How to Price a Painting Job Calculator

Enter wall area, paint cost, labor rate, and markup to get a ready-to-quote painting job price with a full line-item breakdown of materials, labor, overhead, and profit.

Painting geometry

Paintable wall area (sq ft)

Number of coats

Paint coverage (sq ft/gallon)

Regional and product spread: 300–400 sq ft/gal. Enter your product's spec sheet value.

Paint cost per gallon ($/gal)

Estimated paint waste (%)

Accounts for touch-ups and uneven application.

Include primer coat

Supplies (tape, drop cloths, rollers, brushes) ($)

Enter total for this job. Leave blank if included elsewhere.

Labor

Painter hours

Total hours for one painter. Multiplied by number of painters below.

Loaded hourly rate (wage + burden) ($/hr)

Regional rates vary widely; enter your all-in cost per painter-hour.

Number of painters on the job

Estimate hours from area

Painter speed (sq ft / painter-hour)

Rolling walls: 100–200 sq ft/hr commonly cited in trade guides — verify for your crew and surface.

Overhead and pricing

Overhead method

Fixed $ % of labor % of total

Overhead

Painting contractor overhead: commonly 15–25% of labor. Enter your actual overhead rate.

Pricing basis

Markup Margin

Target markup % (or margin %)

Enter your target. Painting markup ranges vary widely by operator and market.

Contingency / buffer (%)

Applied to total cost before pricing.

Recommended price

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Gallons to buy: —
Paint materials: —
Primer materials: —
Supplies: —
Total materials: —
Labor: —
Overhead: —
Direct cost: —
Contingency: —
Total cost: —
Gross profit: —
Realized margin: —
Realized markup: —

Export

How this is calculated

Surface area and coat count determine how many gallons you need: rawGallons = sqFt × coats / coverageRate. Waste is folded in before costing — gallonsForCost = rawGallons × (1 + waste%) — so the cost step never double-counts. Gallons to buy are ceiled to the nearest whole gallon for display, but the float is used for cost math to avoid step jumps at gallon boundaries.

gallonsForCost = sqFt × coats / coverageRate × (1 + waste%)
paintMatCost   = gallonsForCost × $/gal
totalLaborHrs  = painterHours × numPainters
laborCost      = totalLaborHrs × loadedRate
overhead       = per method (fixed $ | % of labor | % of direct)
directCost     = materials + labor + overhead
totalCost      = directCost × (1 + contingency%)
price (markup) = totalCost × (1 + markup%)
price (margin) = totalCost / (1 − margin%)

Markup and margin are not the same. A 35% markup on $282 total cost gives a $381 price; the realized margin is ~25.9%. Use the pricing basis that matches how you quote — most painting contractors think in markup terms.

How we choose and check our formulas