Cost to Paint Interior of house

Painting the interior of your Rochester home can immediately transform the aesthetics of a room, kitchens, bathrooms, hallways, and so on. Our interior painting are wide verse However, if you’ve painted before, you know how time-consuming and challenging it is to achieve the results you’re really looking for.

The most common question we get is: What is the interior painting average cost?

Most interior painting projects are determined by multiple factors, including the type of paint being used, the scope of the job, and the type of materials used. It is therefore difficult to estimate with certainty.

Lets Quickly Analyze Labor Cost 

Now we will help you understand and justify the Labor cost ($) needed to completely paint a room. Our team will help you consider all those factors and show you how you can get a quote for your next interior painting project. Let’s review the interior painting process into three parts:

• Set up/clean up time
• Prep work
• Painting

Firstly, Painting contractor need to set aside time for clean-up and set up.

Housekeeping is done before and after the project. After the job is completed, the painting contractor removes the covered wall sheets, drop clothes on furniture and put furniture back where it was.

It’s also prudent to move heavy pieces of furniture toward the center of the room, cover furniture, remove drop sheets, remove drywall dust, and organize tools to keep the workspace clean.  The importance of cleanliness to your business requires extra time, so be sure to factor this in. These may seem like insignificant details and are not considered to be affecting the COST but they all add up and should be taken into consideration.

In terms of prep work, it is important to look at the amount of time and materials required. Benjamin Franklin once stated that, “If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This is absolutely true, particularly when you paint the interior of your home.

Prior to painting, some prep is needed to be done, such as patching holes, refilling cracks, and repairing the damage. Dryden can be used for small imperfections, as it dries quickly, but in many cases, you’ll need drywall mud as well as tape.  Depending on the situation, preparation guidelines may include float-out walls or skim-coating surfaces in their entirety. After patching, sand the patches and paint them, using drywall compound, making sure to sand between coats. When using drywall compound, apply several coats, and sand between each coat.

Dig Deep into Prep Work As its a must.

In addition to caulking and filling holes in trim like baseboards, door casings and window casings, there are other areas of prep work to consider.  It is possible to caulk the gap between the top of the baseboard and the wall, for instance, to provide a seamless transition.  It is important to patch nail holes in the baseboards before painting. Sand the boards to create a smooth, uniform surface before painting.

A primer is also necessary for areas that have been patched with drywall mud. Primer is required for all areas that need to be painted.  If the house hasn’t been painted for a very long time there still may be an oil based paint on the wall still, which would require a full prime before painting. If the house has nicotine stains or smoke damage, you may need to use a special primer to seal in the stains and smell to prevent the stains from reappearing.  If you are painting bare wood trim it will need to be primed as well. If it was previously stained and/or varnished you may need to use a stain-blocking primer like Cover Stain to ensure nothing bleeds through the top coat. These are some of the situations that may require the use of primer before painting.

Once you’ve assessed all the necessary prep work, you can factor in the amount of time needed for this plus any materials required (drywall powder, caulking, drydex, primer, etc.)

After the patches are smooth, trim has been caulked nicely and any necessary priming is done, now you can figure out how much time it will take you to paint everything.  You need to determine first the scope of what you want to paint. Are you just painting the walls? Do you want to freshen up the ceilings as well? Are you doing the trim as well?  And the list goes on….there are many things that can be painted such as molding, radiators, tiling, backsplash, railing and the list goes on. The key here is to determine the scope because every additional thing will add extra time onto your quote and affect the number of hours it will take for you to complete the work.

Once you’ve determined the scope of the work, I would add up the square footage of wall area and then calculate how much time it would take to complete two coats on those area (taking into consideration how much brush work there is, ceiling height, if it’s a large or tight space to be working in, etc.).  Then I would add up the square footage of the ceiling and do the same. For ceilings you’ll want to consider the height of the ceiling. If you are doing the trim, you’ll want to add up how many lineal feet of baseboards you need to paint, plus how many window frames, door frames and doors you’ll need to paint.  Plus anything else like radiators, fireplace mantles, stairwell railing, etc. Then you’ll want to calculate how much time it will take you to paint all of these. A good method is determining how much time it will take you to paint one door frame for example and then multiply that by the amount of doors you have.

You’ll also need to use these measurements to determine how much paint you’ll need.  Each paint will have a particular spread rate that determines how many square feet you can get per gallon.  You’ll want to take the total wall square footage subtract out any openings for doors, windows, cabinets, etc. and then divide that by the appropriate spread rate.  Make sure you don’t forget to factor in the second coat as well.

So there you have the three main components:  Set Up/Clean Up/Re-assembly, Prep Work and Painting.  Plus any paint and materials you’ll need to buy. You may need to buy tools if you lack.  Plus buy or rent ladders and/or scaffolding depending on the situation.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of things to consider but covers a fair number of different things you’ll need to address. Hopefully this helps you quote your own interior paint job!  If you need help with your interior paint job, we’d be happy to come out and help you as well. Just send us a message, give us a quick call at or schedule your appointment using our online calendar at the bottom of the page.