Cost to Paint a House

Enter your square footage, or the room that produces it, and your price per gallon to estimate paint and labor in US dollars. A 12 by 10 foot room is the starting point. The gallon price and the labor rate per square foot are yours. Leave either one blank and that dollar line stays at $0, which means the price has not been entered. No shop price and no painter’s rate are stored.

A cost to paint a house is only as honest as the price you type. Prices are yours. See the methodology page. Interior quantity is the paint calculator: perimeter times height, minus about 20 sq ft per door and 13 sq ft per window, divided by coverage, times coats, times waste. A 12 × 10 ft room with 8 ft walls, no openings, one coat, and 400 sq ft/gal is 352 sq ft and 0.88 gal. If you type $40 per gallon, material is about $35. If you type $1 per square foot of labor, labor is $352. If you type nothing, the total stays $0.

DIY versus hired labor is the labor field. Leave it at 0 when you are painting yourself and you only want the paint. Type a rate when someone else will paint, or when you want to value your own time. The rate is per square foot of paintable wall, not per room and not per day. If your painter quotes a day rate, do not force it into this field. Keep the gallons, and compare the quote with the material line separately. Exterior walls are off until you switch them on. They use the exterior paint calculator and the same coverage, coats, and waste as the interior, which is convenient and sometimes wrong. An exterior tin often covers fewer square feet. If it does, run the page twice rather than sharing one coverage.

Ceilings, trim, and primer are not in the total. The ceiling page and the primer line on the paint page are the places to measure those, and you would add the money yourself. Several rooms are several runs. Add the totals. Do not average the prices. Limewash does not belong at 400 sq ft per gallon (about 9.8 m²/L). The limewash page starts at 300 sq ft per gallon (7.43 m²/L). If you bring a limewash coverage here, type it over the paint default. Sales tax and delivery are part of the price you type if you want them in the total. The page will not add a percentage it was not given.

The dollar sign is the currency. The amount is the number you typed. Take the gallons to the paint page if you want cans. This page shows gallons so the price per gallon stays a single multiplication.

Room length starts at 12 ft. Room length in feet. Switch to m / cm for metres. Room width starts at 10 ft. Room width in feet. Switch to m / cm for metres. Wall height starts at 8 ft. Ceiling height in feet. Switch to m / cm for metres. Interior doors starts at 0. Each removes 20 sq ft (1.9 m²) inside. Interior windows starts at 0. Each removes 13 sq ft (1.2 m²) inside. Coats starts at 2. Used for both interior and exterior. Coverage starts at 400 sq ft/gal. Check the can. Many wall paints cover about 350–400 sq ft per gallon. Waste allowance starts at 10 %. Applied inside the paint calculators. Can size starts at 1 gal. A common can is 1 gallon. Include exterior starts at 0. Exterior uses the perimeter and height below and the same coverage, coats, and waste. Exterior perimeter starts at 80 ft. Exterior perimeter in feet. Switch to m / cm for metres. Exterior height starts at 9 ft. Exterior wall height in feet. Switch to m / cm for metres. Exterior doors starts at 1. Each removes 20 sq ft (1.9 m²). Exterior windows starts at 4. Each removes 13 sq ft (1.2 m²). Your price per gallon starts at 0. Optional. Your price, not a stored market rate. Your price per sq ft starts at 0. Optional. Your price, not a stored market rate.