The Cheapest Painting Bid Is Rarely the Cheapest Contractor

One thing we have learned from commercial painting is that the number at the bottom of the proposal doesn't always tell you what the job is going to cost.

I've seen painting bids come in far enough apart that the natural question is, “How can one contractor be that much cheaper?”

Sometimes there is a perfectly good answer. A contractor may have better production, a crew nearby, better supplier pricing, or simply see a more efficient way to perform the work.

But sometimes the answer doesn't show up until the project starts.

Something wasn't included.

Something was underestimated.

Or the number only works if everything goes exactly as planned.

Construction rarely works that way.

What Did the Painting Contractor Actually Carry?

This is one of the first things I would look at when leveling commercial painting bids.

Did everyone carry the same surface preparation?

The same number of coats?

The specified coating system?

Lifts and access equipment?

Protection of completed work?

Mobilizations?

Touch-up after other trades?

Supervision?

Closeout and punch work?

On a straightforward project, some of those items may not move the number very much. On a larger commercial, industrial, federal, or military project, they can move it a lot.

A $20,000 difference isn't a savings if $30,000 worth of necessary work was never included.

That sounds obvious, but it isn't always obvious on bid day.

Labor Is Usually Where Reality Shows Up

Painting is labor intensive.

Two contractors can look at the same square footage and arrive at very different labor numbers.

Sometimes that comes down to experience.

A contractor familiar with production painting may know how to sequence the work, where spraying makes sense, when rolling will be faster, how many people an area can support, and what kind of access will be required.

Another contractor may simply be carrying an aggressive production rate because that is what it takes to get the number down.

Once the project starts, the estimate eventually meets reality.

If there aren't enough labor hours in the job, something must give. The contractor either loses money, reduces manpower, starts looking for additional compensation, or tries to make up the difference somewhere else.

None of those are particularly good for the general contractor.

Schedule Has a Cost

This is the part of a painting proposal that is probably hardest to see on a spreadsheet.

A painting subcontractor isn't working in isolation.

We're working behind drywall, ceilings, mechanical, electrical and other trades. At the same time, flooring, final cleaning, casework, commissioning and turnover may be waiting behind us.

If the painting contractor gets behind, the problem doesn't necessarily stay in Division 09.

It moves through the project.

Good production isn't just putting more painters on the job. Sometimes adding people makes production worse because everybody is working on top of one another.

The better approach is usually planning areas, sequencing crews and keeping work available so painters can stay productive.

That is worth something to a GC, even though there isn't a line item on the proposal called “doesn't hold up your project.”

Cheap Rework Is Still Expensive

Surface preparation is another place where a low initial cost can get expensive quickly.

Paint doesn't fix a bad substrate.

Coatings don't perform because the specification says they should. They perform when the surface is properly prepared, the correct product is used, environmental conditions are acceptable, and the material is applied the way the manufacturer intended.

Skipping preparation might save labor today.

It can also create peeling, adhesion failures, corrosion problems, uneven finishes and an ugly punch list later.

By that point, other finishes may already be installed and occupied areas may already be cleaned.

Now a relatively simple painting repair requires protection, remobilization, coordination and additional supervision.

The cost is no longer just paint and labor.

Federal Work Adds Another Layer

On federal and military projects, I would look even harder at what the contractor understands beyond painting.

Davis-Bacon wage requirements, certified payroll, EM 385 safety requirements, submittals, quality-control documentation, site access, employee credentials and contract-specific requirements all affect the job.

A commercial painting contractor can be excellent with a brush and roller and still struggle badly on a federal project if the administrative side isn't there.

When that happens, it affects more than the subcontractor.

It becomes another problem for the GC to manage.

That's why experience on the type of project being bid matters.

Change Orders Matter Too

I'm not against change orders.

If the scope changes, the price should change.

What matters is whether the change really is a change.

A good proposal should make the original scope clear enough that both parties understand what was carried. When additional work occurs, it should be identified quickly, documented and priced so the GC can deal with it while the issue is still current.

What causes problems is discovering late in the project that necessary work was excluded from a low bid and is now being treated as an extra.

That's when the cheap number starts getting expensive.

Lowest Price and Lowest Cost Aren't Always the Same Thing

Price matters. We compete on price every day, just like every other subcontractor.

I also don't believe the highest bidder is automatically the best contractor. Paying more does not guarantee better performance.

The point is simpler than that.

When evaluating a commercial painting contractor, don't stop at the total.

Look at what is included.

Look at the labor and production assumptions.

Look at similar project experience.

Look at safety and compliance.

Look at manpower.

Look at how the contractor handles documentation and changes.

And ask whether the number makes sense for the work that actually has to be performed.

The lowest painting bid may absolutely be the right bid.

Just make sure it's low because the contractor knows how to perform the work efficiently—not because part of the job hasn't made it into the price yet.

Goggans Coatings provides commercial painting and industrial coating services with extensive experience on federal and military projects throughout the Southeast. Our crews and project teams understand that a successful painting project involves more than applying coatings. It requires planning, safety, documentation, production and coordination from the estimate through final acceptance.