If you’ve been a house painter for a long time, you’ve no doubt come across some form of drywall repair on every interior painting job. In fact, if you don’t master drywall repair well, your paint jobs won’t be as professional as they could be.
In this article I want to reveal how small drywall repair jobs can mean big profits for you. I’m talking about earning $350-$500 on average for just 7-10 hours of work. Every job is different from the course and may turn out to be only a $200 repair or perhaps a $1,500 repair.
The fact is that when it comes to repairing drywall, people always call someone to do the job. As a house painter, I know that most people think they know how to paint and the key word here is “think”. But when it comes to things like drywall repair, they run home to Mom.
And that is why you can earn a lot of money by doing small repair jobs like plumbers and electricians do. The things that most people cannot do themselves are simple and easy for us who decide to specialize in them.
Some people have the money but lack the time and would rather have someone else do the work anyway. However, 99% of the time, people just don’t know the trade. Drywall repair is a secret art. As for those who try to repair their own drywall, the job always turns out lousy.
Where is the target market for doing business? The answer is residential, light commercial, rental properties, etc. As a house painter, you may be limited to a high-end market if you want to earn salaries from professional painters. But not so with drywall repair. Your market may be low-end to high-end simply because of the huge profits on smaller jobs that most people can afford.
Most of the time you get calls from people when they have water damage. Sometimes it’s because of the horseplay of reckless teenagers. I had a job where bees ate a hole in the ceiling. I would say 95% of drywall repairs are due to water damage and half of that can be due to bad plumbing, a leaky shower that needs to be re-grouted, etc. A leaky roof is usually the other reason.
Sometimes you can get jobs hanging and taping small projects like a garage or part of a foundation. However, you don’t have to take on these larger projects. Many times people want to sell their house so they are motivated to finally fix their walls or ceilings.
You may be wondering, if drywall repairs are so simple, how can I be any good at doing them? First, you need to learn how to duplicate some common textures, which is easy once you figure out what tool was used to do it. You’ll also get repairs for common drywall holes of all sizes, including drywall (thin set and turned). And you’ll need to know how to repair loose tape seams.
And believe it or not, that’s all there is to a successful drywall repair. These techniques are hidden from the public, but easy for you and me. If you’ve ever seen what homeowners try to do to repair their own drywall, you’ll know instantly that it’s an easy and profitable business.
Here’s the amazing part. Most of the drywall repairs I see look horrible. However, the homeowner seems happy with him. The job looks like someone came in and spilled some mud on the roof and left. However, the repairman walked away with something like $200 and the homeowner, for some strange reason, generally thinks the job was done right. I have seen this too often.
On a serious note though, doing good professional looking work at affordable prices will get you tons of referrals and repeat business. If you can learn the basics of proper drywall repair and even do a little touch up paint afterwards, you’ll do just fine. In fact, you can earn $30 – $70 an hour due to the nature of the job.
How can I do business? Shopping guides, classified ads on places like Craig’s List, local online ads, small ads in the yellow pages, word of mouth, etc. Why should you start a small drywall repair business? Is there a great future in it? Yes for two reasons. First, self-employment is becoming the new workforce and second, home repair will always be with us.
Who can do this kind of work? Anyone who loves restoring things can do just fine. People who have a talent for home repairs, house painters, drywall, etc. Anyone who learns a few secrets to successful drywall repair.