Hey everyone, I wanted to post and see if anyone who’s more experienced than myself can help me understand rough estimates for painting, drywall repairs and cleaning costs for a rental on the west side of Cleveland. To give some general information, there’s some dry wall cracks, painting of the entire interior which is 850 square feet and deep cleaning of the entire interior since the former tenants left behind a fair amount of food and broken furniture. Also dry locking the basement. I’ve got a general idea of what I think painting and cleaning would cost but I wanted to see if it was in line with reality. Thanks, Caleb

Hi Caleb

Probably about $800 for the painting, about $200 for the cleaning, perhaps another $200 for trash removal if there is a lot of it.  I typically use different people for trash out and deep clean. The trash out guys will tell you they have cleaning people, but its usually some guys girlfriend or wife, and not really trained.  Make sure your deep clean crew is bringing their own supplies as part of the job, otherwise you will end up paying for bottles of stuff with only 5% of it being used on your job. You can hire painters for $155 to $175 per day.  These days contractors in Cleveland are busy, so more contractors estimate based upon retail pricing which is higher.  A qualified painter should be able to deal with the dry wall cracks as part of the job.  Get the food out of there fast, or you will also have pest infestation, which will cause you problems with your next door neighbor. A good PM should be able get these things done for you.

Best of luck

Bob

@Caleb Heimsoth   as Bob noted, there are people who will paint for $175/day but availability might be a big issue and it also depends on what quality you're looking for (e g does it matter to you that the old paint bleeds thru in a couple of spots)

if you figure around $1.05-$1.10/sq ft (of wall space, not just floor space) that will put you on the low end of retail, will give you a decent quality job but won't include wall repair or baseboards/trim

dry locking the basement should be around the same price but that stuff has a pretty overwhelming odor so you might get contractors saying they either don't do it or want a premium....get yourself a quart and open it up if you don't know what I mean....

I've got a painter and other contractor referrals.....most will work anywhere on the west side.  PM me if you need names.  overall I think you are looking at closer to $2k for the work you mentioned.  

So when having this work done, how much should one put down as a deposit?