9 to finish the piece. Prob on the low side but may cover a basic stain/clear.