I have not bought paint in 10 yrs with 70 units..

I have not bought paint in 10 yrs with 70 units..

Investor · Ogdensburg, WI · Member since 2016 · 273 posts · 351 votes

Well I thought I would share this to see if it could help other do it your self investors..

So I have worked commercial construction for the last 20 years as a carpenter my dad worked in the trades as a painter for 40 plus. 

The thing I noticed at the end of these large projects there is always large amounts of one of a kind colors left over usually light pigments.. The painting contractor leaves some behind for attic stock. The rest gets sent back or right to the dumpster...

At first I went dumpster diving and brought home a couple 5s...Now I just talk to the foreman..  Then my dad told his boss we would take all returns in light colors. In no time we had literally hundreds of gallons of paint...(once a year their shop guy calls for us to pick up, and dads been retired 3 yrs)

So we then would mix say 50 gallons up in a large vat... Then we would pump it back into the 5s and seal them up..DONE!  50 gallons of an off white!

I think if you find a large contractor in your market this could be replicated. The key would be your approach and communication with the contractor. Don't act like a big shot investor. Just let them know if they have any light colored paint returns you could find some walls to put it on. 

Hope this helps someone out there.

Peter

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  • Investor · Atascadero, CA · Member since 2015 · 238 posts · 90 votes
    9y

    @Peter B. awesome tip, thank you. 

  • Mindy JensenPro Member
    BiggerPockets Money Podcast Host · Longmont, CO · Member since 2014 · 7k+ posts · 10k+ votes
    9y

    @Peter B. , I love tips like this! Thanks for sharing. Even better than my Oops paint tip!

  • Investor · Ogdensburg, WI · Member since 2016 · 273 posts · 351 votes
    9y

    @Mindy Jensen

    Thanks Mindy. This actually worked so well that I had to throw paint away because I didn't have proper storage and it froze. 

    They also have given me a life time amount of epoxy coatings which I now use for garage floors. The color is irrelevant. Once mixed together its a shade of grey or brown. 

    The contractor needs to be large enough where these become a nuisance and begin to cost them money in handling/shipping/storage/disposal. 

  • Rental Property Investor · Dallas, TX · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    9y

    @Peter B. Solid tip! Thanks for sharing. 

  • Investor · Orange County, CA · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    9y

    What do you do for touch ups? Seems like it would be difficult to match the blended color in the future if/when touch ups are needed. I guess you could repaint the whole thing, but if so then there go your cost savings on paint. Guess you could try to color match it, or keep an extra quart on hand in the attic ... I prefer to paint all my units with the same color scheme of off the shelf colors so it is always easy to find matching colors. I came to this conclusion after doing some custom blends that I ultimately ended up needing to repaint because I couldn't match for touch ups, but if you have a better method for handling this I'm all ears. 

  • Investor · Ogdensburg, WI · Member since 2016 · 273 posts · 351 votes
    9y

    @David Faulkner

    We generally mix up 20-30 gallons at a time. That will cover about 5-6  800 sq ft apartments if not doing the ceilings. The last five, I write all the apt numbers the batch was used on and store it on site.

  • Investor · Ogdensburg, WI · Member since 2016 · 273 posts · 351 votes
    6y

    Picked up another 300 plus gallons. 

  • Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @David Faulkner:

    What do you do for touch ups? Seems like it would be difficult to match the blended color in the future if/when touch ups are needed. I guess you could repaint the whole thing, but if so then there go your cost savings on paint. Guess you could try to color match it, or keep an extra quart on hand in the attic ... I prefer to paint all my units with the same color scheme of off the shelf colors so it is always easy to find matching colors. I came to this conclusion after doing some custom blends that I ultimately ended up needing to repaint because I couldn't match for touch ups, but if you have a better method for handling this I'm all ears. 

    And the sheen match. It's impossible to get a sheen match for touch-up paint when you've trying to match a sheen level created by, say, 5 gallons of flat mixed with 10 gallons of satin mixed with 2 gallons of semi-gloss. Typically the lighter the color, the more obvious the sheen mismatch will be on your colormatched touch-up mix.

  • Rental Property Investor · Concord, GA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    We don't have that many doors compared to some but we rarely buy colored paints at retail. We've been working through a half dozen 5 gallon buckets we bought at a flea market (Sherwin Williams) and paid about $20 to $25 per bucket for those. We buy new ceiling paint, gloss white trim paint and semi gloss white we use in bathrooms. Other than that, we use what we have. (and just keep track of it as stated above). Getting paint "free" is as good of a deal as one could hope for. Any dollar saved is cash flow...

  • Investor · Ogdensburg, WI · Member since 2016 · 273 posts · 351 votes
    6y

    @Jim K.

    Not really an issue. The touch up, is the left over 2-3 gallons. To be honest due to long term tenants and c class type abuse. I probably repaint more walls than touch up walls. 

    With unlimited quantities we often do complete repaints more times than anything.

    @John Teachout

    A few years back a local hardware chain got into a dispute with their paint supplier and were switching brands. Discounted their paint to 7 bucks a gallon..

    They have dozens of stores throughout our state. So I asked how many fives all their stores had left. It was around 500 gallons. I then asked how much for all of it.. They said they would call me back.. They said 1500 bucks, or 3 bucks a gallon. So I took it all. I had half color matched to a 22 unit I had, and half to a 16 unit. We've used up most of it on hallways and renovations in 3 years..

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