Powder Coating: Area Price With a Shop Minimum

All versions

Powder coating a big gate is easy to price by the square foot; powder coating one small bracket costs more in booth time than area. MAX solves both at once: quote the area price or the shop minimum, whichever is higher.

Quick formula: Area price or minimum, whichever is larger:

=MAX(B2*C2,D2)

A 22-square-foot gate at $6 is $132, so it bills at $132. A tiny bracket that prices at $24 gets bumped to the $95 minimum.

Functions used (tap for the full reference guide):

MAX

The example

Three parts priced at $6 a square foot against a $95 shop minimum.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Part	Area	Rate	Minimum	Price
2	Gate	22	6	95	$132.00
3	Bracket	4	6	95	$95.00
4	Fence frame	40	6	95	$240.00

The formula

MAX compares the area price to the minimum and keeps the larger:

=MAX(B2*C2,D2) // square feet times rate, floored at the shop minimum

How it works

The minimum is a floor, not a discount:

B2*C2 is the area price — square feet times your per-square-foot rate.
D2 is the least you will fire the oven for, kept in its own cell so one edit reprices every small job.
MAX(...) returns whichever is bigger, so small parts land on the minimum and big parts bill by area.

The break-even is the minimum divided by the rate: $95 over $6 is about 16 square feet. Below that, the minimum carries the job; above it, area takes over.

Try it: interactive demo

Interactive

Enter the surface area, your rate, and the shop minimum.

Area (sq ft)

Rate ($/sq ft)

Shop minimum ($)

Variations

Add a color-change fee

A short run in an odd color earns a booth-cleaning surcharge on top of the price.

=MAX(B2*C2,D2)+F2

Two-coat parts

Primer plus topcoat roughly doubles the area cost before the minimum floor.

=MAX(B2*C2*2,D2)

Pitfalls & errors

Estimate the real surface area, not the footprint. Tubing, railings, and mesh have far more coated area than their outline suggests — sometimes several times more.

MIN in place of MAX caps every big job at the minimum, so a $240 gate would bill $95. It is a costly one-letter mistake — double-check the function name.

Practice workbook

📊

Download the free Powder Coating: Area Price With a Shop Minimum practice workbook

Edit the yellow area, rate, and minimum cells; the price recalculates.

Frequently asked questions

Should sandblasting be inside the minimum?

Usually not. Prep is its own line because a rusty part and a clean one take very different labor. Keep blasting separate and let the coating minimum cover only the coating.

How do I price a whole batch of small parts?

Sum their areas first, then apply one minimum to the batch. Applying the minimum to each tiny part separately overcharges a customer who brought a boxful.

Stop fighting formulas. Learn them in a day.

This recipe is one of hundreds of real-world formulas we teach. Our Excel Formulas & Functions class covers lookups, logic, text, and dynamic arrays hands-on — live in Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, Oklahoma City, Denver, or online.

See the Formulas & Functions Class

Function references: MAX