How Much to Paint Rooms

[ny96]

We had a painter out today to give us an estimate for painting our living room, dining room, main bathroom, and half bath. He just emailed us the estimate which is $4500. This seems really high. I don’t know the dimensions of these rooms, but our main living space is only 1300 Sq ft, so I’m guessing it’s less than 1000 ft that need to be painted, and in our dining room we are only asking that he paint above the chair rails, so that’s only 2/3s of the room. We would also be providing all the paint. Does this sound high to you?

[libbygrl109]

Is the trim also included in that price? We paid about $855 for labor for the ceiling in our kitchen/dining room/living room/hallway (all connected) and the walls in all of those areas, so probably about 800 sq feet. We paid another $200 or so (can't remember exactly) for the paint and supplies, which we were able to get with our painter's discount. We didn't have him do the trim because we planned to replace it. I'm in a MCL area.

[ny96]

Jul 12, 2022 20:36:59 GMT -5 libbygrl109 said:

Is the trim also included in that price? We paid about $855 for labor for the ceiling in our kitchen/dining room/living room/hallway (all connected) and the walls in all of those areas, so probably about 800 sq feet. We paid another $200 or so (can't remember exactly) for the paint and supplies, which we were able to get with our painter's discount. We didn't have him do the trim because we planned to replace it. I'm in a MCL area.

No trim. We pushed back and within about 2 minutes he went down to $3500. I have asked H to give me 24 hours to look for another person.

[heygrey]

That does seem high, even in my expensive area where I’m used to crazy prices for labour. Given that he dropped it by $1000 so quickly, I would definitely get more quotes. Maybe he’s on par with the average there, but at least you’ll know.

[dr.girlfriend]

That sounds expensive, but I wonder if everyone in construction/renovation is just so in demand right now that they can set their prices way above usual?

[heygrey]

Jul 12, 2022 23:13:16 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

That sounds expensive, but I wonder if everyone in construction/renovation is just so in demand right now that they can set their prices way above usual?

I know it happens in my area. They don’t want to flat out turn down a job so they quote high hoping people decline. But people are desperate and agree to these insanely high rates!

We’ve sought quotes for a few small, but hard for us jobs. The contractors have been up front that they are charging a premium right now because they have options for large contracts so if they send their crew on these small jobs they need to make the same rate. I get it from a business perspective, but I hate it for the little guy like us.

[zarapipe]

That’s super expensive. Def shop around.

[definitelyO]

Agree it sounds expensive to me. I would get another quote - but agree maybe it's b/c they're in high demand or it's "too small" of a job for them. Are you on your neighborhood FB or next door page - I'm guessing you can get some referrals and ballparks from there pretty quick to see where this guy is landing.

[purplepenguin7]

I paid just over $2k for an 1100 sq ft house in 2021, paint included, so I think that does sound high. Although one thing, our painter did say it was less expensive to paint white over white (which we did) then chose other colors so that might account for some of the difference. But I would still expect to be well under 3k especially if you are buying the paint.

[zarapipe]

ny96 also depending on where you live painters are busier in the summer bc they can do outside work. If the weather isn’t conducive to painting outside during the winter they are less busy and usually charge less because they have less work. In my area painters will also do lawn work in the summer to supplement their income.

[ny96]

Jul 13, 2022 11:15:09 GMT -5 zarapipe said:

ny96 also depending on where you live painters are busier in the summer bc they can do outside work. If the weather isn’t conducive to painting outside during the winter they are less busy and usually charge less because they have less work. In my area painters will also do lawn work in the summer to supplement their income.

We live in LA, so I’m not sure whether that is a factor. I went on NextDoor this morning and sent some texts to recommended painters.

[libbygrl109]

Jul 12, 2022 21:37:58 GMT -5 ny96 said:

Jul 12, 2022 20:36:59 GMT -5 libbygrl109 said:

Is the trim also included in that price? We paid about $855 for labor for the ceiling in our kitchen/dining room/living room/hallway (all connected) and the walls in all of those areas, so probably about 800 sq feet. We paid another $200 or so (can't remember exactly) for the paint and supplies, which we were able to get with our painter's discount. We didn't have him do the trim because we planned to replace it. I'm in a MCL area.

No trim. We pushed back and within about 2 minutes he went down to $3500. I have asked H to give me 24 hours to look for another person.

Good idea to find another quote. He’s probably thinking he can charge whatever he wants. We actually had our first painter ghost us after they gave us their quote. My guess is that they probably had a better job than us, but didn’t have the nerve to tell us. It was really annoying because the other guy wanted our business, and I had to string him along for a couple days until I knew the other people weren’t going to contact us. It worked out for us in the end I guess.

We actually got our list of painters from the guys at the BM store we use. It made the search a lot easier.

[ny96]

Update: I found a painter recommended on NextDoor who is going to do it for $2500 and start right away. If it works out we may have him redo our deck too.

[jwright]

I see that you've found someone else, but some things to take into consideration for paint pricing:

- How many coats? If you are doing a lighter color over a darker color it could take 3 or even 4 coats.
- How much trim detail? Crown molding, ceiling details, just takes more time and effort.
- Ceiling height? A two story foyer and small bedroom could be the same square footage but very different expenses.
- How much prep work? Do you have a bunch of light fixtures, outlets, holes from artwork, etc that need to be addressed?
- Cost of paint and materials, how many colors?

My mother in law had almost her whole house re-painted six months ago and it was $10,000, but the previous owner had painted the ceilings in all of the rooms (one room was a tray ceiling and another had a weird decorative molding on the ceiling) and my mother-in-law wanted to return them to a regular ceiling white color. The cost of painting the ceilings was almost half of the total because of all the effort they required.