Real questions, honest answers.
Updated: 09-02-2025
Table of Contents
FAQ’s and answers:
What is your Service Area?
We work predominantly in northern Erie, and southern Niagara County. Amherst, Cheektowaga, Clarence, Lancaster, Kenmore, Tonawanda, South Pendleton, Rapids, Wolcottsville, west Pembroke, Alden. Our cut off is Rt. 77 in Pembroke.
Our lead painter is coming in from South Buffalo, so anything much past Akron, we typically will not take on, unless its a larger project. It takes her about an hour to go from her house to Akron in the morning and afternoons. That is a lot of driving! Now add snow.
Do you work in the City of Buffalo?
No we do not. We have worked exclusively in the north/eastern suburbs of Buffalo for nearly 15 years.
How much does Carrigan Painting charge?
To get an accurate price, we recommend contacting us directly at 716-697-3560 or by using our online estimate form at www.carriganpainting.com/contact-us. Pricing depends on factors like:
- All employees are W-2 and fully covered with workers’ compensation and disability insurance
- Our service charges, reflect one full day of a two-person crew, including all prep, cleanup, and protection.
- Level of prep, finish, and final appearance desired
- Project size and surface condition
- Substrate type (drywall, plaster, textured ceilings)
- Materials and labor requirements
- Height and accessibility
Professional Interior Painting
Our interior painting service includes meticulous wall and ceiling preparation using pole sanding for a smooth finish. We repair minor imperfections such as nail holes and surface dings. Two coats of premium paint are applied to both walls and ceilings for even, durable coverage.
✔ Includes 1 gallon of Behr® Scuff-Defense™ wall paint
✔ Minor drywall repairs included
✔ Walls and ceilings prepped and painted with care
✔ Perfect for freshening up after tenants, prepping for resale, or reclaiming your space
Please Note: Doors, windows, trim, and closets can be painted for an additional cost. Textured ceilings cost extra (popcorn, swirl, knockdown, ect.)
Minimum service charge: $900
All employees on site are covered with workers compensation insurance and disability.
Drywall Repair Services
Our drywall repair service is ideal for homeowners dealing with damage from water leaks, settling cracks, dents, or previous renovations. Most drywall repairs require two site visits to ensure proper drying, sanding, and priming for optimal results.
✔ Includes full repair and primer coat
✔ Ideal for walls or ceilings damaged by water, wear, or settling
✔ We match textures and feather edges for invisible repairs
✔ Professional cleanup included
Painting is available as an optional add-on.
Pricing: Most drywall repairs start between $1,100 and $1,500+, depending on size, location, and severity.
Ceiling Replacement with Drywall
When ceilings are beyond repair due to water damage, sagging plaster, or previous improper fixes, full drywall replacement may be the best long-term solution. This is a turn-key service that includes removal, disposal, installation, finishing, and painting.
✔ Includes demolition, installation, taping, finishing, and painting
✔ Ideal for collapsed plaster ceilings, water damage, or popcorn removal
✔ Clean worksite containment and dust management
✔ Finished smooth.
✔ Primed and painted with two coats of paint
Pricing:
Ceiling replacement typically ranges from $25 to $50 per square foot, depending on access, height, complexity, and finish level.
Please Note: We are very selective about the ceiling replacement projects we accept. An on-site assessment is required to determine feasibility and scope.
Popcorn Ceiling Removal
Smooth Ceilings, Done the Right Way
Popcorn ceiling removal isn’t quick, cheap, or easy, and that’s exactly why we don’t cut corners. We specialize in converting textured ceilings into clean, smooth finishes with a multi-day, detail-driven process.
✔ Full wet removal, containment, and cleanup
✔ Complete skim coat process for a smooth, modern finish
✔ No shortcuts, multiple rounds of priming, patching, sanding, and priming
✔ Dedicated primers and ceiling paint, never “paint & primer” shortcuts
Average Cost: $12 to $16 per square foot
Note: Ceilings over 10 feet high or jobs requiring extension ladders or scaffolding will cost more due to additional setup and safety requirements.
