Understanding your result
The headline is the labour hours, and the sub-line is the working days for your crew at your hours per day. The three figures split the hours into painting, prep and setup, and show the days.
The table lists each task with its hours: walls, ceilings, trim, doors and windows for the coats you chose, then the prep for the level you chose and the setup, then the labour total, the hours per crew member and, where it applies, the stretch that the recoat waits add before the days are counted. The arithmetic panel shows each task’s area divided by its rate.
Hours are the input the other cost calculators need. The DIY versus hire calculator takes them to price your time; the production rate calculator does the same arithmetic with your own rates for a crew; the project planner turns a whole house into a day-by-day order; and the crew schedule calculator puts a finish date on it.
How we calculate this
The production rates are the substance, and they are on the production rates reference page with their basis: walls 100, 200 and 600 sq ft per hour per coat for brush, roller and sprayer; ceilings 80, 180 and 600; trim 60 linear feet an hour; doors 45 minutes a side; windows 45 minutes each. They are typical figures for one competent painter working steadily, consistent with published contractor estimating references, and the production rates guide explains how they were chosen and how to replace them with your own.
The recoat chain is what turns hours into days. One coat on everything, then the wait on the can, then the second coat; if that chain is longer than the crew’s share of the labour, it sets the elapsed time. For latex at 4 hours the stretch is small; for alkyd enamel at 24 hours it means a coat a day, as the drying guide explains and the drying times reference tabulates by product.
The assumptions behind the numbers
| Assumption | Default | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Walls | 100 / 200 / 600 sq ft per hour per coat (brush / roller / spray) | Site production rates consistent with RSMeans daily outputs for painting and PCA guidance, rounded; roller includes cutting in |
| Ceilings | 80 / 180 / 600 sq ft per hour per coat | As above; overhead work is slower |
| Trim | 60 linear ft per hour per coat | As above |
| Doors | 0.75 h per side per coat | As above, including edges and hardware |
| Windows | 0.75 h per window per coat | As above, frame and sash |
| Prep | 0.2 / 0.5 / 1.0 h per 100 sq ft (light / medium / heavy) | Site figures |
| Setup and cleanup | 1 h per job | Site figure |
| Recoat wait | 4 h | Latex wall paint data sheets; 16–24 h for alkyd |
Assumptions last reviewed October 7, 2026.
The calculator does not model ladder and scaffold work on tall walls (halve the rates), furniture-filled rooms (add to the setup), primer coats (count them as coats), or a crew working on different surfaces in parallel to beat the recoat chain, which a good crew does and which the project planner models. The rates are the biggest uncertainty and your own timed wall is the best correction.
Two worked examples
A 12 × 14 room, everything, rolled
700 sq ft of wall, 288 sq ft of ceiling, 96 ft of trim, two doors and two windows, roller, two coats, light prep, one painter at 6 hours a day, 4 hour recoat.
- Walls: 700 ÷ 200 × 2 = 7 h; ceilings: 288 ÷ 180 × 2 = 3.2 h; trim: 96 ÷ 60 × 2 = 3.2 h
- Doors: 2 × 2 × 0.75 × 2 = 6 h; windows: 2 × 0.75 × 2 = 3 h
- Prep: 988 ÷ 100 × 0.2 = 2 h; setup 1 h
- Labour: 25 h 23 min
- Recoat chain stretches it to 29 h 23 min, so 5 working days
The doors and windows are nine hours, more than the walls: the small, fiddly surfaces are where a room’s time goes, which is the point the trim and doors guide makes about quantities too.
Walls and ceiling sprayed, heavy prep, two painters
Same room, sprayer, one coat, heavy prep, no trim, doors or windows, crew of two.
- Walls: 700 ÷ 600 = 1.2 h; ceilings: 288 ÷ 600 = 0.5 h
- Prep: 988 ÷ 100 × 1.0 = 9.9 h; setup 1 h
- Labour: 12 h 32 min, 6 h 16 min each, 2 working days
The painting is under two hours and the prep is ten. For comparison, 400 sq ft of wall in an alkyd enamel with a 24 hour recoat is only 5 h 48 min of labour but 4 working days at 8 hours, because the second coat waits a day.
Where to find your inputs
Areas. Net wall area from the wall paint calculator; ceiling from the ceiling calculator; trim length from the trim calculator’s inputs.
Doors and windows. Count them; a door is both sides unless it is a closet.
Method. Roller for most rooms; brush for small areas and trim; sprayer for empty rooms, exteriors and textured ceilings.
Prep. Light for a clean, sound room; medium for patches and caulking; heavy for scraping and skim coating.
Recoat wait. From the can: 2 to 4 hours for latex, 16 to 24 for alkyd, longer when it is humid.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the prep. It equals the painting on a tired room and exceeds it on a damaged one.
- Planning the second coat an hour after the first. The recoat wait is on the can and it is real.
- Counting a sprayer as three times faster overall. It is three times faster on the wall and slower around it.
- Leaving out doors and windows. Nine hours in a typical room.
- Using these rates for a first job. Add half, or time one wall and scale.
- Treating one person’s hours as the calendar. Two painters do not halve a job with a recoat wait in it.
Questions people ask
- How long does it take to paint a room?
- A 12 × 14 room with 700 sq ft of wall, a 288 sq ft ceiling, 96 ft of trim, two doors and two windows, rolled with two coats, is about 25 hours of labour including light prep and setup, which with a 4 hour recoat wait is five working days of six hours for one person. Walls alone are 7 of those hours.
- What are the production rates?
- Walls at 100 sq ft an hour by brush, 200 by roller including cutting in, 600 by airless sprayer; ceilings a little slower; trim at 60 linear feet an hour; doors 45 minutes a side; windows 45 minutes each; all per coat. They are typical figures for one competent person working steadily, listed on the production rates reference page.
- How much time does prep take?
- Light prep (washing, nail holes) about 12 minutes per 100 sq ft; medium (patches, sanding, caulking) 30 minutes; heavy (scraping, skim coating) an hour. On a tired room the prep equals the painting. Setup, masking and cleanup add about an hour per job.
- Why are the working days more than the hours suggest?
- Because the second coat cannot start until the first has dried for the recoat time on the can, 2 to 4 hours for latex and 16 to 24 for alkyd enamel. The calculator checks whether the recoat waits stretch the job beyond the labour hours, which they do for small jobs and for oil-based paints.
- How much faster is spraying?
- On the wall, three times faster than rolling. Around it, slower, because masking everything that must not be painted goes into the setup and prep lines, and a first sprayer job doubles them. Spraying wins on large plain areas, empty rooms and exteriors, and loses on a furnished room with one wall to paint.
- How much longer does a first-timer take?
- About half as long again as these rates, mostly in cutting in and prep. Time one wall, compare it with the rate the calculator used, and scale the rest; the figure you get is better than any table.