How to bid painting jobs
Interior painting bids at $2 to $6 per square foot of surface; exterior at $1.75 to $4.50 per square foot of wall area. Per room, most interiors land $300 to $800.
The spread inside those bands is almost entirely preparation.
The formula
(Labour hours × loaded hourly cost) ÷ target labour % + materials with markup.
A 1,200 sq ft interior surface repaint, sound walls, minor filling:
- Prep: 6 hours
- Painting, two coats: 16 hours
- Total 22 hours × $32 loaded cost = $704
- Target labour at 40%: $704 ÷ 0.40 = $1,760
- Materials: 9 gallons at $55 + sundries = $560, plus 20% = $672
- Bid: $2,430 — which is $2.02 per sq ft, at the bottom of the band. Sound walls.
Now the same area with failing paint and rot to cut out:
- Prep: 22 hours instead of 6
- Total 38 hours × $32 = $1,216 ÷ 0.40 = $3,040 plus materials
- Bid: $3,700 — $3.08 per sq ft.
Identical square footage. 52% more money. That is the entire lesson of painting bids.
Price a painting job
Your numbers, the formula above. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs in your browser.
$3,840 base (1,200 square feet × $3)
This is a starting number, not a bid. Walk the property before you send it.
Measure walls, not floors
A 1,500 sq ft house has roughly 2,000 sq ft of paintable interior wall and ceiling, and more with nine-foot ceilings. Bidding from the listing square footage underprices by about a quarter before you have made any other mistake.
Perimeter × height, less large openings, plus ceilings.
What changes the bid
Surface condition. The dominant variable. Count the defects, do not estimate a percentage.
Colour change. Dark to light needs an extra coat. Price it as a separate line.
Ceiling height. Nine and ten foot ceilings mean staging and slower cutting-in.
Trim volume. Doors, casings, windows and baseboards are priced per unit, not by area, and a trim-heavy Victorian is a completely different job from a modern box.
Occupancy. Working around furniture and people is slower than an empty house.
Exterior access. Two storeys, steep ground, conservatories and anything needing staging rather than ladders.
The mistakes
Measuring floor area. Instantly 25% under.
Pricing the painting, not the prep. Prep is most of the labour on a repaint.
One number, no options. A competitor quoting one coat over dirt looks cheaper and the customer cannot tell why unless your bid shows prep levels as priced choices.
No colour-change clause. The most predictable overrun there is.
Forgetting the trim count. Twenty doors is a week nobody bid for.
Bidding faster, and with options
Jobber at $49/mo — Grow at $199 for optional line items — lets the customer tick their own prep level, which is the most reliable defence against being undercut. QuoteIQ at $29.99/mo measures exterior wall area off satellite imagery and includes financing on every tier. Housecall Pro Max has a proposal tool built for good-better-best presentation.
Questions operators actually ask
How do I bid a painting job?
Measure the surface area, estimate the labour hours including prep, multiply by your fully-loaded hourly cost, add materials with markup, then divide by your target labour percentage. Check the result against the market band — $2 to $6 per square foot interior — and if it is far outside, your hours estimate is wrong.
How much should I charge per square foot to paint?
$2 to $6 per square foot of interior surface and $1.75 to $4.50 per square foot of exterior wall area, both for two coats over prepared surfaces. The spread is almost entirely prep — the same wall area on a sound surface and a peeling one are different jobs.
How do I estimate prep hours?
Walk the job and count the defects rather than eyeballing a percentage. Nail holes, cracks, peeling areas, caulk lines, bare wood. Prep is the majority of the labour on any repaint and the only part that is genuinely unpredictable, so count it rather than guess it.
Should I bid or quote?
For residential repaints, quote a fixed price — customers want certainty and you know the work. Bid competitively only where a scope is supplied and comparable, such as commercial or new construction, and read that scope carefully before pricing it.
Why do painters underbid?
Because they measure floor area instead of wall area, and because they price the painting rather than the preparation. Both errors run in the same direction, which is why an underbid painting job is usually underbid by 30% rather than 5%.