We do not offer bulk discounts on popcorn removal, every ceiling is labor-intensive.
**Price Guarantee**
We will never ask for more money at the end of the job if it took longer than we anticipated. We will lose money on a job before we ask a homeowner for more money because we didn’t charge enough to start with. However all changes to the original Contract that changes the scope of the work require written Change Orders with dated signatures.**
Are you insured?
Yes.
Long Answer:
We carry all the necessary (expensive) insurances. We carry $1 million in Commercial Liability Insurance (which covers your home and property). We are insured for interior and exterior residential painting, drywall and plaster repairs. We carry commercial insurances on our company branded vehicles (commercial auto policies). All employees are covered by New York State Workers Compensation Insurance and Disability.
With these costs in mind, our prices are set to ensure profitability in a very competitive market, where about half of our competition is lacking the required insurances. Or are moonlighting as Painters.
If I pay cash, can I save the tax?
Short Answer: No
Long Answer:
By asking to “save the tax by paying cash” (which would save you 8.75%), you’re asking us to take a 9.5% loss on your project before we even start.
Example:
- Original Bid: $900 + $78.75 (8.75% sales tax) = $978.75 total.
- Client’s Counter Offer: $900 cash.
- Revenue After Tax: $821.25.
If we accept the $900 cash offer, we would still need to pay the sales tax on the $900 as if it were the original price. The sales tax on $900 is $78.75, leaving us with $821.25. This results in a loss of $78.75 before we even start the job, equivalent to a 9.5% loss compared to the original pre-tax bid.
As a legitimate business, we must collect and pay taxes on jobs that require us to do so.
Some projects are Tax Exempt, for example new builds – you built your dream home, the first paint job is sales tax free. You and your contractor need to fill out form ST- 124 which is available online at https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/certificate_of_capital_improvement.htm
Do you take Credit Cards?
Not at this time. Cash or check. Please make checks payable to Carrigan Painting. By making your check(s) out to a business, the check(s) must be deposited and can not be cashed at the issuing bank. This creates a paper trail. Your deposit check will not be deposited until we are ready to start your project. We will be in contact with you prior to depositing your down payment.
Are your quotes free?
We provide free written estimates for work. Our turn around time is usually with in 7 days. Bids are delivered via E-Mail in PDF Format and includes our Cover Page, and the Contract. If our Contract is acceptable, please print one copy, sign and date it and return to us with the down payment. The down payment will not be deposited until we are ready to start your project. We require the down payment to schedule your project to ensure you won’t cancel on us at the last minute. Last minute cancellations became such a problem in the spring of 2023 that we began requiring down payments to schedule work.
How will i receive my estimate?
We send out all bids via E-Mail from a company E-Mail address (CarriganPainting @ gmail.com). If for some reason that doesn’t work, we will re-send from our domain (work @ carriganpainting.com). Please check your spam folders for your bid.
How long before i receive my estimate?
We try to get all bids out with in 48 hours. However because we do not employ a dedicated estimator to do our bids, life can and at times, does get in the way. I do my best to get all bids sent with in 7 days.
What Paint do you use?
Short Answer:
We use Behr paints almost exclusively, however will use Benjamin Moore upon request. Benjamin Moore Paints costs about 30% more than Behr and require a Change Order.
Long Answer:
We go into even more detail of the products we use on our Materials and Methods page
Behr: We use Behr Dynasty as our Sherwin Williams Emerald/Duration replacement. Dynasty has above average coverage, excellent hiding capability and holds up extremely well to wear and tear. It is Behr’s top of the line product and in our opinion is better than Benjamin Moore Aura. It is also about 25% cheaper than BM and Sherwin.
The other paint we really like from Behr is called Scuff-defense (Duration/SuperPaint). Its fantastic for high traffic areas like hallways, and kids bedrooms and playrooms. If you rub against it with a laundry basket for example, it wont leave a mark on the wall.
Benjamin Moore: Aura is considered by most as the best latex house paint available locally. We used to agree, until we started using Dynasty. At $110 a gallon for Aura, we feel there are better products on the market for substantially less money. Aside from that BM does have some really nice products, such as their Regal line of paints. However their paints are also the most expensive, and availability of product can be an issue.
