Painting Contractor Job Duties

Job Estimates

• If you're going to be a paint contractor, you have to know how to paint a structure and turn a profit. The only way to do this is to know how much things cost. The variable costs include time and material. Knowing how long a job will take requires knowing the skill levels of your employees and how fast they work.

  Knowing how much material you need to buy and what they cost enables you to write an estimate. The faster your employees can get the job done using the least amount of materials helps you make the most money. You need a good understanding of paint coverage rates to know how much you'll need to buy to paint any given surface.

Payroll and Taxes

• Paint contractors have to pay employees and employment taxes. Hiring talented painters at a reasonable rate is an art. If you pay them too much, you won't make any money, and if you pay them too little, they'll quit.

  The balance between what a person's skills are worth and how much you pay them for those skills can only be discovered by putting them to work. Once you know your employee's skill levels, you can talk it over with them and pay them more or less depending on experience. Give a raise when an employee improves quality and quantity.

Equipment

• You can start a painting business with a bucket, a paintbrush and a paint roller, but a number of other tools and supplies can help improve your craftsmanship and minimize time. A paint sprayer is a must-have tool for every professional paint contractor. A mode of transportation to transport tools, supplies and employees is also needed. Cleaning and maintaining the equipment is crucial to keeping overhead costs down.

  Even if a professional cleaning company is called in, a painter should know what cleaning tools and supplies he needs to paint what needs to be painted. Degreasing solvents for metal surfaces, a pressure washer, paint thinner and a vacuum are among the tools that keep dirt and debris from interfering with paint-to-surface adhesion.

Prep Work

• Repair work isn't as common on new construction jobs as it is on remodel repaints, but you need to be prepared for both. Scraping, puttying, drywall, carpentry and sanding tools all come in handy when fixing the surfaces to be painted.

  Before painting, a contractor has to cover the valuables. Paper and plastic masking of furniture, hardware, light fixtures, cabinets and flooring is essential. Never be without a good supply of cloth paint drops.

Priming and Finishing

• It's one thing to paint, but it's quite another to paint well. Understanding the uses of various primers and paints is crucial to painting different exterior and interior surfaces. There is nothing worse than having to go back to a job two months after you finished it, because the paint has begun peeling off. Professional know-how and techniques can be learned only through trial and error. Become an apprentice to a journeyman painter to learn the tricks of the trade.