How a Gold Coast painting contractor had 13 tenders priced in four months
Rusty's Painting is a painting contractor on the Gold Coast, bidding refurbishment work across South East Queensland: taverns, leagues clubs, hotels and private schools. We priced 13 tenders for them in four months.
- tenders priced in four months
- 13
- first job briefed, priced and invoiced
- Same day
- for all 13, including GST
- $3,025.33
- average a tender, including GST
- $233
The first job took one day
The first job was Warner Tavern, on 16 March 2026. One painting estimator worked on it from 8.00am to 4.00pm Queensland time. The invoice went out that evening, for $141.19 including GST.
The result was a 55-line BOQ, colour-coded back to the drawing, so Rusty's could see where each number came from.
| Existing plasterboard wall linings | 457 m² |
| New plasterboard wall linings | 68 m² |
| New plasterboard ceilings | 400 m² |
| Existing ceilings | 306 m² |
| One-coat sealer behind wallpaper and battens | 309 m² |
| Shadowline | 91 lineal metres |
Checked against the builder's own BOQ
On 24 March, Luke at Rusty's compared one of our markups with the BOQ a builder had sent them.
"Last markup was great, a few smallish differences to what we had sent us from the builders BOQ but the break down from you guys was great!"
"Was pretty close overall which is great, biggest difference was the wallpaper. But in saying that nothing to say your lads were wrong, we ended up running with the wallpaper BOQ from the builder only because they sent it to us."
Five projects in one email
On 23 March, Rusty's sent us five projects at once. We quoted four of them at 35 hours in total and billed 35 hours. The fifth was stood down at their request when the builder sent its own BOQ, and we never billed it.
What it cost
All 13 tenders came to $3,025.33, including GST, an average of $233 a tender. Invoices ran from $100.85 for a revision to $403.40. The fees on our homepage exclude GST.
On a recent tavern painting package, our own budgetary estimate was about $150,000. That figure is not a contract sum. Against it, $233 is under 0.2%. If you win one tender in ten, the estimating behind a win is about $2,300.
Where it got to
The first job was a 55-line BOQ. The most recent estimates are a five-sheet workbook: a summary by trade section, a detailed bill, equipment and machinery allocation, calculations, and an assumptions register.
The register states what was priced and what was not. On one job it recorded that the tender drawings had no finishes schedule, that there were no written supplier quotations so public benchmarks were used, and that overhead and profit were added once. The workbook is headed budgetary. An estimate that tells you where it is soft is worth more than one that doesn't.
Thirteen invoices, every one paid.
If you are a trade contractor turning down tenders because there is no one to price them, this is what the alternative costs.
Get a price for your jobQuantities are from the issued BOQs and fees from issued invoices, in AUD including GST. Quotes are verbatim from client emails.