Oooooooh ... I detect another need for somebody to pop some corn.

;-D

Oh, and no offense to you, Wearybuilder. You ask a perfectly valid question, but we have proven ourselves to be quite an opinionated bunch when the question of tipping arises.

That said, I think that if the painter owns the business himself, tipping would not be customary. However, if he has helpers working for him, then yes, a tip to them for a job well done would be a very nice gesture.

ha jen!

definitely a personal preference!

I'm in absolute agreement with the comment posted by Auntjen.

Red

Our painter was a neighbor who seems to paint everyone's house around here. We found out he was a martini drinker (not on the job, LOL) so I picked up a bottle of Grey Goose and one of Stoly, I think, and gave them to him when the job was over.

I agree also with Aunt Jen. Do you like the painter's work? Do you want to use him again? Do you want to be near the top or bottom of his list when you ask? Yes, yes, yes? Then tip him/her.

My Mom used to tip folks with cookies, candy, gifts, etc. I had to remind her that is fine for folks like the doctor, dentist, attorney, accountant, etc, but most folks want and need cash. They can't buy groceries or gas with that doodad or cookies you gave them. You have to use your common sense on whom to give cash and whom to give a gift, but it isn't rocket science. If your good judgement says they could probably use cash, then tip with cash. Of course, just my two cents. :)

I paid mine a good price so no tip was in order.

We had a fabulous painter who was a pro and worked by himself. I would have been happy to tip but we bought him a few lunches and then paid him in cash when he was done. He was more than pleased when I brought out the cash.

Not painting, but we just paid the 5 guys who did our entire roof in a day (a 12 hour 90 degree day) a nice tip each, after also providing loads of lemonade :), and I had *no* problem doing it--they did a great job and were sweating it out up there, doing something I *definitely* could not do. My rule is always that the workers get tipped, the owner doesn't. OPMMV :)

It is so hard to find good tradesmen of any sort, many of them now seem to do other things to pay bills because of competition with others who low bid but do crappy work but no one knows that up front - if you like his work keep him in business - tip! A tip could be considered something like paying in cash like annz said.

We did an addition and remodel last year (actually it was more like the last 2 years) and of all the contract workers I would have only considered "tipping" the HVAC guy and our cabinet painter, who we later hired to re-do the crappy interior paint job our general contractor's painter did. If you find someone who does a great job and you know you'd like to use them in the future then make the gesture. Doesn't have to be cash. I bought gifts for the painter's new baby. I think it's important to acknowledge a job well done, because too often that's not the case.

ok, I'm getting the idea....if we do tip in cash, what percentage?

I tipped my painter because he gave me a low bid on the job (a relative of a friend of a friend sort of thing). I don't mind tipping, owner or not, for a job well done. I just gave him about 15%, but I'm guessing that 10% would have been sufficient too.

I would think using a set percentage would be difficult in this situation. IMO, how much you tip would depend on the difficulty of the job and the amount of time the painter was on the job. In our case, the job was for all the exterior and the painter was there for nearly 2 weeks. He removed all the old caulk, recaulked, patched, primed, and painted 2 coats on a two story house. Cost: a little over $5k.......10% of that would be another $500 and more than I'd want to tip.

If his price is relative to the job he's doing, you don't need to tip at all. And if you feel better tipping, choose an amount that that is in line for your locale.
If you were the painter........what would you expect from the client?