Pricing Interior Painting: Per Room, Per Square Foot or Per Job
There is no single right way to price interior painting, but there is a wrong way: pricing every job differently depending on who walked it and how tired they were. Pick a method for each kind of job and put it in your service list.
Per Room
Per-room pricing is easy for customers to understand. A bedroom is a set price, a living room is a set price, and the estimate reads like a menu. It works best for repaints of normal-sized rooms where walls are the main work. Add ceilings, trim and doors as their own lines so the base room price stays simple.
The weakness is size. A 10-by-10 bedroom and a 16-by-20 primary suite are both “a bedroom.” Many painters set two room sizes, standard and large, to handle that.
Per Square Foot
Square-foot pricing scales with the job. It is common for whole-house interiors and new construction, where you price by the floor area or the wall area at a set rate. Save the square feet on the property and price the service from it, and the estimate comes out the same no matter who writes it. Coats change the number; a two-coat rate and a one-coat refresh rate keep that clear.
Per Job
Some work does not fit either: a two-story foyer, a room full of built-ins, heavy repair. Quote those as a job with a clear description and the prep spelled out.
Mixing Methods
Most painting companies mix. Small jobs by the room, whole houses by the square foot, oddballs by the job. That is fine as long as each type always uses the same method.
Show the Extras
Ceilings, extra coats, color changes from dark to light, wallpaper removal and heavy patching each deserve a line. Customers accept a higher price when they can see why. See Selling Ceilings, Trim and an Extra Coat Without Being Pushy.
More on this topic: the Painting Estimate Software page and the rest of its guides.
Price Interiors the Same Way Every Time
Set room prices and square-foot rates once and use them on every estimate.
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