Carrigan Painting is 5 star rated on Google for 15+ Years!
Updated: 03-07-2025
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 do not have enough demand for our services in the City of Buffalo to justify the cost of the expensive license required. We have worked exclusively in the north/eastern suburbs of Buffalo for nearly 15 years.
How much does Carrigan Painting charge?
Carrigan Painting charges $115 per hour** plus materials. Every job includes 2 uniquely skilled professional residential painters with specialization in plaster and drywall repair. All employees on site are covered with workers compensation insurance and disability.
**When under Contract, the price of the job doesn’t go up after the fact with out procuring written Change Orders. 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.
For popcorn ceiling removal, we average around $10 – $12 per square foot for standard ceiling height. If the ceiling is over 10′ high or the job requires specialized equipment such as extension ladders and scaffolding the cost increases. Sounds like a lot until you realize the work that is involved with texture removal. There are no bulk discounts with popcorn removal.
The average popcorn ceiling takes 3 days from texture to smooth ceilings. We scrape off the ceiling wet, Then clean up. The second day, we then prime the ceiling, then skim coat the entire ceiling. Clean up. Then on the third day we sand the ceiling, then prime the ceiling again, then patch the ceiling (We are not perfect, priming shows the imperfections in our work), then spot prime then paint the ceilings twice. We use dedicated primers. None of this ‘Paint & Primer’ gimmicks. Popcorn Removal Service.
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.
Taxes are a part of life, and avoiding them is illegal with severe penalties. It’s not worth it.
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:
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 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, We will pick up the paint either the night before, or the morning of starting the job. 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 freezes, its junk!
Do you offer senior discounts?
No we do not. Due to the shear cost of conducting legitimate business in New York, we do not have the profit margins to offer discounts to seniors and veterans. In order to offer you those discounts, we would have to raise our prices which would make us less competitive in a market saturated by people who are not carrying all the proper insurances. I honestly have no idea how a legitimate small business in the trades, can afford to give a 10% discount on a job. The only way that works mathematically is if they’re bumping your price by 10% and then taking it off as a “discount”.
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 next years exterior painting season and going forward. Stacy has been with me for many years and handles our color consultations and jobsite management.
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. When you call if I don’t answer (On a ladder, driving, don’t hear it), please leave a message, I will return your call.
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. 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 install new drywall), 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, David Carrigan Jr wrote all text, created all photos on the website and blog. AI is used very sparingly as I am not a writer. 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. How did I do?
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 250+ photos on the blog (where you are now) might be a little slow. If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below or E-Mail us at work-@carriganpainting.com (remove the dash).
This blog/website is updated regularly.
All pictures are of actual work.
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