Sherwin Williams: We used SW almost exclusively for over 10 years. However they changed their product formulas in the spring of 2021, and then lied about it for almost two years! (corporate not the retail stores). We caught them in the lie both verbally as well as through product comparison videos here and here. They have also substantially increased their prices while decreasing the quality of their products. Unfortunate too because we miss working with our local retail stores. Typically the amazing people working retail, know what it is they are talking about because they deal with mostly professionals.
Do you buy the paint?
Yes, jobs are bid to include all materials we need to complete our scope of work unless otherwise noted in the Contract. Any custom colors used on your property are yours. We do not want the extra paint. We will label the cans and place them in the basement. Never store house paint in the garage. Once paint begins to freeze, its junk!
Do you offer senior discounts?
We keep our pricing structure simple and transparent, so we don’t apply blanket senior-or veteran-only discounts. In New York a fully insured, OSHA-compliant residential contractor typically sees 40 – 45 % of every invoice absorbed by taxes, workers-comp, liability insurances, and state regulatory fees. Those fixed costs leave little room to carve out an extra 10 % without first adding that same 10 % back into the base price.
Rather than inflate estimates just to “discount” them later, we quote the same rate for every client, deliver meticulous paint and ceiling work, and stand behind it with the coverage and craftsmanship you expect.
How many people work for carrigan painting?
We’re currently a two-person painting & plastering company but are looking to hire a third team member for the 2025 exterior painting season and going forward. I, the owner (President of Carrigan Painting) and Stacy (Project Manager/Vice President) has been with me for many years and handles our color consultations and jobsite management. When we are on the job, she is in charge.
Her efficiency and expertise are invaluable. We often bicker like an old married couple, which our clients find entertaining, but just to clarify—we’re family, not married! She is an exceptional painter, and her drywall repair work is some of the best I’ve seen.
Do you work weekends?
Yes but not usually on a job. I typically do our bids on the week end when I have more time and am not bound by getting back to the jobsite. Also, Stacy has a child and a life outside of work (I know, shocking!). I try to do all bids on Saturday and keep Sunday as a day off, however I have been known to do bids on Sunday as well. I usually will write my bids Sunday morning.
Do you move furniture?
Please remove small items from the work area prior to our arrival. We require approximately 3’ access to all walls in the room plus ceiling access.
Carrigan Painting is not a moving company. While we expect to have to move some things in order to prepare an area to be painted, if we must stop multiple times though out your project to move excessive amounts of stuff in order to carry out our contractual obligations a charge of 20% of the overall cost of the project will be assessed for having to constantly move your stuff in order to safely do our job with out damaging your property.
What other services do you offer?
We are a residential painting company. In the last 15 years, we have done (2) commercial projects. Both relatively small projects. The rest has all been residential projects mostly in Amherst, Clarence and Lancaster. If your building a Walmart, call someone else.
Interior painting and exterior house painting, wallpaper removal, popcorn ceiling services, and pressure washing. We offer drywall repair (We repair damaged drywall, we do not do new work), we also offer traditional plaster repair using plaster not drywall mud. We stick to what we are insured for.
We do not have Jeff Carrigan’s phone number. (Carrigan Drywall)
We do not offer any mold mitigation services!!
Who manages the blog/website?
I, Dave Carrigan Jr wrote all text, created all photos on the website and blog. AI is used very sparingly as I am not a web developer (maybe I am?). I update the blog and website during my time off, usually nights and weekends. I also handle all advertising. I tried hiring a 3rd party to handle the advertising aspects but it was a disaster. So I do it myself.
Carrigan Painting
You will find no pushy sales people here. The pictures on the website should load pretty fast on a cell phone, however the 450+ photos on the blog (where you are now) might be a little slow. I am actively working on that. If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below or E-Mail us at
carriganpainting-@-gmail.com (remove the dashes).
This blog/website is updated regularly.
All pictures are of actual work.
Leave a Reply