How To Estimate The Cost Of Painting A Room

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Painting is a crucial part of construction or remodeling projects. It gives your room the beauty it deserves, prevents wall damage, and improves your home’s value. That explains why painting has contributed heavily to the rapid growth of the home improvement market size. According to a 2020 report, 35% of consumers painted their interior rooms, making it the most popular project within this sector.

So, how much should you expect to spend if you were to paint your home’s interior too? The cost of house painting varies from state to state. Likewise, the economic conditions can also have an impact on the total expenses. As such, it’s quite difficult to provide an exact cost amount.

Nevertheless, you can still estimate a near-accurate value to help you budget for the project. This article will discuss some tips that will help you in the process.

Factors Influencing The Cost Of Painting

It’s worth noting that no two projects can have the same expenses. So, before going into the estimation process, it’d be prudent to first understand how these costs come about. Here are the main factors to keep in mind:

Project scope: The size of your project will determine how much you’re going to spend in the long run. Usually, a larger room requires more resources than its smaller counterpart. The painter may also spend more time on surfaces that require pre-painting repairs.

Preferred design: Your choice of painting design can also impact the total costs of the project. Therefore, you should expect to spend more if the intricacy of your preferred style is high. That's because painters require more time to complete these creative designs.

Price of the paint: The cost of paint also contributes to your overall expenditure. This depends on the type and total amount of paint required. The number of coats you want is another crucial factor. If you want a complete color change, you’ll need more coats. In effect, the cost is higher.

The painting company’s fees: Interior painters will charge you based on their skills and experience in the market. Of course, this might not necessarily be the case, but highly-experienced contractors are likely to charge more. However, the good thing is that you get high-quality and durable results.  

Estimate The Area Of The Room

As mentioned earlier, the scope of your project is a significant factor when it comes to estimation. Measuring your room’s size is one way of determining this factor. There are many ways to know the area of your room, but here are the steps used by most painters:

⦁   Find the total length of all walls or the perimeter of the floor. For instance, the perimeter of a room measures 8 by 10 feet; hence, 8+10+8+10 = 36 feet.  

⦁   Calculate the total wall area by multiplying the perimeter by the room’s height. If the height of the example above is 8 feet, then the total height will be 8×36 = 288 square feet.

⦁   Subtract the area of surfaces that won’t be painted like windows, doors, and any designated areas. Skip this step if you’ll be painting everything.

⦁   Apart from the walls, you can add other surfaces that are part of the project such as the ceiling and baseboards.

⦁   The value you get here is the estimated paintable area of your room.

This is just a simple computation guide that you can follow. However, it’s still best to consult an expert to get a more accurate measurement.

Determine How Much Paint You Need

Once the room is measured, the next thing to do is select your preferred paint color. Moreover, you can use your computation above to determine the required amount of paint you’re going to buy. According to experts’ estimations, one gallon of paint can cover between 250 square feet to 400 square feet depending on the scope of the project.

If you’re painting the walls for the first time or need a total color changeover, then expect one gallon to complete about 250 square feet. However, if it’s a renovation project without too many repairs, then you may need less paint.

Keep in mind, though, that this is just for one coat. Of course, you’ll want to paint two coats for the best results. Therefore, remember to double the total paintable area to cater for both coats in your calculations. For instance, if the total paintable area is 400 square feet, then you should use 800 square feet when estimating the cost of purchasing the paint.

Determine The Cost Of Hiring Painters

The cost to hire painters for interior projects may vary depending on how they calculate their labor costs—either per square foot, hour, room, or per day. So, if you’re not sure how to find quality interior painters, this should be one of the main factors to consider.

If your painter uses the area to determine labor costs, you can estimate the expenses by simply multiplying their rate by your total paintable area. On the other hand, if it’s time-based, then you’ll first need to consult the company to know their speed.

Conclusion

Repainting your room occasionally is a great way to maintain your walls and improve the home’s market value. The cost of this project varies based on the size of the room, labor costs, and the amount of paint required. To determine this, you’ll first need to calculate the total area to be painted. The value you get here will guide you in the rest of the estimation process.

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