Friday afternoon, the sealcoat crew finishes a 120-stall lot and it's black from curb to curb. Monday morning the striper shows up to paint it. There are no old lines to follow, nobody marked the line ends, and the property manager wants the tenants parked by 10. The job was priced "per stall" off last year's restripe on a lot where the lines were still there.
To price parking lot striping, count the linear feet of line from the layout, turn feet into gallons at your line width and thickness, and count stencils, stop bars and accessible spaces as their own items. Build labor from your crew's feet per hour plus layout time, which is small on a restripe and large on a blank lot. Add drive time, equipment and a minimum, then your margin.
Count the feet the way the lines are painted
Stalls share lines. A row of 20 stalls, 9 feet wide and 18 feet deep, takes 21 lines, not 40:
(20 + 1) × 18 ft = 378 linear feet
That's about 19 feet of line per stall. The striping pricing guide walks through the same count.
Say the lot is three double-loaded bays, six rows of 20 stalls, with a painted center line where the rows meet head to head. Each row is 378 feet, and six rows are 2,268 feet. The three center lines run the length of the bays, 20 stalls at 9 feet, so 180 feet each and 540 feet together. That's 2,808 linear feet of 4-inch line.
Then count everything else separately, because none of it paints at the same speed:
- Stop bars: two at the exits, 24 feet each at 12 inches wide, 48 feet.
- Curb paint: a 300-foot fire lane along the building.
- Arrows: eight, each.
- Accessible spaces: 120 total spaces falls in the 101 to 150 row of the 2010 ADA Standards' parking table, which calls for five accessible spaces, and at least one of those has to be van accessible. Each gets a symbol and a marked access aisle.
- Signs, wheel stops and bollards, if you install them: each.
Measure from the satellite view if you like, but check the stall count on the lot. Rows that look like 20 are sometimes 19 with a light pole.
Turn feet into gallons
A gallon is 231 cubic inches. Painted at 15 mils wet (0.015 inch), it covers 231 ÷ 0.015 = 15,400 square inches, about 107 square feet. A 4-inch line is a third of a foot wide, so a gallon runs about 320 linear feet of 4-inch line.
Check the thickness the spec or the paint's data sheet calls for, and check your machine. A striper that lays it down heavier than 15 mils gets fewer feet. For this lot:
- Stall and center lines: 2,808 ÷ 320 = about 8.8 gallons
- Stop bars at 12 inches wide (about 107 feet a gallon): 48 ÷ 107 = about 0.45 gallons
- Curb paint: rough, porous concrete drinks paint, so call the 300 feet 2 gallons
- Stencils: say a quart each from your past jobs, 13 of them, 3.25 gallons
- Access aisle hatching: say a gallon each, 5 gallons
That's about 19.5 gallons. Add 10 percent for waste and it's about 21. At, say, $30 a gallon for waterborne traffic paint, the paint is $630.
Thermoplastic is a different material with different equipment and a much higher cost per foot. Price it as its own line. Don't price it like paint.
Layout decides the day
On a restripe over visible lines, layout is a walk with the machine. On a freshly sealed or new lot, somebody has to measure and snap every line end before the first foot is painted. That time is the difference between a good job and a free morning.
Build the hours from your own crew's numbers. Say a two-person crew at a loaded $32 an hour runs 1,200 feet an hour of straight line including moves between rows, takes 10 minutes a stencil and 15 minutes an access aisle:
- Lines: 2,808 + 300 + 48 = 3,156 feet ÷ 1,200 = about 2.63 hours
- Stencils: 13 × 10 minutes = about 2.17 hours
- Access aisles: 5 × 15 minutes = 1.25 hours
- Setup and cleanup: 0.75 hours
- Drive: 30 minutes each way, 1 hour
That's 7.8 hours before layout. Add half an hour of layout on a restripe and it's 8.3 hours. Add 3 hours of layout on a blank lot and it's 10.8.
For a sealcoat customer, save the layout before the sealer goes down: photograph the lot, measure the rows and mark the line ends on the curb or with a nail and paint. Twenty minutes on Friday saves hours on Monday.
Put the price together
Crew at $64 an hour for two, and say the striper and truck cost $25 an hour to own and run:
| Line | Restripe | Blank lot |
|---|---|---|
| Paint | $630 | $630 |
| Crew: hours × $64 | 8.3 × $64 = $531.20 | 10.8 × $64 = $691.20 |
| Striper and truck: hours × $25 | $207.50 | $270.00 |
| Direct cost | $1,368.70 | $1,591.20 |
At a 40 percent margin, the restripe is $1,368.70 ÷ 0.60 = $2,281.17, about $19.01 a stall. The blank lot is $1,591.20 ÷ 0.60 = $2,652.00, about $22.10 a stall. Layout alone moved the price $370.83 on one lot.
The numbers are illustrative. The lesson isn't. A single price per stall that works on a restripe loses money after sealcoat, and one that works after sealcoat loses the restripe work.
Small lots need a minimum
On a 20-stall lot the row is 378 feet: under 20 minutes of line time and a little over a gallon of paint. The drive and setup are still 1.75 hours, which at $89 an hour for the crew and rig is $155.75 before anybody paints a line. That's more than the paint and the line time together.
Put a minimum charge on the proposal. Better still, put the restripe on the same proposal as the sealcoat, so it rides on a trip that's already paid for. The sealcoat pricing post covers that side of the proposal.
What goes on the proposal
- Linear feet of line, the line width and paint or thermoplastic.
- Each stencil, stop bar and accessible space as its own item.
- Layout, stated separately on a new or blank lot.
- Blackout or removal of old lines if the layout changes.
- Who decides the layout. If the lot doesn't have the accessible spaces or sizes it needs, say so in writing before you paint the old layout back.
- Exclusions: signs, wheel stops, curb repairs, cars that weren't moved.
Fire lane colors, wording and letter height are usually set by the local fire marshal. Ask before you price them.
Questions contractors ask
How many linear feet of striping per parking stall?
In a row of standard 9 by 18 stalls, about 19 feet per stall, because neighbors share a line. A row of 20 stalls takes 21 lines of 18 feet, which is 378 feet.
How many feet does a gallon of striping paint cover?
At 15 mils wet, a gallon covers about 107 square feet, which is about 320 feet of 4-inch line. A thicker coat or a wider line gets fewer feet, so work it from your spec.
Should I price striping per stall or per foot?
Build it per foot and per item from your costs, then divide by stalls to check it. A per-stall price hides layout time, stencils and accessible spaces, which are what change from lot to lot.
How long does layout take on a new lot?
It depends on the lot and the crew, so track it. On a blank lot it can be a big share of the day, which is why it belongs on the estimate as its own line.
Where Pavr fits
Pavr is job management software for paving, sealcoating, striping and concrete contractors. Single and double lines by the foot, stop bars, arrow and accessible-space stencils, curb paint and layout come built in. Count the stalls and draw the lines on the satellite view, and the sealcoat and the restripe go on one proposal with one price, even when the striping is a different crew. See how estimating works.
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