Category Pricing

The point of this post is not to tell you how much it costs to paint your exterior, but to give you a good idea of what goes into painting the exterior of a home and how much it costs.  First, we would discuss our process.  Our team begins with pressure washing your home’s exterior.  All the painted and unpainted surfaces should be cleaned thoroughly so the your home looks freshly painted and clean at the end of the job!  Plus, we want to make sure all the faded paint and dirt doesn’t end up on your brick or patio!

Second, we inspect and repair all damaged siding, wood, and trim.  If we find more than was visually inspected at the time of quote, we will let you know about it, show you, and provide an additional quote that includes all the additional work.  It is important to know that sometimes damage is unknown until we reveal weak wood with our cleaning process.  This additional work occurs in about 10% of our quotes and it usually isn’t more than an addition 5% to 10% of our quoted price.  Damage can hide pretty well under more modern acrylic paints.  Part of our prep is replacing all damaged caulk and making sure your eaves and siding are sealed well to keep all the wether out.  This is the most important step in preserving your home as an investment.  Water intrusion is the number one cause of major expense in non-cosmetic home repairs and it doesn’t take very much time for wood rot to impact your home.

Next, we cover all your shrubs and landscaping with sheets to protect them from paint overspray and damage.  We also mask off all areas not recieving paint.  This step is important in keeping your windows and brick looking great after the paint job.  Once we are all cleaned up, sealed up, and covered up, the painting begins.  We will spot prime if you have bare wood.  Now we are ready to apply two full coats or premium paint.  Our team uses PPG AcriShield, Behr Premium Plus, or Sherwin SuperPaint Exterior as our entry level paints for your homes exterior.  We stand behind our exterior work for 7 full years from the date of completion.  Our team uses the best methods and paints for your project.

A smaller ranch about 1,500 sqft costs around $5,000 to paint whereas a larger house twice that size will often cost in the $11,000 range.  We’d be happy to discuss your project with you if you would like.  Just give our team a call at 317-528-9500 or pick a time that is convenient for you!  We look forward to seeing your project!

We get quite a few clients ask why painting prices vary so much?  This is always a question I am happy to field because the answer is pretty simple and revealing of a company’s core commitments.  Our two main expenses are labor and materials so let’s talk about those to categories first. 

First, let’s examine a company’s materials costs.  What is their baseline materials?  Many companies with lower cost quotes use an entry level material.  We often call these top line commercial products.  For us, these would be Sherwin Williams ProMar 200, Behr i300, and PPG SpeedHide.  We like all these products – for commercial new work.  They don’t belong in your home or even in your business repaint work.  What makes these good products for the new build market is that they are competitive and they are serviceable for a shorter period of time.  They lack the ability to clean them and  are really difficult to touch up a year after the install.  They are great at giving you that initial canvas at a lower cost.  We always try to get our customers to spring for the next step up.  It usually doesn’t affect the price very much – typically only 5% or so, but new work is very competitive.  In your business or home, our entry level product is Sherwin Williams SuperPaint, Behr Premium, or PPG Pure Performance.  Yes, thy are more costly, but they will be very serviceable.  

Second is labor prices.  Like anything else in life, you get what you pay for.  Lower cost companies will use less skilled and less reliable labor.  Indiana Painting has committed to a more disciplined and skill workforce because we believe that it is worth the extra investment, and most of our customers do too!  If your contractor is sending you unskilled labor, you have a very low probability of getting a good outcome.  We believe our team makes up for the extra cost by being hard working and efficient.

I believe doing the work right is where most of the discrepancy comes from.  Take wood decks and fences for instance.  Quite a few painting companies won’t touch them because they don’t have the knowledge or the discipline in their crew to succeed.  Our team follows a rigorous step by step process that will ensure your outdoor wood surfaces get the longest life possible.  These extra steps include a chemical treatment, sanding or wire brushing, moisture testing, and applying three full coats on all horizontal surface to ensure complete coverage and durability.  If you do it right, your deck coating should last over 5 years with normal use.  The real way companies cut costs is by taking shortcuts.  This is the main way to get quote prices lower.

There are so many examples I could give on price differences, but the best way to determine if the contractor your are negotiating with is right for you, is to ask them to go into detail about their process.  If the salesman cannot go into detail about their process, than their process is not that special and their crews performing the work are most likely not trained in the methods of getting a thorough paint job that will last a long time.

