Paint Contractor's Manual

by Jobe H. Tool and Dave Matis

How to start and run a profitable paint contracting company: getting set up and organized to handle volume work, avoiding mistakes, squeezing top production from your crews and the most value from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0910460469
• ISBN13: 9780910460460
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Craftsman Book Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.3" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Great read

Packed with information and pages you can copy and go use for your own business. Some information is outdated but all around a great book for someone trying to start their own painting business.

For my purposes, an excellent book

Packed full of information for a novice would-be painting contractor like me. It's a pity they have not updated it and done a reprint, because at one point it talks about typing up an invoice. No computer is ever mentioned. An updated edition would be wonderful. Still a great book for my purposes.

highly reccomended

excellent book ,very informative and concise ,it helped me with my own painting business highly reccomended !

Written for painters trying to become contractors

If you don't know how to paint, but want to make money at it, don't buy this book. If you already know how to paint, but need help with business savvy, buy this book. Is it out of date? Yes, but it doesn't take a genius to read the 1985 imprint in the publishing info. We all know its out of date. However, what you'll get from this book isn't time sensitive. What this book has that's timeless is an introduction into business for painters in a way we can understand it. It includes necessary forms that only need to be updated to your needs, semi-reliable man-hour tables, and info on marketing and costing. Just that much is well worth the purchase price. If you want to start making money and building a business, buy this book. If you want to whine about not having enough work, and losing money on jobs, I can't stop you. Just like any other book, this one isn't a silver bullet. I haven't seen any cost data book, or construction related book yet that I didn't have to update to my region, crews, special circumstances. You have to use your savvy with what this book gives you. Tanstaafl. Big thumbs up for this book. Lots of info that's cleanly presented in clear language.

What are you looking for?

I'm a small painting contractor, been around several years, and I'll put my work up against anybody's. This book gave me some new ways of looking at things. This is the third book I've bought on paint contracting and it is by far the most common sense type book I've read. No, it isn't highly sophisticated. I wasn't looking for sophistication. I wanted to read something written by someone with experience like my own, and this author has just that. Over the years I've developed several forms I use daily in my business. I remade two of mine using a lot of what he put into his examples. Simple costing techniques, tips on how to survive up against the competition, the big companies with several crews and foremen employed. I don't ever aspire to be that kind of contractor. This is a fresh viewpoint and it gave me so much I am no longer looking for a painter's contracting manual. I found a lot of his times for painting different items to closely match my own. There is a certain comfort in seeing that someone else is doing it like you are. But the tips and techniques he shares are great. Ever hear the term "too close to the forest to see the trees"? If you are a small company, even a one person painter, you will definitely benefit from this book. The first tip you see will be well worth the price of this book.