In this article
- Build the price from the quantities
- Where the hours sit
- What to confirm before you quote
- Presenting it
- A sanity check before it goes out
- When it is compared with a cheaper quote
- Frequently asked questions
- How much should I charge to paint a 1,500 square foot house?
- Should I price per square foot instead?
- How many hours is a 1,500 square foot interior?
- What changes the price most?
- Do I charge extra if the house is occupied?
- Should I show a breakdown on the quote?
- How do I know my hours are right?
- Should I charge for the estimate itself?
Pricing a 1,500 square foot interior starts with hours, not with a rate per square foot. This house works out at about 110 labour hours for two coats throughout, across 4,383 square feet of paintable surface and 431 linear feet of trim.
Get the hours right and the price follows from your own cost stack. Start from a rate per square foot and you are guessing at the hours, which is where underbidding comes from.
Build the price from the quantities
| Line | Quantity for this house | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Burdened labour | 110 hours | Your true hourly cost, not the wage. Wage plus payroll taxes, insurance, holiday and every paid hour that is not billable |
| Materials | 25.25 gallons plus sundries | At your cost, with your material markup applied |
| Overhead recovery | Per hour or per crew day | Annual fixed costs divided by the volume you actually sell |
| Profit | On the full cost | Applied after overhead, not instead of it |
| Contingency | Inside the rates | Internal. Never a visible line on the quote |
Every line there is yours rather than an industry figure. The burdened hourly cost in particular is the one painters most often get wrong, because they price from the wage rather than from what an employed hour actually costs. There is a full treatment in painting labor burden, and the labor burden calculator will derive yours.
Where the hours sit
| Phase | Hours | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation, filling and masking | 33 | 30% |
| Ceilings | 12 | 11% |
| Walls | 33 | 30% |
| Trim runs | 9 | 8% |
| Doors and windows | 21 | 19% |
| Clean up | 1 | 1% |
| Total | 109 |
This distribution is the argument against square foot pricing at this size. Preparation and trim together are the majority of the job, and neither scales with wall area. Two houses with identical square footage and different trim runs are different prices, and a rate per square foot cannot see that.
What to confirm before you quote
Scope first: walls only, walls and ceilings, or the full interior including trim. On a house this size the difference between those is days, not hours.
Then condition. The 33 preparation hours above assume sound, previously painted surfaces. Filling, sanding, stain blocking or wallpaper removal can exceed the painting itself, which is why accounting for prep time is the single highest leverage part of an estimate.
Then colour. A change from dark to light needs a coat you have not priced. Ask before the number goes on paper, not after.
Then occupancy. An empty house is materially faster than the same house lived in, because every occupied room is set up and packed down daily rather than left mid job.
Presenting it
Give a single figure with the scope stated plainly next to it: rooms included, coats, prep standard, whether ceilings and trim are in, and how many days you expect to be there. A customer comparing two quotes can only compare scope, so make yours easy to read. See what should a painting estimate include.
Do not itemise your overhead or your markup. Those are how you arrived at the number, not what the customer is buying.
A sanity check before it goes out
Painting is labour dominated, so on a job like this materials should be the smaller side by a wide margin. If your bid comes back with an unusually high material share, the hours are probably light, and preparation is the usual culprit. That check takes seconds and is set out in painting labor vs material ratio.
The other check is against your own finished jobs. Estimated hours against actual hours, on work of this type, is the only feedback that improves the next quote. If you are not recording it you are re-guessing every time. See how to track painting job costs.
When it is compared with a cheaper quote
Compare scope before rate. A quote that is meaningfully cheaper on the same house is usually cheaper because it is a different job: one coat instead of two, walls only, a lighter preparation standard, or the customer moving their own furniture. None of those are dishonest, but none of them is your quote either.
Ask what paintable area and coat count the other figure covers. If the customer cannot say, that is the answer. The responses that work are in how to handle painting price objections.
Stop rebuilding this quote from scratch every time.
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Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge to paint a 1,500 square foot house?
Work it from your own numbers rather than a market rate. The job is about 110 labour hours for two coats throughout. Multiply by your burdened hourly cost, add materials with your markup, add overhead recovery, then add profit. The painting price calculator assembles the whole stack.
Should I price per square foot instead?
Only as a sanity check after you have built the price from hours. Square foot rates hide the trim, the prep and the openings, which on this house are the majority of the work.
How many hours is a 1,500 square foot interior?
Around 110 for two coats on walls, ceilings and trim, of which roughly 33 is preparation. That is about 6.9 days for two painters before drying time and furniture handling.
What changes the price most?
Scope and condition, in that order. Dropping ceilings and trim removes days. Heavy preparation can add more hours than the painting. Neither is visible in the square footage.
Do I charge extra if the house is occupied?
Yes, and say why. Occupied rooms need daily protection and reinstatement, restrict your working hours, and slow production. It is a real cost rather than a surcharge.
Should I show a breakdown on the quote?
Show scope, not cost structure. The customer needs to know what is included so they can compare like with like. Your overhead recovery and markup are how you priced it, not what they are buying.
How do I know my hours are right?
Compare estimated against actual on finished jobs of the same type. If they diverge consistently in one direction, the fix belongs in your production rates rather than in a general cushion added to every price.
Should I charge for the estimate itself?
Most painters do not on residential work of this size, but the time is real and it belongs in your overhead whether or not you invoice it. The arguments either way are in should you charge for painting estimates.
