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When starting out in the painting business, the task of creating an estimate can seem daunting.
If your estimate is too high, you risk losing the job; and if it is too low, you could be setting
yourself up for a loss. Learning how to create good estimates takes time, but in the meantime,
we’ve put together this handy guide that will help you rapidly pull together estimates that are
close to the mark.

What goes into an estimate?

There are only 5 expenses to consider when estimating a paint job:

1. Paint
A gallon of paint can be anywhere from $15-80. It really depends on the brand, the quality and
the contractor discount you’re getting. A homeowner might be paying $30 for a gallon of paint,
when a seasoned contractor can get the same gallon for $15. This depends on the relationship
the contractor has with the paint store, and how many gallons they’re buying each month.

The cost of paint also depends on the quality. A lower quality paint typically has less resin (the
resin is what actually holds the paint together), whereas high quality paint has more resin and
holds up better over time.

Quality: Low Medium High

Homeowner Price $20 $40 $80
Contractor Price $15 $25 $45

Using the cost of paint per gallon, you can easily estimate how much it will cost for the entire
house using this table (Remember, if you’re using higher quality paint, use the higher cost per
gallon for the calculation):

Size of Body Trim Total Total Cost (Assuming medium quality paint @
House Color Color Gallons $25 per gallon)
1500 sq. ft. 8 2 10 $250
2500 sq. ft. 12 3 15 $375
4000 sq. ft. 20 5 25 $625

2. Materials
These are the most common painting materials you’ll need on each job and how much you’ll
need for a 2,500 square foot exterior paint job with medium prep work:

Masking Plastic (2 rolls) $25

Masking Paper (3 rolls) $15
Tape (10 rolls) $35

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 Caulking (6 tubes) $15
Primer (1 gallon) $25

Total Cost $115

NOTE: These costs are for a 2,500-sq. ft. exterior paint job with medium prep work. Costs will
vary depending on the house. A house with a lot of brick, for example, would need a much
larger area masked off, meaning more rolls of masking paper and plastic.

3. Labor
A good crew of 2-3 painters can finish the exterior of a 2,500-square foot house in 1-2 full days.
Use the table below for the average labor cost for houses of different sizes:

Size of House Full Work Days Total Labor Cost

1500 sq. ft. 1 $800
2500 sq. ft. 1.5 $1200
4000 sq. ft. 3 $1800

NOTE: The hardest cost to estimate is labor because it is dependent on many factors. In fact,
some variables can even triple the time and labor it takes to paint a house! If you are
inexperienced, the best course of action is to bring your experienced crew to the house so they
can point out any areas of the house that are time-consuming so you can factor that into your
estimate. Here are some things to look out for:

• Areas that require heavy prep-work (peeling, wood damage, failed caulking)
• House access ( difficult ladder placements, steep roofs)
• Type of windows (embedded windows, vinyl windows)
• Vegetation coverage (trees in the way, lots of ivy, nice gardens)
• Radically different colors (applying 2 or 3 coats before the paint covers)

4. Marketing
There are many ways you can market your business. Whatever method you use, always track
your overall cost. This will help you identify the method that gives you the best return on
investment (ROI) so you can focus your energy and resources there.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your marketing percentage below 10% of the total paint job. So,
for a $3,000 job, spending $300 or less on marketing to get the job leaves room for a healthy
profit.

Here are some typical marketing costs:

• Lead Providers $30-$60 per lead

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 • Lawn Signs $10 per sign
• Door-to-door leads $10 per lead
• Flyer drops $1,000-$4,000 per drop
• Referrals FREE
• Lead Groups FREE

5. Mark-up
Your mark-up is where your profit comes in. Since you are in the business to make money, your
mark-up is very important.

Using a 2,500-square foot as an example (and using all the average costs from the tables above):

• Paint: $375
• Materials: $115
• Labor: $1,200
• Marketing: $100
• Total $1,790

Let’s assume you want to make a 35% profit on this job. Then, you’ll need to charge a total of
around $2,800 (meaning your mark-up is $1,010).

ALMOST EVERY EXTERIOR PAINT JOB

WILL FALL WITHIN THE FOLLOWING
PRICING:

1500 SQ FT: $1,500-$2,500

3000 SQ FT: $3,000-$5,000

5000 SQ FT: $6,000-$10,000

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What About Interior Estimates?
You’ve probably noticed that we’ve only talked about exterior paint jobs so far. What about
interior estimates? Interior is a little more annoying to estimate than exterior because every
single job is so unique. Interiors can be lots of different layouts for rooms, sizes of rooms,
number of rooms, etc., so you’ll need to take a bit more care when calculating square footage
and other incidental time- and labor-consumers.

• Calculate the square footage of each room and add the figures for the total interior
square footage. Use the cost per gallon of the paint you’ll be using to calculate your
paint cost.
• Add $50 for each full door in the house.
• Go ahead and add labor, material, marketing, and mark-up to arrive at your final price.

NOTE: Interior is tricky and you’ll need to adjust and learn as you go a little bit. Some rooms
have more detail work than other rooms. Some homes have more walls. Adjust your prices
accordingly. For easier jobs, you can go a little lower. For more difficult jobs, you can go a little
higher.

To check if your price is correct – a full interior should cost more than the full exterior. More
colors and sheens increase the price.

ALMOST EVERY INTERIOR PAINT JOB

WILL FALL WITHIN THE FOLLOWING
PRICING:

1500 SQ FT: $1,800-$3,000

3000 SQ FT: $3,500-$4,500

5000 SQ FT: $5,000-$8,000

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Creating the estimate
You have everything you need to start creating good estimates. But take it step-by-step and you
can avoid some costly mistakes.

Step 1: Gather Information

For all estimating, you need to know exactly what the customer wants painted, what type of
prep work is required, and what type of paint and materials you are using. Without that
information, we can't create an estimate.

You’ll also need to make a note of anything that will increase the time and labor on the job, and
the materials you need, as this will affect your final estimate.

Step 2: Create the estimate

Now all you have to do is walk through each of the items we discussed and reach your final
estimate! Use the tables in the previous sections to help you.

1. Square footage _______________

2. Quality of paint Low / Medium / High

3. Number of gallons _______________

4. Paint cost _______________

5. Material cost _______________

6. Labor cost _______________

7. Marketing cost _______________

8. Mark-up _______________

• Total (Paint+Material+Labor+Marketing+Mark-up) _______________

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CHECKLIST

Done? What to do: Notes

 Gather information
 Quality of paint Low Medium High
 Materials needed
 Square footage
 Calculate cost of paint
 Calculate cost of material
 Calculate cost of labor
 Ask crew to point out problem areas
 Calculate marketing costs
 Calculate mark-up
 Add everything up for total estimate
 Compare your estimate with average rates listed here*

* (should be on the higher end if you need to include higher-quality paint, or the job requires more time
and labor and/or materials)