Sherwin-Williams 8% Price Jump Sept 1: Contractor Bid Adjustment Toolkit

What the Sherwin-Williams increase means for your bids right now

If Sherwin-Williams architectural coatings go up around 8% on September 1, the fix is not a flat markup on your invoice. Reprice by job type: apply the increase to material cost only, then translate that into a percentage of total job cost based on your actual prep severity, coat count, and access conditions. On a typical repaint where materials run 25-35% of the job, an 8% material bump usually lands as a 2-3% hit to total price. That is manageable if you catch it before you sign, and expensive if you eat it after.

Do three things this week: pull every open bid and unsigned proposal with a start date after September 1, add a written material escalation clause to anything new, and call your Sherwin-Williams rep to confirm what account-level pricing and any grandfathered purchase orders actually look like for your dealer. Regional rollout and account discretion vary, so do not assume your invoice will match a national headline number exactly.

Reprice by job type, not by percentage alone

An across-the-board 8% uplift is a starting point, not a pricing model. The real exposure depends on how much of the job is materials versus labor, which depends on coat count, substrate condition, and access.

• Interior repaint, good substrate: Two coats, low prep, roll and cut application. Material share of cost is moderate, so the price impact is closer to 2%.
• New construction interior: Higher paintable SF per crew day, often sprayed, primer plus two coats. Material volume is higher relative to labor, so the increase hits harder here, closer to 3-4%.
• Exterior with failing caulk and peeling substrate: Prep severity drives labor way up, which dilutes the material percentage impact, but you are also burning more primer and sealant, so total material spend per paintable SF goes up too. Reprice the primer and caulk line separately from the topcoat line.
• Cabinet refinish: Product tier matters most here. Cabinet-grade coatings sit at a higher price point already, so an 8% bump on a premium product tier is a bigger dollar swing than the same percentage on a builder-grade wall paint.

Break your estimate into material line items by MPI product category (primer, topcoat, specialty coating) instead of one lump material number. That makes repricing a five-minute exercise instead of a guess.

Build the escalation clause into every new estimate

A materials escalation clause protects you on any job with a gap between bid date and start date. Keep it simple and specific:

• State the coatings brand and product line the clause applies to.
• State that material pricing is locked at time of purchase order, not at time of bid, and that any manufacturer increase announced before your purchase date will be passed through as a line-item adjustment, not absorbed into your labor rate.
• Give the client a cap, for example a stated maximum adjustment percentage, so they are not signing a blank check.
• Put a purchase deadline in writing. If they sign and approve a purchase order within a set window, you honor the original number.

This clause does more good on exterior and cabinet jobs where product tier and coat count drive material cost higher. On a straightforward one-coat touch-up interior job the exposure is smaller and the clause matters less, but include it anyway so clients get used to seeing it.

Rebuild your estimate around prep severity and production rate

Prep severity and production rate are the two numbers that actually control your margin, not the paint price alone. When you reprice a bid, walk through both.

Prep severity. Score each surface: sound substrate ready for topcoat, moderate prep (sanding, spot priming, caulk repair), or heavy prep (scraping, moisture-damaged substrate, multiple spot primers). Heavy prep jobs use more primer, which is now also 8% more expensive, and they slow your production rate, which changes labor cost independent of the paint increase. Reprice these two variables separately so you are not blaming the paint increase for a labor problem, or vice versa.

Production rate. Track SF per day by crew size and application method. A two-person crew rolling and cutting interior walls moves at a different rate than a sprayer running trim and doors. If your production rate assumptions are stale, your labor pricing is already off before the material increase even hits. Update your SF/day benchmarks per method (spray, roll, brush) before you touch the material line.

Coat count. Confirm coat count on every open bid. A job quoted for two coats that actually needs three because of substrate color change or poor prior coating adhesion will absorb the material increase twice, once from the price hike and once from the extra coat. Lock coat count in writing on the proposal.

Job-site scenarios where the increase bites hardest

Exterior with failing caulk. Before you touch a brush, run a moisture check on the substrate. Wet wood under failing caulk means you are buying extra primer and possibly extra labor days for dry-out time, on top of the price increase. Quote caulk and primer as separate line items so the client sees exactly where the cost is coming from.

New construction interior. Builders buy on tight margins and expect firm numbers. If you are locked into a builder contract signed before the increase, your escalation clause is your only protection. If you have not signed yet, reprice the primer coat now, since new construction interiors often run primer plus two topcoats across large paintable SF totals, which magnifies any material increase.

Cabinet refinish scope creep. Cabinet jobs quietly expand: client adds interior shelving, or asks for a different sheen mid-project, or you discover the substrate needs more sanding than the walkthrough showed. Each of those additions pulls from a higher product tier coating. Reconfirm cabinet linear feet and door count against the original color board selection before you place your material order, not after.

Pre-1978 properties. If you are working on a structure built before 1978, lead-safe practices under EPA RRP rules apply regardless of what the paint costs. Factor containment and cleanup labor into your prep severity score, since that labor cost does not move with the material increase but often gets lumped into the same conversation with clients who are already anxious about price.

The client conversation, without the surprise invoice

Clients do not need a lecture on manufacturer pricing. They need three sentences: your material costs went up, here is the dollar amount it adds to their specific job, and here is the window they have to lock the old price by approving now. Send that as a short written notice, not a phone call they can forget.

For signed contracts without an escalation clause, you have two honest options: absorb the increase as a cost of doing business on that job, or call the client, explain the situation plainly, and ask if they will split the difference. Do not silently downgrade product tier or skip a coat to protect margin. That erodes trust and the coating job itself.

A repricing workflow you can run this week

• Pull every open bid and unsigned proposal with a start date after September 1.
• Separate each estimate's material line by MPI product category: primer, topcoat, specialty coating.
• Confirm coat count and prep severity against the original walkthrough notes.
• Reprice materials at current dealer pricing, not last quarter's price sheet.
• Add the escalation clause and a purchase order deadline to anything not yet signed.
• Send updated numbers to clients with a plain explanation and a short approval window.

Running this list manually across a full pipeline is where estimators lose hours. PaintWright's estimating workflow lets you flag material lines by product category and reprice a batch of open bids in one pass instead of reopening each proposal from scratch.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to reprice jobs that are already signed?

Only if your contract includes a material escalation clause or your purchase order has not been placed yet. Without an escalation clause, a signed contract generally locks the price you quoted, which means you absorb the increase or have a direct conversation with the client about splitting it.

How much of my bid should I adjust for an 8% material increase?

Do not apply 8% to the whole bid. Apply it to the material line only, then let that flow through based on your material's share of total job cost, which typically runs 25-40% depending on prep severity, coat count, and product tier. Most jobs will see a 2-4% total price shift, not 8%.

Does the increase apply the same way to primer and topcoat?

Not necessarily. Dealer pricing changes can vary by product line within the same manufacturer. Confirm actual line-item pricing with your rep for primer, topcoat, and any specialty coatings you use, rather than assuming a uniform percentage across every product category.

Should I switch product tiers to avoid the increase?

Only if the substrate and job conditions support it. Dropping to a lower product tier to save on material cost can backfire on coverage rate and durability, which shows up later as callbacks. Reprice honestly before you change product tier.

What is the fastest way to catch every affected bid?

Sort your open pipeline by start date and material brand. Anything starting after the increase date with Sherwin-Williams products in the material line needs a look. This is exactly the kind of batch review that estimating software is built for, since doing it bid by bid from memory is how jobs slip through.