Florida Home Maintenance 

& Remodeling Services LLC

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Estimating Interior Painting Costs

One of the questions we keep running into is how do we calculate the cost of painting. Painting quotes are all over the place and may vary as much as 100% from contractor to contractor.

This page will give you an understanding of what it takes to paint a room and how to calculate what you should be paying. 

There are several formulas that we use to estimate painting costs. The first one and most important is how many rooms are involved. Because we have fixed costs involved in painting these are built in to all our estimates. These costs involve going to the home, setting up, painting, & cleanup time. These costs are for all intents and purposes static because we do this for a whole house or a single room. These costs are typically included in the per square foot price of painting.

Painting many rooms allows us to spread the fixed cost over more rooms rather than doing a single room.

The second calculation we have is the number of square feet to be painted. A typical example is a 10 x 12 bedroom. This room has the following specifications:

  1. Square footage of the room, which is also the ceiling size (10×12=120 sq. ft.)
  2. Square footage of the walls. Assuming 8 foot ceilings we calculate the square footage by adding up the linear feet around the room times the ceiling height. A 10×12 room has 4 walls, 2 that are 10 feet long, and 2 that are 12 feet long. ((2*10) + (2*12)) = 44 * 8 = 352 square feet of wall space.
  3. Linear feet of baseboards, crown moulding and door casings. In our 10 x 12 bedroom we have 44 linear feet of baseboard minus any door openings. A standard 30″ door is 2.5 linear feet, which we subtract from the baseboard calculation so 44 – 2.5 = 41.5 linear feet. We then add the linear footage of the door casing which is roughly 7′ tall and 2.5 feet wide. So the door casing calculation is 7 *2 + 2.5 = 16.5 linear feet. Then we calculate any crown moulding using the same formula that we use for baseboards.  So in this case if the room has crown moulding to be repainted it would be 44 linear feet. Finally we calculate for windows or other openings the same way as we do for door openings by measuring around the window sides, top and bottom.

So, to continue our example, our customer wants to paint the walls, ceiling and baseboards and other trim.

The cost is calculated by the square foot, with ceilings being more expensive than walls. Prices vary widely, for example walls cost anywhere from 80 cents a square foot to $1.25 a square foot. This is for 2 coats of paint.

Ceiling costs range from $1.15 per square foot to $1.75 a square foot. Much of this variance is dependent on the ceiling type, whether it is smooth or textured or a popcorn ceiling. Height also comes into the calculation, it is more expensive to paint a 10 foot ceiling than an 8 foot ceiling.

Baseboards and trim cost anywhere from $1.00 a linear foot to $2.75 a foot. Crown moulding is more expensive than baseboard or door casing.

Let’s assume our example ceiling is 8 feet tall.

  1. We have 352 square feet of wall space, which we will paint at $.85 for total of $299.20.
  2. We have 120 square feet of ceiling at $1.25 for a total of $150.
  3. The baseboards and door casings are a total of 58 linear feet at $1.50 a foot for a total of $87.00.

To paint this room will cost $536.20 plus the cost of the paint and other supplies such silicone caulk and drywall mud for minor repairs. Lets assume 2 gallons of a mid line paint at $35 a gallon for the walls, a couple tubes of caulk at $7.00 a tube and a gallon of semi-gloss for the baseboards and other trim.  Total materials costs are approximately $120.00 dollars.

So, to prep and paint our example room it would cost the homeowner a total of  $656.20.

This is just a typical example, and your actual costs may be lower or higher depending on many things, such as location, paint brand preferences and prevailing costs in your local area.

Other costs may include moving heavy furniture away from the walls, covering floors or furniture items in the room with protective paper or plastic, etc.

We hope this example has educated you on painting costs and what goes into them.  Remember, per square foot prices should be lower if you contract to paint more than one room.

One final note. Kitchens are the most expensive room in the home to paint. Square footage wise they may not be significant, but contractors do charge more because of the necessity of moving and working around appliances and kitchen cabinetry, which have to be masked off, covered and protected.