PAINTING · INTERIORS AND FINISHES · FIXED BY STEP 08

Primer finds the drywall defects and you pay to fix them

Primer goes on, every taped joint and screw pop lights up, and the fix comes out of your labor budget and not the drywall sub's.

WHY IT'S A PAINTING PROBLEM

Every other finish trade inspects the surface before it commits money to it. Your inspection tool is your own first coat, which costs labor and material to apply and can't be undone. That timing is what makes somebody else's defect yours: the proof and the liability hit in the same minute, at 6 a.m., with no written substrate acceptance anywhere in the file.

WHAT IT COSTS

The size of it

A wall delivered at Level 4 and finished to Level 5 by your crew runs 2 to 4 extra labor hours per 100 square feet plus a full extra prime coat, routinely 15 to 25 percent of the interior labor budget. Almost none of it converts to a change order.

OVERHEAD AT $1M–$5M

13%

CFOS target 12% for painting.

GROSS MARGIN AT $1M–$5M

18%

CFOS target 22% for painting.

NET PROFIT AT $1M–$5M

CFOS target 10% for painting.

Paint transfers whatever is under it. Specs call for a Level 4 or Level 5 drywall finish under critical lighting, but the difference can't be judged until your primer is on the wall. On concrete and masonry the same gate is substrate moisture and alkalinity, in-situ relative humidity per ASTM F2170 and pH testing on new masonry, and usually neither test got run. By the time the evidence is visible the drywall crew is demobilized and the schedule won't tolerate bringing them back, so you skim-coat, sand, and re-prime, and everyone on site calls it part of painting.

WHAT TO DO

Three moves, in order

STEP 01

Write a one-page substrate acceptance form signed by the GC's super, listing the drywall level, the lighting condition, and the moisture or pH result, before you open a pail.

STEP 02

Prime a control area first, photograph it under the specified lighting, and send the photos the same day with a cost per square foot to correct.

STEP 03

Keep skim, sand, and re-prime on a cost code separate from finish coats, so at closeout you can point to the hours you spent repairing somebody else's work.

THE FIX

Step 08: Standards and accountability

Five hours a month of owner time, spent projecting the work.

CFOS-08 · CHAPTER 8

Five hours a month, spent projecting the work

What this step changes, what it depends on, and how to tell it's installed.

BENCHMARKS

Painting by revenue band

All 7 bands are published. The CFOS target is beside the figure up to $10M to $25M, and the 4 bands above that are labelled modeled.

ACROSS EVERY TRADE

PMs aren't accountable for margin

Your PMs are measured on schedule and on the client being happy. No role in the company is measured on the number at the bottom.

SAME TRADE

What else costs painting contractors money

PAINTING · CFOS-05

Tinted material is a write-off the day it ships

Forty gallons of factory-tinted coating stay in your shop because the designer went one shade cooler, and the supplier's answer is no.

PAINTING · CFOS-04

Your escalation clause protects the wrong 15%

Paint went up eight percent and you barely felt it. Wages moved four and the job stopped making money.

PAINTING · CFOS-01

You bid square feet and spend man-hours

You bid it at a buck ten a foot, the job closed months ago, and you still can't tell anyone what a foot cost you.

PAINTING · CFOS-06

The bid paid for two trips and you made eleven

You made eleven separate visits to one job, and the estimate had money in it for maybe two.

SAME MECHANISM, OTHER TRADES

The same mechanism in other trades

CIVIL

The grading permit clock isn't on your schedule

Third resubmittal on the grading permit, the power pole relocation is six months out, and your crew and iron cost money while no party in your contract chain is at fault.

CONCRETE

The 28-Day Break Decides a Pour You Already Billed

You poured in March on an approved mix, the cylinders came back low in April, and two floors have already gone up on the slab in question.

DEMOLITION

Four Clocks Own Your Start Date And You Own None

The machine is on the pad, the crew is standing around, and everyone is waiting on a letter from the gas company. None of the clocks that release your start belong to you.

QUESTIONS

What painting owners ask

Painter fixing drywall defects found after primer who pays?

Primer goes on, every taped joint and screw pop lights up, and the fix comes out of your labor budget and not the drywall sub's.

What does it cost?

What do I do first?

Write a one-page substrate acceptance form signed by the GC's super, listing the drywall level, the lighting condition, and the moisture or pH result, before you open a pail.

What are painting contractors supposed to be making?

Painting runs 18% gross margin, 13% overhead and 5% net profit before taxes at $1M–$5M. The all-trade average is 7%, so this trade is 2 points below it. The CFOS target is 10%.

Which part of the system fixes it?

The step is number 08, standards and accountability. Five hours a month of owner time, spent projecting the work. It comes from chapter 8 of CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System.

OR HAVE IT HANDLED

Everything on this page is something you can install yourself, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for painting contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, run by the same author.

What a fractional CFO does for painting contractors

AUTHOR

JOSH LUEBKER

MASTER ELECTRICIAN · 150+ PROJECTS · $2.1B+ MANAGED

Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.