How to price and bid a paint job

Picture a Tuesday afternoon walk-through. The homeowner shows you three bedrooms, mentions "just a refresh", and asks if you can send a number by tomorrow. Everything you notice in the next twenty minutes decides whether this job makes money: the nail holes, the water stain on one ceiling, the dark red accent wall, the furniture nobody has offered to move, and the year the house was built.

A good painting bid is not a guess with a nice letterhead. It is the answer to four questions: how much surface, how long it takes your crew, what it costs you per hour, and how much you want to keep. This guide goes through them in the order you meet them on a real bid.

Step 1: walk the job with a checklist

Never price a painting job you have not seen. Photos from the customer miss exactly the things that eat time. On the walk-through, write down:

• Surfaces: walls, ceilings, trim, doors, closets, and which ones are included
• Condition: holes, cracks, peeling, stains, glossy surfaces that need sanding or primer
• Color changes: dark to light or light to dark usually means an extra coat
• Access: high ceilings, stairwells, tight rooms, furniture to move and protect
• Age of the house: if it was built before 1978, lead-safe rules apply (Step 6)
• What the customer expects: "refresh" and "make it look new" are very different jobs

Take photos of every room from the doorway and close-ups of problem areas. They settle arguments later about what was included.

Step 2: measure the surfaces

For walls, the quick method is the room's perimeter multiplied by the wall height, minus large openings. Ceilings are length times width. Trim is usually counted in linear feet and doors as a count. The square foot estimating guide goes through the measuring in detail, with a worked room.

Measure once, carefully, and write it down room by room. The numbers become the backbone of the bid and of your materials order.

Step 3: estimate the hours with your own production rates

This is the part no chart can do for you. How many square feet of wall your crew paints in an hour, with two coats and cutting in, depends on your people, your tools and the condition of the surfaces. Industry averages from someone else's crew will be wrong for yours.

If you do not have your own rates yet, time your next three jobs room by room. Keep the numbers in a simple sheet: surface, square feet, coats, hours. After a few jobs you will have rates you can trust, and each bid will get more accurate.

Then add the hours that are not painting: moving and covering furniture, masking, repairs and sanding, priming stains, cleanup, and the drive. On an interior repaint, prep and cleanup are often where a bid goes wrong.

Step 4: turn hours into money

Hours become dollars through your real hourly cost, not the wage alone. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for construction and maintenance painters at $23.75 an hour (May 2025). That is what a painter earns, not what a painter costs you: payroll taxes, workers' compensation and any benefits come on top. The complete pricing guide shows how to go from wage to real cost, and how to add a share of your monthly overhead to every hour.

For materials, use the coverage printed on the product's label or technical data sheet, the number of coats and the square footage you measured. Add primer, caulk, filler, tape, plastic and rollers. Consumables on a three-room job add up to more than people expect.

Step 5: put it together with your margin

Let's say the three bedrooms come out like this for a two-person crew:

Round up, not down. Rounding $2,482 down to $2,450 looks harmless, but it takes $32 straight out of profit. The figures in the table are examples to show the method. The division by 0.80 is what keeps 20 percent of the price as profit, and the reason is explained in markup vs margin.

Step 6: check the rules that change the price

Two federal rules can change how you do the job, and so what it costs:

• Lead paint in pre-1978 homes. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule requires anyone paid to do work that disturbs painted surfaces in homes, childcare facilities and preschools built before 1978 to be certified, and the work has to be done by a certified renovator or someone trained on the job by one. Containment, cleanup and record-keeping take time. Price them in, or do not take the job.
• Working at height. OSHA's construction standard requires protection for anyone working on a surface with an unprotected side or edge 6 feet or more above a lower level. Stairwells, scaffolds and exteriors can mean extra equipment and setup time.

State and local licensing rules also affect who can bid. In California, for example, any job worth $1,000 or more in labor and materials needs a contractor license from the state board.

Step 7: write a bid the customer can say yes to

A good bid answers the customer's questions before they ask them:

1. What is included, room by room and surface by surface.
2. What is not included, such as closets, ceilings or furniture moving.
3. Number of coats, and who picks the paint and colors.
4. How surface repairs are handled, and what happens if you find more damage.
5. Price, deposit, payment terms and how long the price is valid.
6. Start date, expected duration and daily working hours.

Send it the same day or the next morning. A clear, fast bid often wins over a cheaper one that arrives three days later.

Common bidding mistakes

• Pricing from photos instead of a walk-through.
• Using someone else's production rates.
• Forgetting prep, cleanup and the drive.
• Adding a percentage to cost and calling it margin.
• Leaving out lead-safe work in older homes.

What to do next

Measure your next job with the square foot method, then run the numbers through the job price calculator. If you are setting up a painting company from scratch, the guide to starting a painting business covers licenses, insurance and equipment.

Frequently asked questions

Should I give a price over the phone?

Not for a real quote. Photos and phone descriptions miss prep, access and condition problems. A range can set expectations, but the bid should come after a walk-through.

How do I know how long a room will take?

Time your own crew on a few jobs, room by room, and keep the numbers. Your own production rates will always beat averages from someone else's crew.

Do I need to be lead-safe certified to paint older homes?

If you are paid to do work that disturbs painted surfaces in homes, childcare facilities or preschools built before 1978, the EPA requires the firm to be certified and the work to follow lead-safe practices.