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i've hired a day laborer to paint a 14' x 15' room...ceiling, walls, trim, casings, baseboards, no doors. realistically how long should it take to complete using an oil based primer and latex paint. 2 workers.
Asuming they have no real skills, no special equipment, no one to direct them in an efficient way to work AND ...
... most importantly no INCENTIVE to finish quickly? Probably they can milk it for about four days of looking like they are working continuously....
A guy that makes money by doing good work fast will probably charge about $150 - $200 to have this done in two half days. That is why pros make more money in a given unit of time, they schedule little jobs to overlap. You need drying time...
Btw I am assuming that you choose oil based primer because there are stains / poor conditions. If it was just a particularly bold color you needed covered a high quality latex primer would have saved time...
Well the oil based primer will take a long time to dry, at least overnight, and more if you are in a humid area. Not sure why you think you need oil based anything with all of the great acrylic/latex products that are out there today, but that's not what you asked :-)
You're probably looking at around 3 hours each on 2 different days (around 6 total hours). A little more if the room isn't empty and your workers will need to move furniture around. That's my best guess but different folks work at different speeds.
smoke stains = oil based primer. room completely empty and just had wood floors refinished. (i know i should have had room painted first, but needed to have some serious floor repairs/replaced to avoid serious accident). there shouldn't be much prep/spackling, etc. to be done.
they work from about 7:30am - 3:30-4pm, usually no lunch breaks. i'm reading that with today's primers the dry time is fairly quick. i'm looking at using zinsser bin for primer. i was thinking 2 days to complete room. didn't think that was unrealistic based on my own painting inexperience.
yes i know regarding no incentive. that's the part that bothers me; i prefer flat fees. it was hard to find regular painters that had time now with the push for all the exterior painting requests. i'm pressed to get one particular room finished asap.
i have multiple interior rooms to be painted, and with the drying time, could have laborers work on another room. however, i'm not sure i want to commit to them for all the rooms until i see quality of work and how long it takes (= $$). i want to press them for 2 coats of finish, but not at the expense of another day.
$150-200, i wish! day rate is more than that. i think i'm ok with 2.5 days, but if it drags on much longer than that, i'll have to just tell them to stop...
It depends on the level of quality that you want. Our painters spackled and sanded for a day or two and then took very bright lights and held them an inch from the wall and went over every inch looking for blemishes. They circled any dings or marks with pencil and then spand another half day filling and sanding. Then one day to prime. One day for the first coat then they painted the moldings at the end of that day. Another day for a second coat and then one more day for the final coats ont ehmoldings. Moldings were either painted a different color or in most cases were stained and clear coated. It was about five days in all per room. Costly, but a beautiful job when it was completed. We only used them in the common rooms (parlors and the dining room). The other rooms got a quick and cheap paint job which took about a day and a half per room. IT did nto look as nice, but it is passable. Some of the rooms I painted myself (after watching them a few times and asking questions). Not too bad, but not as good as the pros.
thanks coldjensens for the detailed response. exactly what i was looking for. after looking at the schedule, the daylaborers only have a total of 3 days to get room completed before bed delivery, so i may have to settle for a 'passable' job. hopefully it won't be a bad job (i can do a bad job myself). i am prolly at fault since this bedroom was not the 'project'. get a new fancy bed, then seems to warrant: well i prolly should get the floors refinished, the room painted, new bedding...it just snowballed.
chet's comment about pros can squeeze in little jobs, gave me an idea and for the other 3 (public) rooms, one of the pros will squeeze me in. thanks for that tidbit of info chet!
dedratermi thanks for your post. it gave me another idea. since i'm paying a day rate, i think i'm going to try to get them to do some other little jobs around house while they are waiting for primer, etc. to dry. old house, always things to get done.
it's great to have a place to bounce off things and get different takes. thanks!
dedratermi thanks for your post. it gave me another idea. since i'm paying a day rate, i think i'm going to try to get them to do some other little jobs around house while they are waiting for primer, etc. to dry. old house, always things to get done.
Make them give you a list of what they need and go get it yourself. I hate to pay workers to go shopping and they always seem to take foreever. Plus some of them will mark up the materials, especially if they get a contractors discount. Ask them to let you use their contractor number so that you can get the contractors discount at H.D/
i agreed to get the paint and primer. they mentioned something about tape (not on my newly refinished uncured wood floors!). they worked in the rehab business, they should have their own drop cloths, brushes, rollers, spackle, etc. there's no deposit monies.
when i looked at the schedule/timeline, only have 3 weekdays to complete the room before i have a major delivery due. i just hope they are fast enough to get the job done in a timely and quality manner.
I hope this is heavy sarcasm. Otherwise, everyone who smokes some herb better curl up in the fetal position and cry since having herb is a federal crime
Quote:
Originally Posted by desertsun41
Day Laborers? Sounds to me like you broke the law. How long they take to paint should be secondary to what can happen to you should you get caught.
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Asuming they have no real skills, no special equipment, no one to direct them in an efficient way to work AND ...
