How to price a repaint: the full method

Note on this guide vs. the interior painting guide: if you price new interior work from scratch, see how to price interior painting for a comparison of per-sqft, per-room, and day-rate methods. This guide focuses specifically on repaints: jobs where the surfaces are already painted, prep is lighter, and speed matters.

1. What drives a repaint price

A repaint is not a blank-room gut job. The bones are already painted, so prep is usually lighter and the unknowns are smaller. That makes repaints faster to quote, but only if you know which variables actually move the number.

• Wall area. The single biggest driver. More sqft means more paint and more labor hours. Every other variable multiplies on top of it.
• Coat count. Standard repaint: two coats. Dark-to-light or light-to-dark color changes often need a primer coat first. Accent colors can take three coats. Each extra coat adds proportionally to materials and labor.
• Paint quality. Contractor-grade paint can be $30/gal. Top-line washable or low-VOC paint runs $70-90/gal. The difference is real and should show up in your price.
• Surface condition. Hairline cracks, nail pops, and old texture add prep hours. A "clean" repaint with no patching prices very differently from one where every room has water stains.
• Color change. Same color or similar hue: straightforward two-coat job. Big color shift: budget a primer or a third coat.
• Occupied vs. empty. Furniture moving, masking around lived-in rooms, and protecting finishes add real time. An empty house reprices differently.
• Access and ceiling height. Anything above 9 feet means poles or ladders. Vaulted ceilings and stairwells are their own category.

Walk the property with these seven variables in mind. By the time you finish the walkthrough, you should have a confident feel for all of them. The math in the sections below turns that feel into a number.

2. Measuring the walls

Wall sqft is the foundation of the whole quote. Measure every room you are pricing. The formula is:

For a 12x14 room with 9-foot ceilings, one door, and one window: perimeter = (12+14) x 2 = 52 ft. Gross wall sqft = 52 x 9 = 468. Subtract one door (20) and one window (15) = 433 sqft paintable wall area. That is the number that flows into your materials and labor estimates.

Measure every room. Add the totals. If ceilings are in scope, add ceiling sqft separately (length x width per room). Keeping walls and ceilings separate makes it easier to price them at different rates if your labor or coat count differs.

3. Paint and materials

Gallon count comes from wall sqft. The coverage standard for quality interior latex is 350 sqft per gallon per coat. That is a real-world number, not a label claim. Labels often say 400 sqft, but 350 is the safe planning figure once you account for texture and cutting in.

Example: 1,050 sqft of wall area, two coats: 1,050 x 2 / 350 = 6 gallons. That is over four, so buy a 5-gallon bucket plus one single. Paint price at contractor rates: budget $45-65 per gallon for a solid mid-line product (Benjamin Moore ben, Sherwin ProMar 200 range). At $55/gal contractor price: 6 gal x $55 = $330 paint cost.

Sundries (tape, plastic drop cloth, roller covers, brush, tray liners) typically run $40-80 on a job of this size. Use a flat kit charge or itemize. Either way, charge for them; they are a real cost that eats margin if you absorb it.

4. Labor hours and cost

Labor is where repaint quotes go wrong. Painters consistently underestimate the time that does not look like painting: moving furniture, masking trim and outlets, cutting in at every corner, and cleaning up. Rolling open walls is fast. Everything else is not.

The most reliable way to estimate labor is crew-days, not hours. A painter-day at 8 hours is your unit. Estimate how many painter-days the job requires from the walkthrough, then multiply by your day rate.

Realistic crew-day throughput on a standard repaint (walls only, light prep, occupied room): a solo painter covers roughly 400-600 sqft of wall area per day including all prep, cutting in, and rolling two coats. A two-painter crew is not twice as fast because one person still has to cut in while the other rolls, but the wall rate per day climbs. On the 1,050 sqft example: plan for 2-3 painter-days solo, or 1.5-2 painter-days with two painters.

Day rates vary by market and crew structure. A fair range for 2026 is $350-550 per painter-day all-in (wage, taxes, insurance). Do not price off labor hours if you do not track them. The day-rate method is stickier and harder to game mid-job.

5. Overhead and margin

Materials plus labor equals your cost. That is not your price. Pricing at cost is a reliable way to stay broke because the truck, the insurance, the gas, the unpaid hours you spend quoting, and the slow weeks do not disappear just because you did not budget for them.

Add two multipliers on top of cost:

• Overhead. Everything it costs to run the business that is not paint or labor: vehicle costs, insurance, license fees, software, marketing, unpaid quoting time, and slow-week buffer. Common overhead rates for small painting crews: 10-15% of job cost.
• Margin. The actual profit left after overhead. This is what lets you reinvest, take a slow month without panic, and pay yourself as an owner not just as a worker. Common margin targets for small crews: 15-25%.

6. A worked example, end to end

Three rooms, walls only, occupied house, light prep (no patching), same color family, 9-foot ceilings. Two painters, two coats throughout.

Step 1: Wall sqft

Step 2: Materials

Step 3: Labor

Step 4: Overhead and margin

Sanity check: $2,372 for 1,338 sqft = $1.77/sqft of wall area on a walls-only job with no trim and light prep. That is on the lower end of published interior ranges ($2-6/sqft), which is expected. This is a clean repaint, same color family, no patching. A messier job with trim, ceiling work, and a color change would land higher.

7. Writing and sending the quote

The number you just calculated is not the quote. It is the input to the quote. A professional written quote does four things: it shows the client exactly what they are getting, it protects you from scope creep, it signals that you run a real business, and it gives them something to say yes to on the spot.

A solid repaint quote covers:

• Scope: which rooms, which surfaces (walls only vs. trim vs. ceilings), which color(s).
• Coat count and prep included: two coats, light prep only. Any patching is an extra.
• What is excluded: trim, closets, accent walls unless explicitly listed.
• Price and payment terms: total, deposit due, balance at completion.
• Timeline: start date, expected duration.
• Expiration: quote is valid for 30 days so you are not locked into an old price.

Send it the same day as the walkthrough. Clients who get a quote within hours close at a much higher rate than clients who wait three days. If you are on-site, you should be able to send the quote before you drive away.

8. When to walk away

Not every job is worth pricing. The ability to say no (or not yet) is one of the highest-leverage skills in a small painting business. Here are the situations that warrant a pass:

• Budget is too low, and they tell you up front. If a client opens with "I only have X" and X is below your cost, no amount of relationship will fix the math. Declining early is cleaner than quoting low and resenting the job.
• Scope keeps expanding on the walkthrough. "Oh and while you're here..." five times before you have left the first room is a preview of the job. Scope that was not on the call is scope you need to price, or scope you need to decline.
• The house has serious issues you are not equipped for. Lead paint, active moisture behind walls, structural damage. Know your lane. Painting over a problem does not fix it.
• The client has already hired and fired another painter. Ask what happened. If the answer involves payment disputes, scope disagreements, or "they just did not finish," proceed with extreme caution. The previous painter's problem is often about to become yours.
• You can not get a clear decision-maker on the call. "I need to check with my spouse/partner/landlord" is fine. "I'll get back to you" six times without movement is a time sink. Move on.
• The timeline is unrealistic. A client who needs three rooms done by tomorrow at half price is a client whose job will be chaotic from start to finish.

Walking away from a bad job is not leaving money on the table. It is keeping the slot open for a job that will not cost you time, margin, and energy to get through.