need advice on mural pricing please

[fersteger]

Hey,

So I may be painting this mural at my friends office building and I need help deciding what to charge?? It is going to be 20 x 13 feet and it is a collage of about 100 covers of a in office magazine, basically pics of people cut out and pasted on a different background, like mountains or famous people photoshopped into the picture.

Im thinking of charging $20-30 and hour but really have no idea how long it would take, Im nervous about giving an estimate of say 200 hours and then finidng Im only halfway done after that long. It needs to be finished by jan 15 so I will need to start immediately cuz that is a huge painting for me.

$25 an hour for 200 hours would be $5000 total, does this sound too low, I think it does but really have no basis to compare it. Been searching the net for help but not much yet and I need to decide quick....

Does any one have any experience with this or advice, thanks

Alex

[cgfuller64]

Charge by the square footage not by the hour. Adjust your rates to this figure, more detailed=more money you need to charge. Take material cost multiply by 1.5 and add to square footage, thats what you charge, the markup on materials covers you incase you underestimate the $/sq. ft! Hope that helps.

[cgfuller64]

Remember that this should be a bid and if they agree right away, you didn't charge enough. I know that sounds harsh but they will only pay what they they can justify to themselves, if you go in too low, you'll lose respect from the start. Aim high and do the best work you've ever done(and charge accordingly).

[rick_hershey]

hey Alex,

for a mural that size i'd price it at around $7,000.00. This would include material.
however, several things need to be taken into consideration
- it's at an office building, how many actual hours a day do you have to work on it?
- are you going to need scafolding? That would be extra.
- is it overly detailed (not knowing what they want, I can't say for sure if it can be done)

these are some of the factors you should probably consider and price accordingly-

cgfuller64 is right, price high and negotiate down only if you have too- but I wouldn't do it for less then i mentioned