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How Production Rates are Calculated
How Production Rates are Calculated

Working with production rate variables.

Staci Mitchell avatar
Written by Staci Mitchell
Updated over 11 months ago

When entering values for your production rates, the number you enter under each coat box will indicate the value of Variable 1 as it relates to Variable 2 (if using two variables). When applied to a substrate, the rate will use either the quantity of items for your substrate (ie. 3 doors) or the sqft or lnft of the area to complete the calculation, depending on the rate you are using.

Note: If using a production rate with Hours as one of the variables, your company hourly rate will be used to calculate the cost.

The value that you enter under each coat box indicates the differing rate when painting 1, 2, 3, or 4 coats.

  • 1 coat = 1 full coat

  • 2 coats = 2 full coats

  • 3 coats = 3 full coats

  • 4 coats = 4 full coats

*Note: This is not 1 coat, plus an additional 2nd, 3rd, or 4th coat.

Many contractors will charge a higher or lower rate as the number of coats increases.

Example 1: Sqft/Hour

The value under each coat number will indicate the number of square feet you can paint per hour.

ie. If your substrate is 400 sqft and you are using a rate of 100 sqft/hour, that indicates it will take 4 hours to paint that substrate.

400 sqft / 100 sqft/hr = 4 hrs

The rate will decrease as the number of coats goes up, indicating you can paint less square feet per hour when you have to do multiple quotes.


Example 2: Hours/Item

The value under each coat number will indicate how many hours it will take to paint each item.

ie. If you have 3 items to paint and your rate is set to be 1 hour/item, this indicates it will take 3 hours to paint.

3 items x 1 hr/item = 3 hrs

The rate would increase as the number of coats goes up, indicating it will take more hours to paint each item when you have to do multiple coats.


Example 3: $/Sqft

The value under each coat number will indicate how much it costs to paint 1 square foot.

ie. If your substrate is 400 sqft and your rate is set at $1/sqft, it will cost $400 to paint that substrate.

400 sqft x $1/sqft = $400

The rate would increase as the number of coats goes up, indicating it will be more expensive to paint the same amount of sqft of a substrate, because you are doing multiple coats (ie. using more paint).

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