Production rate

Definition

Square feet a crew covers in an hour, which is what a bid is actually built on.

Why It Matters

Every painting estimate is this number times a labor rate, so a shop bidding off a rate it no longer achieves is losing money on work it won. It also travels badly between job types: a repaint with furniture in the room and a new-construction shell are different rates and a bid sheet that uses one for both is quietly wrong half the time. Ask for estimated against actual hours on the last twenty jobs; the gap is the whole finding.