Here’s how to bid a painting job: walk the site, measure the paintable area of walls, ceilings and trim, estimate labour hours from your crew’s production rates (including prep and cleanup), work out paint and supplies from coverage, then add overhead and profit. Present it as a clear scope with a fixed price, exclusions and a deposit.
Here’s the formula in one line:
Bid = (labour hours × loaded labour rate) + paint and supplies + overhead + profit.
Everything else in this guide is about getting each part of that formula right, because a painting bid that’s off by ten hours either loses the job or loses you money.
The painting bid formula
Labour is the part that swings the most from job to job, so most of your accuracy comes from estimating hours well. Paint is easier: measure the area and divide by coverage. Overhead and profit are business decisions you make once and apply to every bid.
| Part | What it covers | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Labour | Prep, painting, cleanup, setup and teardown | Your production rates × measured area |
| Paint | Every coat of every surface | Area × coats ÷ coverage on the label |
| Supplies | Tape, plastic, caulk, filler, sleeves, sandpaper | Allowance per room or per job from your records |
| Overhead | Vehicle, insurance, phone, software, your office time | Yearly overhead ÷ yearly labour hours |
| Profit | What the business earns on top | A target margin you set |
There are two ways to present the result. A lump-sum bid is one fixed price for the whole job, which most homeowners prefer. A unit-price bid charges per room, per door or per square foot, which suits commercial work and repeat clients like property managers.
Walk the job: what to look for
Never bid a repaint from photos alone. The site visit is where you find the hours that sink a job.
- Surface condition: cracks, nail pops, peeling, water stains and previous bad patches. Heavy patching can double prep time.
- Colour change: going from dark to light, or to a deep colour, often needs primer or an extra coat.
- Sheen and products: what’s on the wall now, and what the customer wants. Oil-based trim needs a bonding primer before latex.
- Ceiling height and stairwells: anything above standard height means ladders, planks or scaffolding.
- Furniture and access: who moves the furniture, where you can stage, and whether the home is occupied.
- Age of the home: Health Canada says homes built before 1960 probably contain lead-based paint, and homes built before 1991 may. Sanding or scraping old paint then needs extra precautions and time, so ask and price it.
Measure the area and work out paint
For walls, measure the room’s perimeter and multiply by the wall height. Subtract large openings (a standard door is about 21 sq ft, a typical window about 15 sq ft). Ceilings are length × width. Measure trim in linear feet and count doors separately.
Coverage comes from the paint label. Benjamin Moore, for example, rates its Regal Select interior paint at 400 to 450 sq ft per 3.79 L at the recommended film thickness. Real-world coverage is usually lower on porous, patched or textured surfaces and with deep colours, so many painters plan on less than the label to be safe. In the example below we use 350 sq ft per can.
Cans = (area × number of coats) ÷ coverage per can. Always round up, and buy the full order in the same batch so the colour matches.
Estimate labour with production rates
A production rate is how much of a surface one painter finishes in an hour. It’s the single most valuable number in your business, and the only good source is your own jobs. Time your crew on a few jobs, write it down by surface type, and update it every season.
| Surface | Example production rate | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Walls, cut and roll, per coat | 175 | sq ft per hour |
| Ceilings, per coat | 150 | sq ft per hour |
| Baseboard, two coats | 40 | linear ft per hour |
| Interior door with frame, both sides | 1 | hour per door |
| Prep: move, cover, patch, sand | 2 | hours per average room |
Those are example rates for the worked example only. A fast, experienced crew on clean new drywall will beat them; an occupied old house with heavy patching won’t come close. Use your numbers.
Worked example: three bedrooms
Three bedrooms, each 12 × 11 ft with 8 ft ceilings, one door and one window each. Walls and ceilings get two coats in the same colours, plus baseboards and doors. All figures are illustrative CAD to show the method.
Minus door (21) and window (15) = 332 sq ft. Three rooms = 996 sq ft. Two coats = 1,992 sq ft.
Three rooms = 396 sq ft. Two coats = 792 sq ft.
Three rooms = 129 linear ft, plus three doors with frames.
| Line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Wall labour | 1,992 ÷ 175 sq ft/hr | 11.4 hr |
| Ceiling labour | 792 ÷ 150 sq ft/hr | 5.3 hr |
| Baseboard labour | 129 ÷ 40 lf/hr | 3.2 hr |
| Doors | 3 × 1 hr | 3.0 hr |
| Prep | 3 rooms × 2 hr | 6.0 hr |
| Setup and cleanup | 2 days × 1 hr | 2.0 hr |
| Total labour | 30.9 hr × $40 loaded | $1,236 |
| Wall paint | 1,992 ÷ 350 = 5.7, so 6 cans × $85 | $510 |
| Ceiling paint | 792 ÷ 350 = 2.3, so 3 cans × $60 | $180 |
| Trim paint | 1 can | $90 |
| Supplies | Allowance | $120 |
| Overhead | 30.9 hr × $25 per labour hour | $773 |
| Total cost | $2,909 | |
| Bid at a 20% margin | $2,909 ÷ 0.80 | $3,640 + tax |
Two painters finish that in about two days. Check the bid against your gut: about $1,210 a room for walls, ceiling, baseboard and door, before HST. If it feels high for your market, look at your production rates and overhead before you cut the margin. If it feels low, you may be underestimating prep.
For the thinking behind overhead and the 20% figure, see how to price a contractor job. To check after the job whether you actually hit those hours, use job costing.
Exterior and commercial bids
The formula stays the same, but the risks change.
- Exterior: weather days, scraping and priming bare wood, caulking, and access. Price ladders, lifts or scaffolding as their own lines, and state what happens if rain stops work.
- Height: second-storey gables and dormers are slow. Use separate production rates for work off a ladder.
- Commercial: read the specification and drawings closely, list every product named, and price after-hours work if the space stays open. Unit prices per door or per square foot are common.
- Lifts and rentals: include delivery and pickup, not just the daily rate.
Write and present the bid
The bid document should make it easy to say yes. List each room or area with what’s included (walls, ceiling, trim, doors, number of coats), the products and sheen, what you’ll do for prep, what’s excluded, the price, the deposit and how long the price holds.
“Hi Priya, here’s the quote for the three bedrooms: two coats on walls and ceilings in Regal Select, baseboards and doors in semi-gloss, all patching included. $3,640 plus HST. I can start the week of the 16th. A 25% deposit locks in the date, and you can approve and pay right from the link.”
Offer options where they make sense: ceilings or no ceilings, a premium paint line, or adding the hallway. Options let the customer choose how to say yes instead of whether to say yes.
Send it the same day if you can. A homeowner with three painters coming by will often go with whoever sends a clear, professional bid first. Contruva’s quoting software lets you build the bid from your price book on site, send it by text, see when it’s opened and collect the deposit when it’s signed.
Bidding mistakes that cost painters money
- Pricing by the room without measuring. A 10 × 10 bedroom and a 16 × 14 bedroom aren’t the same job.
- Forgetting non-painting time. Setup, cleanup, supply runs and moving furniture are real hours.
- Underestimating prep. It’s the most variable part of the job, and the part customers notice most.
- No exclusions. If you don’t say wallpaper removal or drywall repairs beyond minor patching are extra, expect to do them for free.
- Never checking the actuals. Compare estimated and actual hours on every job, and your bids get more accurate every month.
Contruva ties this together for painting companies: the AI receptionist books estimate visits, quotes are signed with a deposit on the customer’s phone, crews clock hours to the job so you can compare them with your bid, and a review request goes out when the last coat dries. See Contruva for painting for the full picture.