The trade's own numbers, written down
For custom coating job shops
Know What To Charge For Any Powder Coating Job In 5 Minutes, And What Every Other Shop Is Charging
How to price wheels, frames, furniture and batch work with numbers you can defend, even if you've been going off gut feel for years.
Founding price. Goes up when the next edition of the rate card ships.
"You charge what you think feels right... Some say my shop is very reasonably priced and some say I'm way too high."
A shop owner, nine years in business.Last month a shop owner posted four patio chairs and a table in a trade group and asked what he should charge. Fourteen shops answered. The lowest said $650. The highest said $4,000. One admitted his own $700 quote should have been $900. Same chairs, same powder, a $3,350 spread, and every one of those shops was serious.
We watched that thread from an unusual seat. We work inside the powder industry, and for years we've had the view no single shop gets: what thousands of shops charge, what they pay, where the money leaks. And the thing about pricing is, the people with that data are the one group legally unable to discuss it with you. Suppliers can't talk prices. So the trade guesses, out loud, every day.
If you run a shop, the guessing looks like this
- A customer asks for a number at the counter and your stomach tightens, because you're about to make one up
- You post photos in a group and let strangers set your prices
- You win jobs and quietly suspect you left money on them
- You lose jobs to "the other guy is cheaper" with no idea if he's underwater or you're high
- You do the redo for free and never once add up what it cost you
And you've tried what everyone tries
- Asking the group (fourteen answers, $650 to $4,000, no help)
- Matching the shop down the road (now his bad math is your bad math)
- An hourly rate (you're guessing hours instead of dollars, and eating every overrun)
- Cost of powder times some number (powder is the smallest cost in the job)
- Feel (nine years in, still no idea if you're cheap or high)
What we did about it
So we did the thing nobody had done.
We read a year of the trade's own pricing conversations, thousands of posts and comments across the communities where coaters actually talk, and we wrote down every number. More than 2,000 prices, stated by working shops, organized by job.
What the data says
The middle of the market is real and knowable. Wheels: $175 a wheel at the median, $500 to $1,200 a set. Shop minimum: $150. It's just never been written down before.
The spread is 3x to 6x on identical work. Not because of regions. Because nobody knows the number.
The cheapest shops aren't winning, they're bleeding. "$150 per wheel. Anything less you're not going to retire," as one put it, while the market pays $1,100 a set all day.
The shops that know their numbers use the same few rules: cost plus margin, 50% more per stage, a real minimum. The trade already invented the system. It's scattered across ten thousand posts. Nobody ever collected it.
A look inside the rate card
What shops actually charge, by job
Three rows unlocked. The rest are in the book.
| Job | Median | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Wheels, per wheel | $175 | $125 to $300 |
| Wheels, per set | $700 | $500 to $1,200 |
| Shop minimum | $150 | $75 to $150 |
| Frames, cages, chassis | •••• | in the book |
| Patio furniture | •••• | in the book |
| Small parts, per piece | •••• | in the book |
| Per linear foot | •••• | in the book |
| Exhaust, headers, mufflers | •••• | in the book |
| Calipers | •••• | in the book |
| Hourly rate | •••• | in the book |
We collected it, finished the math, and called it The Powder Coating Price Book.
The Price Book. 30 pages, numbered steps, five jobs priced start to finish (wheel set, frame, patio set, 70-piece batch, per-foot work).
The Job Pricing Calculator. Your labor, your powder price, real transfer efficiency, prep, oven, rework. Five minutes to a defensible number.
The Market Rate Card. What shops actually charge, by job, median and spread. More than 2,000 prices recorded, kept to the 1,000+ that name the exact job: a price without the job attached is noise, and we don't count noise. This has never existed for this trade.
Plus three bench cards, made to print:
The Wheel Set Card. Price a set in 60 seconds, bare or tires-on.
The Shop Minimum Card. The market says $150; the exact two ways to say it at the counter.
The Redo Ledger. What a strip-and-recoat really costs you, filled in for your shop.
What you are actually getting
One set of wheels priced at the bottom of the market instead of the middle costs you about $500. On one job.
The trade's median shop rate is $125 an hour. This costs less than five minutes of your time.
What changes on Monday
| Quoting now | Quoting with the Price Book |
|---|---|
| The number comes from your gut | The number comes from your costs |
| Strangers on Facebook price your jobs | You answer the "what would you charge?" posts |
| $50 minimum because saying more feels rude | $150 minimum, said two ways, no apology |
| The redo comes out of your pocket, uncounted | Rework is a line on every quote |
| No idea where you sit in the market | Your price, next to the market's, on one card |
What shops did with it
"Raised my minimum from $60 to $150 the day I read it. Nobody has walked yet."
[NAME], one-man shop, [STATE]"I was at $125 a wheel. The card said the middle of the market is $175 and the sets go for $800. Quoted the next set at $700 and he said fine without looking up."
[NAME], two-man shop, [STATE]"Ran last month's biggest job through the calculator. I made $40 on it. I thought I made $300."
[NAME], [SHOP SIZE], [STATE]"I used to post a photo and wait for twenty people to tell me what to charge. I quoted three jobs off the book this week without asking anybody."
[NAME], [SHOP SIZE], [STATE]"The redo ledger was the ugly one. Two strip-and-recoats last quarter and I'd never put a number on them. It was more than my powder bill."
[NAME], [SHOP SIZE], [STATE]"Customer told me the shop down the road was cheaper. First time I had the numbers to explain why, instead of just dropping the price. Got the job at my number."
[NAME], [SHOP SIZE], [STATE]Who it's for
The owner-operator: one man in a garage bay to a five-man shop. If you shoot powder for money, this is your trade's numbers, finally written down.
Who it isn't for
Not for hobbyists doing their own parts (nothing here about technique, you already know how to coat), and not for the shop that already knows its cost per square foot to the cent. If that's you, you're the one the rate card is quoting.
Run it on your next three quotes.
If it hasn't paid for itself, reply to your receipt and we'll refund the $9. No forms, no questions.
Questions
Who are you, exactly?
People who work inside the powder industry and got tired of watching good shops undercharge. We don't sell powder, equipment, or anything else on this page, and no supplier's name appears in the book. The book doesn't care whose powder you shoot.
I've been coating for 15 years. What's in this for me?
Not technique, we promise. You know how to coat. This is what the market charges and a system for knowing your number before the customer asks. The man leaving $500 a set on the table has been coating a long time too.
Where do the market prices come from?
More than 2,000 prices stated publicly by working shops across the trade's own communities in the last year. The rate card keeps the 1,000+ that name the exact job, organized by job type. Anonymous, aggregated, and we show the spread, not just an average.
Will this work for my region?
The rate card shows the middle of the market and the range. High cost-of-living areas sit at the top of the band, rural shops nearer the bottom. The calculator prices from YOUR costs either way, which is the part that matters.
Is it printed?
PDF, built for the phone and for print. The three cards are made to be printed and stuck up in the shop.
When do I get it?
The download email lands within about fifteen minutes of purchase.
The next job through your door needs a number.
$9, and you'll have it in five minutes.
Founding price. Goes up when the next edition of the rate card ships.
Results depend on your shop and your market. The market rate card reports what shops have publicly stated they charge; it is not a recommendation to charge any particular price, and you set your own prices independently.
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