Five questions about your year. You get your floor rate: the cost one hour on a job carries before paint and supplies. It is your cost, not a price.
What you need to take home for the year, not what you hope for.
A full work year is 260 days, but rain, holidays, sick days, estimates, slow months and gaps between jobs eat a lot of that. Most small crews land between 150 and 200. Start at 180 and be honest.
Hours on the job, not driving or picking up paint.
Add up every helper's hourly pay on a normal day. 0 if you work alone.
Your floor rate and the working behind it will show up here as you type.
Billable hours are the days you are actually on a paying job times the hours you work in one of those days. A full work year is 260 days, but weather, holidays, sick days, estimates and slow months take a real bite. Most small crews land between 150 and 200 days. Guess high here and every number below comes out too low.
Fixed costs per hour are everything you pay in a year whether you work or not (insurance, vehicle, phone, software, licensing, storage) divided by those billable hours.
Your pay per hour is what you need to pay yourself for the year divided by the same hours. Crew is what your helpers cost you per hour, together.
Your floor is the three added up. Every hour on a job has to bring in at least that much, before paint and supplies, or the year does not cover itself.
The overhead percentage is your fixed cost per hour divided by your labor per hour (your pay plus crew). Put that on top of labor in a quote and, over a year, it carries your fixed costs. It assumes your own pay is in the labor line, the same as a helper’s.
Take your floor rate into the free calculator and see what a real room costs at your numbers.
One page of repaint math for the truck: sqft, gallons, labor, margin.
Crew-hours and labor cost from room count, prep level, and day rate.
The full method: measure, materials, labor, overhead, margin, walk-away.