Bidfident for painting and decorating subcontractors
Estimating software for painters and decorators
Decorating contractors can price a repaint in Bidfident the way they walk it: square metres of walls and ceilings, doors and frames by number, and stairwells with primer and two coats. Paint carries its waste, the decorator's hours per unit set the labour, and dust sheets go in as a lump sum. The wallcovering quotes sit side by side, with the lowest flagged.
- Electrical
- Plumbing and mechanical
- HVAC and ductwork
- Dry lining
- Roofing
- Painting and decorating
- Flooring
- Brickwork and blockwork
- Concrete
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?
Outputs that live in one head
One coat on ceilings, two on walls, primer in the stairwells, and the hours per square metre 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 thousands of square metres, a fraction of an hour per unit moves the tender a lot, and a spreadsheet won't tell you by how much. Bidfident keeps the tender total in view and briefly shows how much it moved after each change.
Protection and supervision left out
Floor protection, dust sheets and the chargehand's weeks are easy to leave out of a decorating price. In Bidfident they go in your preliminaries, by the week or as a lump sum, and weekly items follow the programme.
How Bidfident fits your work
Outputs 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 tender move with every output
The tender total stays in view and briefly shows how much it moved after each change, so new hours per square metre on the corridors show their cost straight away.
Square metres of wall, doors by number
Corridor walls, ceilings and stairwells by the square metre, doors and frames by number. Each line takes a quantity, the decorator's hours per unit, a paint price with a waste percentage, and plant by the hour.
Corridors, stairwells and entrance hall apart
Tag lines with an area or floor and group the sheet by it with subtotals, so each corridor, stairwell and the entrance hall shows its own price.
Protection and the chargehand
Dust sheets and floor protection as a lump sum, and a part-time chargehand by the week who follows the programme.
Wallcovering quotes side by side
Enter each wallcovering quote for the entrance hall feature wall, see the lowest flagged, and carry it or the one you pick.
Worked example: decorating the communal areas of a block of 40 flats
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 27 lines of your own work, 3 subcontract packages and 5 preliminaries items over a 7-week programme. 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 the UK, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Specialist subcontractors" and "Painting and decorating" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Corridor walls, two coats eggshell, 2,600 m2
| £8,762.00 |
Ceilings, one coat matt emulsion, 880 m2
| £2,362.80 |
Doors and frames, both sides, 96 nr
| £3,859.20 |
Stairwell walls, primer and two coats, 670 m2
| £3,008.30 |
23 more lines of your own work
| £23,344.95 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Wallcovering, entrance hall feature wall
| £2,800.00 |
Intumescent coating, exposed steelwork in car park
| £7,508.00 |
Making good to plaster before decoration, allowance
| £1,925.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Supervision, part-time chargehand
| £3,500.00 |
Floor protection and dust sheets
| £950.00 |
Small tools, rollers and brushes
| £616.00 |
Resident notices, signage and wet paint barriers
| £358.00 |
Paint waste and empty tin disposal
| £303.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| £41,337.25 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | £2,545.53 |
| Subcontractors | £12,233.00 |
Preliminaries
| £5,727.00 |
Direct cost
| £59,297.25 |
Contingency
| £2,964.86 |
Overheads and profit
| £6,226.21 |
| Subtotal before the bond | £68,488.32 |
Bond
| £0.00 |
Insurance
| £342.44 |
Tender total
| £68,830.76 |
VAT, for reference
| £13,766.15 |
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 metres and doors by number?
Yes. Units are free text, so m², m, nr and item all work on the same estimate. Bidfident doesn't convert between units.
Can I save my decorating outputs, such as walls, two coats eggshell?
Yes. Save each task in the company library with its hours per square metre and paint price, such as walls, two coats eggshell, or ceilings, one coat matt. The line picker finds it on every estimate.
Can I price each area of the building separately?
Yes. Tag each line with an area or location, such as the stairwells or the entrance hall, and group the sheet by it with subtotals.
Can I add the wallcovering as a subcontract package?
Yes. Add it on the Subcontractors tab and enter each quote. The lowest is flagged and carried unless you pick another, and declined quotes 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 metre with a waste percentage, or add it on its own line by the litre or the tin.
Can dust sheets and floor protection go in as a lump sum?
Yes. Add them to your preliminaries as a lump sum. A part-time chargehand can go in beside them by the week, following the programme.
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 decorating tender 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.