Free Painting Invoice & Estimate Template (Word, Excel, PDF)

Per painted component, and bill it either way, because that is how the test works. A lead-free finding counts only when a certified renovator uses an EPA-recognized kit, or a certified inspector or risk assessor tests it, and it clears only the component tested: a clean swab on the casing says nothing about the window stool beside it. Where lead turns up, containment, the scrape and spot prime of failing coats, the cleanup and the clearance wipe are lines of their own, not a fold in a room price. Two federal prohibitions belong in the notes, since customers ask you to skip them: torching painted surfaces is barred outright, as is a heat gun above eleven hundred degrees Fahrenheit, while machine sanding is allowed only shrouded and on a HEPA vacuum. Encapsulation with an approved coating gets its own line, priced against removal.

As a change order dated the day it is asked for, never a conversation at the walkthrough. Price it by whole surfaces, not by what is left to do: a new color cannot be blended into a wall already coated, and a paint break only reads clean at an inside corner, a trim edge or a chair rail. Every plane the change touches gets recoated corner to corner, and the cut-in at ceiling lines and corners is a separate pass that now happens twice. Name which rooms take the new color and which were finished in the first, so one page can carry two prices without the second looking like an overcharge. Where the new color was matched to something already in the house, custom color matching is its own line.

Start with a count: doors and drawer fronts are the unit, and kitchen is not. Boxes and face frames belong on a separate line, since those are brushed and rolled in place while the doors are usually sprayed off-site; say which, because doors leaving the house means living without them for days. Prep carries the job: degreasing, de-glossing or scuff sanding, oak cabinet grain filling where a smooth painted finish is wanted, then a bonding primer, since a factory catalyzed finish gives nothing to grip. Name the topcoat by class, a waterborne alkyd or a catalyzed conversion varnish, not just enamel. Cabinet hardware removal and rehang is its own line, as is new hardware when the holes move.

The unit and the measurement, which differ between the two. Deck staining is priced by the square foot of walking surface, with railings, stairs, skirting and the joists underneath billed apart. Fence goes by the linear foot, and the line carries the height and whether one face or both got coated, since a six-foot privacy fence done on two sides is twice the job the neighbor quoted. Name the product class beside the color, since it sets what the next recoat can be: you can climb in opacity, semi-transparent over a weathered clear, solid over semi-transparent, porch enamel over solid, but never back down without stripping. Give stripping and brightening its own line where it happened, and board replacement a per-board line with the count.