How Much To Tip Painters? (Find Out Now!)

There’s nothing like a newly painted home. The way the paint glistens under the sun and complements your home décor is a sight to behold. Plus, applying a new coat of paint is a great way to refresh the look of your home.

Painting a few spots here and there is relatively light work. If you need to paint your whole house though, calling for some professional help may be necessary. But, do you have to tip the house painters you hire?

Tipping a painter is not customary so you can pay nothing extra and that won’t cause any issues. If the painters do a good job and you want to tip them, you are absolutely free to do so. A 10 to 20 percent tip is a good amount for house painters.

Figuring out how much you have to pay your house painters doesn’t have to be a complicated matter. Continue with this article so you can be certain of how much you need to pay when you need their services.

For most house painting jobs, you don’t hire the painters directly. Instead, homeowners often reach out to contractors. The contractors are the ones who employ the painters and they can get you in touch with the professionals you’re seeking.

Partnering with a contractor often costs more, but doing so makes things easier for you. Contractors can also answer for any substandard work you potentially get.

Because a contractor is involved, you have to talk to them before handing out any tips. You don’t know what kind of agreement the professionals you hired have with the contractor. Their agreement may have specific stipulations regarding additional pay in the form of tips.

Payouts could become more complicated because you gave the painters extra money. We’re not saying that you should avoid giving tips altogether. You should just seek clearance from the contractor before doing so.

Your decision to either tip or not tip can affect your relationship with the contractor. Tipping can have either a positive or negative effect on it.

Generally speaking, clearing things with your contractor before providing a tip is usually not a problem. If they give you the green light, feel free to tip as much as you want.

The contractor may even develop a better opinion of you after you provide a tip. They may see you as a client who appropriately rewards hard workers. They may also appreciate you going the extra mile for their painters.

Then again, the contractor may also grow suspicious if you start offering tips without consulting them first. They may think that you asked a painter to perform a task that wasn’t in the original agreement. They may look at your tip as a way to reward an individual instead of everyone in the company.

Keep those potential ramifications in mind before giving out any tips. You don’t want to annoy a contractor who you may want to work with in the future.

It’s only natural to feel like rewarding workers who did the job properly. They may have done a phenomenal job of painting your wooden deck, the walls of your home, or your doors. While doing so, they may have also done a great job of not getting paint specks all over the place.

After seeing the great work they did, you likely feel that offering a tip is only fair. You may even want to be generous with the tip you provide.

On the flipside, if you feel that the painters were a bit sloppy, you may not want to provide tips. The same could be true if you believe that the painters took too long to finish the job.

Don’t feel pressured to provide a tip. Painters are supposed to get a fair wage even without your show of generosity. You can pay only the exact amount for their services and be completely justified in doing so.

We could have included this in the section above, but we wanted to discuss it in greater detail. Before you think about giving a tip, consider for a moment how much it could cost you.

Although not all clients do it, there is a bit of a standard when it comes to tipping painters. For the most part, the tip for a painting job is 10 to 20 percent of the final bill. That’s what most painters expect upon hearing that they will receive a tip.

Now, consider again how much the painting project itself will cost you. Smaller projects are fine. You may have to pay an extra $50 if you want to tip, but that’s not a big issue.

It’s different if the painting project is expensive. If you want kitchen cabinets, the siding of your home, and everything else painted, the bill may come out to $4,000. Notably, $4,000 could still be the low-end estimate. You may have to pay closer to $10,000 for some whole home painting projects.

The point is that getting your whole house painted costs a lot of money. Do you really want to make the whole project more expensive than that? Remember that you may have to pay an additional $400 to provide what is considered an acceptable tip.

Others do say that you can give $10 to $20 tips to each of the painters who worked on your home. That could be risky though. The painters may not take too kindly to being given that amount of money.

If the cost of the tip is too much for you, there’s no problem with that. You can just forget about handing out tips.

Is tipping the expected amount for a whole house painting project too rich for your blood? That’s perfectly understandable. There’s no need to feel guilty about not providing a tip if the painters are getting fairly compensated for their work.

If you still want to show your appreciation to the workers you hired, you can provide other things. We’ve highlighted some of our favorite alternatives to handing out tips in the section below.

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You can show your appreciation to your hired painters by offering them some free food and drinks. Set up a table inside your home and stock it with food and drinks that the workers can enjoy.

In the morning, you can provide some free coffee and maybe some breakfast. For lunch, you could order something from a local restaurant and treat your hired painters. They will greatly appreciate your display of generosity.

Furthermore, they can also save some money since you’re offering free food. Tell them ahead of time if you intend to provide food so they don’t bring anything from home. Leaving out a water dispenser would also be a welcome gesture. That will save them from potential dehydration when they’re working through a long day.

Related Questions

How Much Do Painters Make?

Painters earn solid income for the services they provide. You can also factor the wages earned by painters when deciding whether or not to tip.According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean hourly wage for a painter is $22.33. Annually, a painter can expect to earn a little over $46,000.

How Much Time Do Professional Painters Need to Work on Your Home?

The length of your painting project will depend on how much real estate your hired workers will need to work on. To finish painting one room, a pro painter may need to put in seven to eight hours of work. Ask the contractor to bring more than a few painters along to speed up the completion of the project.