Price of Painting a Room

Alot of folks want to know what the cost of painting a room will be. While prices vary widely from contractor to contractor, and depend upon location, there still is a method to get an idea what the price of painting a room will be.

First you must know the cost of the paint you will using by figuring out how  much of that paint will be needed. Generally paint coverage is around 300 square feet to 500 square feet. I always use 2 coats of paint because this will guarantee to give a nice full coverage over the wall. So, say the room is 12 x 15 foot and has a 9 foot ceiling, what we get is about 432 square feet of walls and 170 square feet of ceiling. This equates to 1 1/2 gallon for walls and 1/2 gal for ceiling. Since there will be two coats we need to double that amount. It is true that the second coat usually does not take as much as the first coat so the amount that is left over can be saved for touch ups later on. So for this situation 3 gallons for the walls and 1 gallon for the ceiling. 

That is 4 gallons of paint which can run from 20 to 60 dollars a gallon. Choosing something in the middle at about 30 dollars a gallon would make the paint cost about 120 dollars so far. Also needed is some Semi-gloss paint for the trim and doors, for a room with a couple of doors and trim you can get away with a quart which will cost about 14 dollars,that brings the final cost of paint to 134 dollars.

On to labor cost now. For everyday of labor we can say it will cost 400 dollars. But how do we know how long it will take to paint a bedroom? Most bedrooms will take one day and some larger bedrooms will take 2 days. Large Great rooms and Foyers 3 days. This would make the cost of our bedroom 400 dollars labor plus 120 dollars for material for a total of 520 dollars.

Recap the Cost of Painting a Room

Paint - 300 to 500 square foot - 30 per gallon
Labor - 400 dollars per day
Bedroom - 1 day
Large Bedroom - 2 days
Large Rooms - 2 days
Great Rooms ( high ceilings) - 3 days
Foyers ( high ceilings) - 3 days

Closets, vaulted ceilings, sitting rooms, a lot of windows and doors, are always extra
Prep work is always extra too.

With this you can at least you can get some insight as to what the price of painting a room will be. It may not be exact but you can get a closer picture as to what you will need and what the cost of painting a room can be.

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