# Why Square Foot Pricing Doesn't Work

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I watched a discussion about cabinet refinishing where 60+ contractors argued over pricing methods—per door, per drawer, per opening, per linear foot, per square foot, and every combination imaginable.

One comment stood out: "I charged by the square foot because it was easier for the customer to understand and eliminated explanations."

That's the problem. Square foot pricing exists to avoid difficult conversations, not because it reflects actual costs.

Here's the reality: A 2,150 sq ft house and a 1,300 sq ft house require the same truck, crew, equipment, processes, setup time, and breakdown. You might save $150 on paint. That's it. Both can be completed in two days.

You can't use the square-foot price for the 2,150-square-foot house and apply it to the 1,300-square-foot home. You'll lose money. The fixed costs don't shrink with the square footage.

You can calculate a square foot price after completing a job—total payment divided by square footage. But that's a record of what happened on that specific job, not a formula you can apply to the next one.

The same problem arises when comparing bathrooms to bedrooms. A bathroom has one-third the wall space but takes the same time or longer to paint because you're cutting around toilets, vanities, tubs, fixtures, and mirrors instead of rolling open walls.

Cabinet refinishers face the same thing. 15 linear feet or 25 linear feet of cabinets—you're still masking the kitchen, prepping, spraying, and waiting through dry times for five days either way. Pricing this way ensures you will not earn the same amount over 5 days.

Square footage and linear footage only measure material consumption. These measurements do not reflect the actual unit of work, which involves deploying a crew to a location for a specified number of days.

That's why experienced contractors either work from minimums or provide quotes based on the job after assessing the site. The measurement comes after you understand what you're actually pricing—not before.


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