It’s been a rather warm winter here in Central Indiana and with Spring just around the corner (okay, maybe seven weeks isn’t close enough for some of us) our thoughts turn to all those Spring projects we want to get to!  Pressure washing our home and driveway is usually at the top of my list.  Get the exterior of the house and visible parts of the property not only looking good, but ready to take on all that the late Spring and Summer weather has to throw at it.  Concrete needs to be cleaned and protected every four or five years.  If you don’t, the damage being done will go unnoticed until your pressure wash it and it begins to spall.  This is caused by water getting into the top layer of the concrete through small, unnoticeable cracks in the surface and then freezing.  Once this starts, it is very difficult to stop.  Whether you take the pressure washing and sealing on yourself or hire it out, if it has been more than a few years, you will want to prioritize this project this Spring before it gets too hot out.

Letting mildew grow on vinyl or even brick will only speed up the degradation process.  That once slick vinyl might be looking a little dull and porous and that brick that once looked new and crisp is probably taking on some of the atmospheric residue.  If you are doing this yourself, you should use a 2,600 psi pressure washer that is capable of 2.8 gallons per minute or more.  Be sure you remove all the residue or staining that you can.  For driveways we use a professional spinner tool that does a great job at 3,200 psi and 3.2 gallons per minute or more.  Once you are finished, make sure you seal the masonry surfaces to help extend the life of those surfaces.  If you pressure wash your vinyl, you can apply a vinyl renewer that will seal it up and make it less porous.  This will keep the UV rays at bay and keep your vinyl siding serviceable for many years to come.  If you don’t feel up to the task or you just don’t have enough time to do the work, give us a call.  We typically charges around $375 for a smaller home and up to $750 for a larger home.  Sealer would double that price.  Driveways for most tract homes would cost about $300 to clean and another $300 to seal with a one coat system.

If you’d like a quote, we would be happy to stop by and give you a quote in person or you can use our online system found on our contact page.  Give us a call at (317) 528-9500.  If you have a commercial building, we will need to price it out in person.

The garage is often the most forgotten room of the house. Whether you keep your car in the garage or use is for a large storage space, you probably don’t like to spend much time there and for good reason. Garages, like basements, can be the dingiest place in the house. Now imagine if you were to spend a little bit of time and money painting the walls, ceiling, and floor. Then you install some decent shelving and organize everything. Now you have another room of your house you can be proud of. Not only proud, but you can actually find things in there now! The first step is a good clean out and painting of those floors. Lucky for you, we have several good options that will fit a tight budget to a long lasting professional job.

We can paint most garage floors for as little at $1.50 per square foot if you empty the garage. For this budget price, we clean the floor with a scrubber to remove all dirt and grease. We fill any cracks with self-leveling caulk and trim the top when after is sets up. Next, we apply two coast of an aliphatic epoxy paint that adheres to almost any substrate. From here, you can add color chips and a clear coat if you choose to for as little as another $1 per square foot. This process is guaranteed for two years from disbonding. An average two car garage with this system will cost about $1,250.

If you want a more durable finish, we will grind all the existing coating off your floor, fill all cracks with an epoxy filler, and apply a primer, two coats of urethane two component floor coating with a clear topcoat. This system will cost $4.50 per square foot but comes with a 5 year disbonding warranty. A typical two car garage for this system will cost around $3,400.

If you need help unloading your garage, we can supply the labor for that too for an additional fee and we can help arrange a portable storage pod for your belongings while the work is in process. We typically need three to four days to perform this work due to cure times between coats.

Steel buildings are a good investment for many businesses who need lower cost space and are very versatile from storage to office uses. Most steel buildings will need painted within 20 years of their erection. If you wait too long and see rust starting to appear, the preparation and priming will set you back a good bit more than if you catch it in time. Most of the time, all you need to do is pressure wash, spot prime with a DTM (direct to metal) primer and paint with a good grade exterior paint. If rust has started to appear in more than 10%, you will need a full prime with DTM primer or it will need to be painted with DTM paint to make sure the rust is held at bay. Nothing will ruin your investment faster than ignoring the warning signs that your metal building needs maintenance to keep it in good, leak proof shape.

Our team can get your building painted in almost any color you want and even paint a stripe on it if that’s your thing! We can use standard exterior paints like PPG AcriShield, PPG Permanizer, or PPG PitTech+ for a more durable finish. We also offer longer lasting SWP SherCryl for more fade resistant durability. For standard paints our quotes usually come in at around $7,000 for a 40×60 building with a side eave height of 16’. Roof painting is a bit more as it usually involves a lift rental and requires additional prep and better paint. A roof on a 40×60 building usually costs around $6,000 and includes SWP Shercryl or PPG PitTech+ SG and will come with a five year warranty.

