How much do businesses usually charge per foot for painting interior and exterior?

One of the things that I do for a living is that I am a painting contractor. I am self-employed. Most painters that I know of charge by the square foot. If the paint is to be applied by a roller, around where I live, the price would be approximately .70 cents a square foot for two coats on a perfectly flat, non-porous surface with little or no imperfections that need to be repaired or patched. For textured and brick walls, I would make it .90 cents a square foot. If the surface has never been painted previously, or has any type of sheen to it, then it will need to be primed. I would charge .45 cents per square foot to apply one coat of a primer with a roller. I just include making small repairs and patching in the prices that I have already mentioned. If you do have to make extensive repairs to a surface, then I would make an estimate as far as how long I think that it would take me to do the patching or repairs for an estimate. For around where I live, I figure about $20.00 per hour.

You could call other painters in your area and just ask them what they charge per square foot for various types of surfaces.

I am curious as to why you are asking and wondering if you wouldn't mind telling me? Are you just starting in a painting business or just seeing what someone might charge per square foot to determine what you might be paying someone?

Check out this site -- hope this helps

Cost of Painting a House - Get Prices and Estimates - CostHelper.com

If my answer helped, please click Rate this Answer below. Thanks

Now that I know that you are wanting to start your own business as per your private message to me, I would suggest checking out the information on the following link and subsequent links that are referenced.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/home-b...es-107000.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AmyGonzalez

How much do businesses usually charge per foot for painting interior and exterior?

---

How much per foot does a painting ern in st. cloud MN, for exterior work?

I agree

Clough, is the cost of paint included in your rate, or is the cost of paint in addition to your square foot price? Thank you, you have helped me already.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by noodleboy33

Clough, is the cost of paint included in your rate, or is the cost of paint in addition to your square foot price? Thank you, you have helped me already.

---

I used to include the paint cost in my rate. Since I have found what other painters have been charging, I add the cost of the paint on as a separate charge.

But, there are other things that I do include in my rate per square foot. I put something like this on the bottom of my estimate, if patching is not going to be all that extensive:

Quote:

---

Costs of patching compounds, sandpaper, masking tape, trips to the store, etc. are included in the above estimate.

Any extra costs incurred are to be mutually agreed upon by the customer and contractor.

---

That makes sense to me. I also pm'ed you with an additional question regarding how to begin figuring pricing for all the trim in a house. Oy! Per linear foot, per window, guessimate the time per item, etc?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by noodleboy33

That makes sense to me. I also pm'ed you with an additional question regarding how to begin figuring pricing for all the trim in a house. Oy! Per linear foot, per window, guessimate the time per item, etc?

---

Below, is the answer that I gave to you in my private message to you. I am listing it here so that others might benefit from it. It is best to keep things out in the open on a site like this, as far as questions and answers to topics are concerned in case someone else might have the same type of question. Then the answer might already be listed without someone else going through the effort to answer it.

Quote:

---

Hi!

For trim, I would charge about $1.20 per linear foot if the trim is from three to four inches in width. That would be for two coats. I would brush the trim. It gives a much warmer look than rolling does.

I now charge extra for the paint outside of my rate per square foot based upon what I found people were charging around where I live.

Clough

---

I would like to add just one thing to my answer above. And, that would be that I highly recommend using a paint on the trim that has some kind of sheen to it, not flat, but a satin, semi-gloss or gloss, since trim is likely to be needing to be washed from time to time.

You the man, Clough. Thanks for all your help.

To helpful

Just reading through this quick I would not take the advice from a business owner that charges $20/hr, he obviously isn't licensed an has no overhead at that rate. You need to check the area you live to get an accurate price guide.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JASatrom

Just reading through this quick I would not take the advice from a business owner that charges $20/hr, he obviously isnt licensed an has no overhead at that rate. You need to check the area you live to get an accurate price guide.

---

Hi, JASatrom!

This is now a very old thread which is now archived. So, it's generally not visible, unless someone happens to visit the forum topic area where it's listed, or has been notified that there's activity on the thread because they've already posted on it.

Around where I work, it's not necessary for a residential or commercial painter to have a license to do what they do.

Are you a house painter?

Thanks!

Very old thread that is now archived. Plus, the original poster has never returned to address the comments.

Thread is now CLOSED.