Bidfident for painting contractors
Estimating software for painters
Painting contractors can price a repaint in Bidfident the way they walk it: square feet of walls and ceilings, doors and frames each, and stairwells with primer and two coats. Paint carries its waste, the painter's hours per unit set the labour, and drop sheets go in as a lump sum. The wallcovering sub's quotes sit side by side, with the lowest flagged.
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.
Sound familiar?
Production rates that live in one head
One coat on ceilings, two on walls, primer in the stairwells, and the hours per square foot are in someone's memory. Bidfident keeps tasks with hours per unit in the company library, and the line picker finds them as you type.
A small rate change, a big swing
On tens of thousands of square feet, a fraction of an hour per unit moves the bid a lot, and a spreadsheet won't tell you by how much. Bidfident keeps the bid total in view and briefly shows how much it moved after each change.
Protection and supervision left out
Floor protection, drop sheets and the foreman's weeks are easy to leave out of a paint price. In Bidfident they go in as overhead, by the week or as a lump sum, and weekly items follow the job duration.
How Bidfident fits your work
Production rates found as you type
Keep tasks like walls, two coats eggshell, or doors and frames, both sides, in the library with their hours per unit. Type a description and the line picker finds them with their prices.
See the bid move with every rate
The bid total stays in view and briefly shows how much it moved after each change, so a new hours per square foot on the corridors shows its cost straight away.
Square feet of wall, doors each
Corridor walls, ceilings and stairwells by the square foot, doors and frames each. Each line takes a quantity, the painter's hours per unit, a paint price with a waste percentage, and equipment by the hour.
Corridors, stairwells and lobby apart
Tag lines with an area or floor and group the sheet by it with subtotals, so each corridor, stairwell and the lobby shows its own price.
Protection and the foreman
Drop sheets and floor protection as a lump sum, and a part-time foreman by the week who follows the job duration.
Wallcovering bids side by side
Enter each wallcovering bid for the lobby feature wall, see the lowest flagged, and carry it or the one you pick.
Worked example: painting the common areas of a 40-unit apartment building
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 27 lines of your own work, 3 subtrades and 5 overhead items over a 7-week job. The 4 lines this page talks about are listed one by one, and the rest are added up in one row. It's the same job you can open as an example project in Bidfident, so every figure below matches it.
To open this job in Bidfident: sign in and set up your company in Canada, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Trade contractors" and "Painting" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Corridor walls, two coats eggshell, 2,600 m2
| $16,679.00 |
Ceilings, one coat flat, 880 m2
| $5,874.00 |
Doors and frames, both sides, 96 ea
| $9,177.60 |
Stairwell walls, primer and two coats, 670 m2
| $6,385.10 |
23 more lines of your own work
| $53,215.94 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Wallcovering, lobby feature wall
| $4,600.00 |
Intumescent coating, exposed steel in parkade
| $13,650.00 |
Drywall repairs before painting, allowance
| $3,500.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Site supervision, part-time foreman
| $6,650.00 |
Floor protection and drop sheets
| $1,800.00 |
Small tools, rollers and brushes
| $1,120.00 |
Resident notices, signage and wet paint barriers
| $650.00 |
Paint waste and empty can disposal
| $550.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| $91,331.64 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | $5,436.60 |
| Subtrades | $21,750.00 |
Overhead
| $10,770.00 |
Direct cost
| $123,851.64 |
Contingency
| $6,192.58 |
Fee
| $13,004.42 |
| Subtotal before bonding | $143,048.64 |
Bonding
| $1,430.49 |
Insurance
| $715.24 |
Bid total
| $145,194.37 |
GST, for reference
| $7,259.72 |
See it in Bidfident
Coming soon Ask your estimate anything. Claude first, ChatGPT to follow. See how it will work
Questions
Can I price walls in square feet and doors each?
Yes. Units are free text, so sf, lf, ea and m² all work on the same estimate. Bidfident doesn't convert between units.
Can I save walls, two coats as a production rate?
Yes. Save it in the company library as a task with its hours per square foot and paint price, such as corridor walls, two coats eggshell. Type a description and the line picker finds it on the next repaint.
Can I price each area of the building separately?
Yes. Tag each line with an area or location, such as the stairwells or the lobby, and group the sheet by it with subtotals.
Can I add the wallcovering as a sub?
Yes. Add it as a subtrade and enter each bid. The lowest is flagged and carried unless you pick another, and declined bids are ignored.
Does it work out how many litres of paint I need?
No. Bidfident doesn't work out coverage or convert units. Price paint per square foot with a waste percentage, or add it on its own line by the litre or the can.
Can primer and two coats be priced apart from one coat?
Yes. Put each on its own line with its own hours per unit and paint price, such as stairwell walls with primer and two coats, and ceilings with one coat flat.
Does Bidfident work with Claude or ChatGPT?
Not yet, but it's coming. You'll be able to connect Bidfident to your own Claude or ChatGPT account and ask about your estimates in plain English. The answers will come from Bidfident's own figures, so they match the estimate. It will use the account you already have: Claude first, ChatGPT to follow.
Price your next painting bid in Bidfident
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.