If you have a steel building that is looking a little dull or even starting to rust, you should give us a call now and save your investment! Our team is eager to serve you – call 317-528-9500 today to get your free quote.

Have you ever went into a retail store and the sales floor is well thought through and immaculately kept? Hopefully we all have. Auto dealers are one such example. You walk in and are greeted by clean, slick tile floors, perfect walls and ceilings, and displays that draw your eyes to them through contrasting colors with information about the products they are selling. I bring up auto dealers because their showrooms are often the most immaculate places on earth! They are selling cars worth tens of thousands of dollars and it is worth the effort to make the experience match the price of the product. In fact, other than our homes, our cars are probably the most expensive material thing we will ever buy. Everything in the front of house areas is kept with the intent to keep you focused on the task at hand – buying that new car!

But, inevitably you have to visit the back areas – areas like the lounge, hallways, offices, and restroom. You notice that the lounge is a little grimy and the general manager had the lot crew paint the restrooms last winter when they went through that winter slump. There is paint on the floor. The grid is poorly cut with paint on it in areas and some areas where the last paint job is peeking through. Your attention is now divided. One bad decision has put you off your game. Your mind starts to wander, the dissonance is disconcerting. You wonder why the pristine front end and lack of regard for these oft visited forgotten areas? You begin to wonder if you really need that new car after all. If you are that general manager, I can assure you the price of taking short cuts is not worth the cost. Painting these areas is not as pricey as you might think and, I am guessing here, that for the sale of a car or two you will have more than paid for the cost of a professional commercial paint job. And, yeah, I know that we all think business owners make more than they do on each sale, but it’s the cost of losing the sale that I’m talking about. If you are like most businesses, you are paying an inordinate amount of money to even get people to stop in or ring your phone! Don’t waste money to save money!

So how much does it cost to paint these back areas of your dealership, not as much as you think. An average lounge is around 20×30 with a 12’ acoustical ceiling. If you just patched and painted the walls in that lounge, you would be looking at $1,000. Add two average size restrooms with four stalls and your total will come to around $2,200. We can often come to a lower cost by simply adding more areas. To paint all the front areas, offices, hallways, lounges, restrooms, and break room in an average size dealership, our quote typically comes in around $9,500 in all.

On a final note, fresh paint brings an excitement to your facility. It can motivate employees to care more if you set it up that way – you know, don’t tell them you are begrudgingly painting the place because they don’t take care of it. Have a meeting and tell them how much you care for them AND the building. You want a nice place for them to work and you are going to need their help caring for the facility. It’s their home away from home. Customers are also inclined to think positively of an upgrade. Our company works with you so the work feels consistent with your dealership’s look and feel. We send out a clean, trained, professional team who will impress. Some of our customers even have our crew work during business hours so their customers know they are working on things and have a professional crew working is a thing of beauty in and of itself!

The short answer to this question is the you can paint storefront windows frames. Most storefront systems are made out of anodized aluminum – you can read more about the anodizing process here – https://www.anodizing.org/page/what-is-anodizing. Painting anodized aluminum is pretty straightforward and no special process has to be followed other thank a heavy duty cleaning to remove atmospheric contamination, a bonding primer, and a good fade resistant exterior grade paint. For painted storefront mullions, a bit more investigation must take place to determine how to proceed. Some silicon and Kynar coatings present more challenges, but there are methods to paint over those coatings too. Very rarely, will a coating have to be completely removed in order to paint storefront windows. At Indiana Painting, we typically spray all of our primers and topcoats when painting storefronts Systems. This ensures a quality, factory like finish so your facility and keep that well cared for feeling!

Our go to products for storefronts are TSP Substitute for cleaning, 220 grit sandpaper for sanding, MultiSpec Primer for priming, and either Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel or PPG Breakthrough. If you have an extremely harsh environment, we would recommend a two part epoxy primer and a two part urethane topcoat for added durability.

The cost of the bonding primer and Breakthrough system will run you about $50 per linear foot of window on each side. So, if you have a storefront window that tis 50’ long and 8’ tall, the price would be around $2,500 per side (interior/exterior).

