Painting Business - How to Make $30 - $70 Per Hour Doing Small Simple Drywall/plaster Repair Jobs

Making $350 - $500 a day as a house painter is not as easy as some would have you believe in the residential/commercial realm - even if you are a larger contractor with a crew. But if you know a few drywall/plaster repair secrets, making this kind of money is very possible. I know. I have done it. Let me explain.

As a painting business owner over the years, I have found a niche in my business where people will have problems with their drywall or plaster and they are totally clueless on how to fix it themselves. Sure, you will come across those who tried, but the end results always turned out to be butt-ugly!

A lot of the drywall in homes built from the 1980?s and all the way up to today have issues. Things like water damage, loose tape seams, nail pops, etc. One common reason for water damage is because of a leaky upstairs shower.

Also, it is not uncommon for a new home to have a problem leak somewhere on the roof that is maybe letting water in. The water travels down the wall and wrecks part of the ceiling and wall in a lower room in a short period of time.

Maybe the customer wants to sell their house. They get the roof leak fixed and now this is where you and I come in. You have done some free advertising like word-of-mouth, you get referrals, you have a small ad in the phone book or from online advertising, etc. and you get a call.

Next you go over and look at the problem. In their front foyer you see a couple of minor tape seams that are loose and a small section of textured ceiling that needs to be fixed and re-duplicated using a common crows foot texture. The customer has touch up paint left over for it. They are motivated to get it fixed so they can sell the house and buy another one.

You eyeball it as about a days labor. You offer to repair it for say around $335.00. They say yes and you schedule it for the next day or whenever.

You come the first day for about an hour and tear out the bad, do a quick deep-fill and put a fan on it overnight to help it dry. Then you go back the next day and you spend 6 hours re-coating, and drying it with a heat gun or hairdryer etc. You do the job in 7 hours total and your net profit is $320 out of $335 because materials needed was basically just some drywall compound, gas to get back and forth and they had leftover paint.

Other scenarios may be older homes that have broken plaster. These can be surprisingly easy and fun to repair. Again, they call you, you go over and look at it. You count up the time (8 maybe 10 hrs. or so) and materials (usually dirt-cheap) and you give them a figure of $500 - $600 because of the size of the repair.

They give you the go ahead and you pencil them into your schedule. You finish the job in 9 hours and you make 95% profit. Other common plaster repairs may be large cracks in plaster ceilings. A common problem that can be easy to repair if you know how.

Other common drywall jobs may be texturing walls and ceilings. Two guys working together can make some good money at this. There are also small jobs hanging and finishing sheet rock in basements or garages. They may want you to paint it afterwards as well.

People do not know anything about drywall/plaster repair. They expect it to be somewhat costly. Jobs look more complicated than they are but since you know how to do them its duck soup for you!

You go in and spend 1-3 hours tearing out the old part like a surgeon, patching and doing a deep fill. You go back the next day for a few more hours, maybe back again a third day to finish, paint, etc. and get paid.

If you look in your phone book you will see small display ads under drywall or plaster repair that say "We Love Small Jobs" or "No Job Too Small". Sure they like small jobs - this is where the easy money is. Small, 7 - 10 hour repair jobs that command $30 - $70 per hour.

If this type of business interests you, you can do it as a profitable sideline, or full-time business. You can have a buddy or your wife or one of your kids be your partner as well.