Painting Tips
Commercial Painting Subcontract Clauses That Cost Painters Money
The subcontract arrives after you have won, when the pressure to sign is highest and the appetite to argue is lowest. It is usually a…
Painting Tips
Painting Scope Gaps Between Trades: Who Paints What
Every construction project has a small number of surfaces that nobody clearly owns. They are not in anybody scope because each trade assumed another had…
Painting Tips
The Painting Schedule of Values: Getting Paid on Commercial Work
Winning a commercial painting contract does not produce money. A schedule of values does. It is the document that breaks your contract sum into line…
Painting Tips
Painting Bid Alternates and Unit Prices: How to Price What Might Happen
A bid form usually asks for more than one number. There is the base bid, and then there are boxes for alternates and, on many…
Painting Tips
Painting Bid Exclusions and Clarifications That Hold Up
Every painting bid contains assumptions. The only question is whether they are written down. An exclusion is an assumption made visible, and the difference between…
Painting Tips
How to Respond to a Painting Bid Invitation
An invitation to bid arrives as an email with links, a deadline, and an implication that everyone else already understands the process. Most painters respond…
Painting Tips
The Painting Submittal Package: What Goes In and When
On commercial work you are usually not allowed to open a container until somebody has approved what is in it. The mechanism is the submittal…
Painting Tips
How to Read Painting Specifications Without Getting Caught Out
A specification is the written half of a construction contract, and the painting section of it is where a bid quietly becomes either profitable or…
Painting Tips
How to Read a Room Finish Schedule as a Painter
Of everything in a commercial drawing set, one table decides most of what a painter is being asked to do. It is usually a single…
Painting Tips
Painting Takeoff From Plans: How to Get the Quantities Right
The first commercial bid most painters lose money on is not lost in the field. It is lost at the kitchen table with a set…