Whether you are a business owner managing your own space or a facility manager and you’ve been asked to get the office area painted, you’ve probably wondered how much it costs to paint your office space. While many variables go into a commercial quote of this sort, we are always happy to give you some idea of what you can expect. First, a little about the process. During our quote visit, we will discuss the goals you are wanting to achieve such as are you want minimal interruption to your operations or do you just want to get it done. Also, what is your ideal paint job longevity. Basic commercial grade paints look great, but they don’t hold up very well to cleaning or scuffing. If you want five years out of your paint, basic commercial line paint is going to be your best choice. However, if you want to go 10 years or more between paint jobs, you will want to think about a better line of paint so it will clean and touch up better between paint cycles. Design also affect pricing. Most clients like the idea of having accent walls to make a space look more dimensional and interesting. All this will be discussed in our quote visit to ensure we give you the tools to make the best decision.

Now, how much is the basic paint job in most office spaces? We use simple calculations to come up with how man square feet of walls space you have to paint, then we rate the condition of the walls for patch and prep work, add in the material preference and work hours and we have all we need to price out your job. If the walls are in good shape with minimal prep, you want a basic commercial grade product, and the work will be performed during normal business hours, a 12×12 office with acoustical tile ceilings at 8’ and vinyl rubber base, your cost would be around $375 each 12×12 office. If you add a door and frame to that, you can expect around $520. Of course, the more offices you have, the price will go down a bit due to efficiencies of doing more work at once. More expensive areas would be the break room and restrooms because there is a lot to mask off and cut around. A typical break room measuring 20’ x 30’ would cast around $900 to paint the walls only – prep and two coats. Accent walls will add about $50 per wall due to the extra time to make a clean, sharp color transition.

I hope this helps you make the decision whether to go ahead to with your paint project or go in another direction. Whatever you decide, we are hear to help!

Of all the commercial spaces we paint, restaurants present the most challenges, but this is why you need to hire a specialist. First, most restaurants are open for more hours than retail – often from 6am to around 9pm. This leaves a narrow window of 10pm to 5am for painting. Second, restaurants are not configured in ways that make easy access to walls and soffits. Finally, but not the least of the restaurant entrepreneurs concerns, is what type of paint should be used and how much will it cost me. Let’s talk about some of the difficulties that make painting your restaurant more expensive than most retail spaces.

The reduced and odd work hours will add to the cost of your project. Restaurants often serve breakfast, lunch, and supper. This leaves about 7 hours of productive work time for our crews to get paint on the walls, ceilings, trim, and other surfaces your are wanting painted. The off work hours are premium time and the limited work durations will mean your project will either take longer to finish or require larger crews. These are no problems for us, but you need to be aware that these will affect budget and schedule.

The second thing that you have to consider when pricing out is the configuration of most restaurants that make access to the walls and ceilings more challenging than other spaces. With most restaurants configured with booth or seating around the walls, we will need to move them or scaffold over the top of them. Although we have methods to deal with these obstacles, this will add to setup and breakdown time resulting in more labor costs. We will also need to mask off or cover all your furniture, casework, and equipment. This is easily done, but the additional time and materials do add up and are a significant part of the overall cost.

Third, and this one is a trade off as a restaurateur, is that there are actually few surfaces to paint in most restaurants. In many scenarios, many of your walls are glass, wood, or wallcovering. Unless your are remodeling these surfaces, you will most likely not be painting a decent portion of your business. This is often offset, though, by increased color transitions and less productive open spaces to paint.

Fourth, you will need to consider the products you use. In most localities, you will not need special materials in the dining areas, but you will need to consider using a glossier or more enamel paint in the restrooms and the kitchen areas. A pre-catalyzed epoxy is often our go to product for those areas. We recommend a washable paint in the dining areas so that you can get more life out of your paint job. We would recommend Duration or Emerald from Sherwin Williams, Ultralast from PPG, ScuffX from Benjamin Moore, or a pre-catalyzed epoxy from any of those manufactures for the best durability. These products are about two to three time the cost of standard commercial paint that we would use in most retail environments, but the investment is well worth the cost!

Now for the pricing. If you were repainting a small coffee shop with 12’ ceilings and a long wall full of windows, you would be looking at two nights for two painters – restrooms included. For paint and labor, you’d be look at around $3,200 for the entire job – walls only. Add the ceiling, doors, and trim and you can easily double the price of the job. The upside is how nice the place will look! And, honestly, most restaurants don’t need a fully repaint unless you just want something new and exciting. A small one nighter will get most of what needs fixed done for less than $1,500 in most cases. If you are thinking about painting your restaurant in the Indianapolis area, give us a call – our quotes are always free and we are happy to help walk you through the process and help you choose what needs done.