Paints: interior and exterior coatings priced by measured area
Named in his building-materials list, never ranked; low-margin commodity.
The range above is an indicative planning figure taken from our own research, not a quotation and not an offer. buytogethr is pre-launch and has closed no pools.
What you are actually buying
What an institution is buying is a coating system over a measured area, not tins. Each surface carries a preparation scope, a primer, a putty or undercoat where the substrate needs it, and a topcoat at a stated number of coats and dry film thickness. Quotes vary in ways that make them hard to compare: some price per litre, some per square metre applied, some as a labour-inclusive contract; sheen grade, exterior warranty, scaffolding, surface repair and making good may sit inside or outside the figure. The common error is comparing rate per litre when spreading rate and coat count differ, so the cheaper material covers less wall, and then letting the applicator substitute product once work has started.
Why paints suits collective purchasing
Paints appear in the founder's building-materials list but never reach the ranked construction shortlist, and that is the honest position. Distribution is dense, distributor terms are already competitive at modest volumes, and the material is low in value relative to the cost of moving it, so a pool mostly reproduces terms a good local supplier gives anyway. What pooling can change is the specification and the applicator: several institutions painting in the same season can fix one system, one warranty and one applied-rate contract and put that out to competition. Treat paints as something added once buyers are already grouped, not a category to open with.
Pin down before price
- Substrate and condition of each surface, with preparation, repair and making good in or out of scope
- The full system named by generic type: primer, undercoat or putty, topcoat
- Coats and dry film thickness per coat, with the spreading rate the applicator is held to
- A measured area schedule, interior and exterior separately, and the rule for how area is measured
- Exterior finish warranty, its term, and what voids it
What drives ten-year cost
- The repainting cycle, which sets the next capital spend far more than the first rate does
- Access and scaffolding, and the cost of taking rooms or wings out of use while work runs
- Touch-up and batch matching, which depend on batch details being recorded at handover