Painting Subcontractor Wanted | Painter Subcontractors Jobs

Painting Subcontractor Jobs

Take it from us, finding jobs as a painting contractor can be tough.

Whether you are a seasoned pro or just starting up as a painting subcontractor, keeping your painters busy each painting season is no easy task.

No doubt, you’ve scoured through all of the Painting Subcontractor Wanted posts on Craigslist and Indeed.

How do you know which painting companies looking for subcontractors you can trust?

As former painting subcontractors ourselves, we’d like to help answer some common subcontractor questions.

In addition, we wanted to give you some subcontractor tips to help you find a great painting company or contractor to partner with.

Lastly if you are a painting subcontractor looking for painting jobs in Madison, it’s time you worked with a great painting company.

Apply for a subcontractor position with 3rd Gen Painting online today by filling out a painting subcontractor job application form on this page.

Additionally, you can email 3rd Gen Painting with 1-2 sentences describing your painting experience. One of our team members will respond within 48 hours regarding further details.

How Much Does A Painting Subcontractor Make?

As a painting subcontractor you can expect to make $80,000 – $120,000 per year running 3-4 painting crews during a good year of consistent work.

On the flip side, when first starting out as a painting subcontractor you can expect to make a bit less towards $38,000 – $52,000 per year.

Furthermore, you can make a few thousand extra per year as a subcontractor by adding light carpentry to your skill-set.

Without question, doing light carpentry such as installing trim or replacement rotted window sills is great-margin work.

Consequently, I always recommend either finding a part-time carpenter to be on-call or hiring one outright if possible.

As a whole, being a painting subcontractor can be very lucrative gig IF you can find the right company to work with as a painting subcontractor.

Finding Good Work As A Painting Subcontractor

Finding good work as a subcontractor in the painting industry can be tricky.

Sorting through painting job posts on Craigslist and sites like Glassdoor or Ziprecruiter can get overwhelming very quickly.

How do you know which contractors to contact or avoid when looking for painting subcontractor jobs?

Smaller Local House Painting Companies

On one hand, you can find a smaller local painting company on Craigslist or on a job site that may be good to work with short-term but runs out of work during the winter.

Additionally, these smaller outfits tend to work with the pickiest clients with crazy expectations.

Generally, the smaller painting companies also tend to be spotty when it comes to cash flow, often just when you need it most.

Larger Painting Franchises (Certapro, Five Star Painting, etc)

In contrast, you can likely find a larger painting company looking for painting subcontractors on Indeed or Ziprecruiter, similar to a Certapro franchise or 360 Painting.

On the positive side, these companies are (typically) able to pay on time and are able to negotiate deep discounts for paint with brands like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore.

However, the issue that you’ll run into most with these larger companies is that their work is often underbid which leads to tiny pay-outs to subcontractors.

Not to mention, the larger corporation need their cut which leaves you with as little as 30-40% of the original project budget left for BOTH supplies and your labor.

A Subcontractor’s Holy Grail: Medium-Sized, High-Growth Painting Companies

More often than not, medium-sized painting outfits have the cash flow to pay on time and typically bid in good margins for subcontractors.

Additionally, many also have more work during the off-season than most and can keep you busy for much of the year with interior painting projects in the Winter.

Finally, if you can find a medium-sized painting company that is just starting to expand, you have stumbled upon the holy grail for finding work as a painting subcontractor.

These high-growth painting companies offer a rare opportunity for great painting subcontractors to grow with them long-term. They often have good margin painting work and will keep you busy for years.

Not to mention, when you get in early with one of the founding partners of these medium-sized painters, they will be sure to appreciate your work for them like none other.

As a painting subcontractor looking for a larger painting company to work with, imagine being at the beginning phases of some of the larger painting franchise companies like Certapro.

Undoubtedly, Certapro’s initial subcontracting paint crews are likely running entire branches or even have ownership in the company.

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Final Note About Painters Looking For Subcontractors

Finally, it’s worth noting that the descriptions above do not apply to 100% of home painting companies.

Surely, there are fantastic small local painters that pay on time and can keep you busy for months.

Conversely, there are some very good larger painting franchise owners that run an great operation and bid their projects fairly with great margins for subcontractors.

Overall, the devil is in the details when it comes to finding a great painting contractor looking for subcontractors.

Luckily, these days you can use resources like customer reviews online (and of course, this subcontractor guide) to help you filter out the good painting jobs from the bad.