Cost & hiring
What painters charge: per square foot, per room, per hour
Interior painters charge roughly $1.50 to $4 per square foot of wall, according to published cost surveys. Here is what that means for a room or a house, and why quotes for the same job can differ by double.
The published ranges
Painting prices are reported by several US cost-survey sites that aggregate quotes and completed jobs: Angi (formerly HomeAdvisor), HomeGuide and Fixr among them. Their 2025 figures differ in detail but agree on the broad ranges, which we round and use as defaults:
| Job | Typical range | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Interior, walls only | about $1 – $3 per sq ft | Wall area |
| Interior, walls and ceilings | about $1.50 – $4 per sq ft | Wall area |
| Interior, walls, ceilings and trim | about $2 – $5 per sq ft | Wall area |
| Exterior | about $1.50 – $4.50 per sq ft | Siding area |
| Wallpaper installation | about $25 – $50 per single roll | Rolls hung |
All of these assume two coats and light prep in a typical market. They are wide because they include everything from a single painter in a small town to a large company in a big coastal city, and every level of prep and finish. Treat them as a sense of scale and a check on a quote, not as a price for your job. We review them once a year. Note the basis: all the interior figures here are per square foot of wall, not of floor, because wall area is what the work is measured in. A painter who quotes per square foot of floor is using a different unit, and the numbers are not comparable.
What a painter’s hour costs
Behind every quote is an hour of labour. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median wage for painters (construction and maintenance) at about $23 an hour in May 2023, with wide differences by state. A painting company also pays payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, vehicles, equipment, marketing and the time spent estimating jobs that it does not win, and it needs a profit. That is why the price a customer pays per hour of work is well above the wage. The painting bid builder shows how a contractor turns hours into a price.
Materials are the small part
Paint and supplies are usually only a modest share of a professional painting quote; the surveys put materials at roughly 15 to 25% of the total. The rest is labour, overhead and profit. That has two consequences. First, a premium paint adds surprisingly little to a professional job. Second, the big savings in doing it yourself are in the labour, which the DIY versus pro calculator weighs against your own time.
From ranges to a room
One 12 × 14 ft room, walls, ceiling and trim
366 sq ft of wall and 168 sq ft of ceiling, two coats, light prep, US-average region.
- Area: 534 sq ft of wall and ceiling
- Rate: $1.50 – $4.00 per sq ft, × 1.2 for trim and doors
- Estimate: $961 – $2,563, midpoint about $1,762
- Walls only, no ceiling or trim: $549 – $1,464
Three such rooms
- $2,884 – $7,690, midpoint about $5,287, or about $1,762 a room
- Of which materials, at 15 to 25%: about $793 – $1,322
An exterior, 1,500 sq ft of siding
- $2,700 – $8,100, midpoint $5,400, with trim
All from the professional painter cost estimator.
What moves a quote
Prep. The biggest single factor. Washing and filling nail holes is light prep; patching, sanding and caulking is medium; scraping, skim-coating and extensive repairs is heavy. Our estimator multiplies by 1.0, 1.2 and 1.5 for the three levels, a site estimate. Peeling exteriors and badly damaged walls can go well beyond that.
Region. Labour costs vary widely across the US. We apply 0.85 for rural areas and small towns and 1.25 for large coastal cities, which matches the shape of the survey differences. One room with medium prep in an above-average region comes to $1,442 – $3,845 in the estimator, against $961 – $2,563 at average.
Access. Tall walls, stairwells, two-storey exteriors and steep sites need ladders, scaffolding or lifts, and take longer.
Detail. Trim, doors, windows, cabinets and multiple colours are slow work. A room with lots of trim and a two-tone wall costs more per square foot than one plain colour.
Furnished or empty. Moving and covering furniture is time; an empty house is cheaper to paint.
Timing. Painters are busiest in spring and summer for exteriors; quotes and availability are often better outside the peak.
Per square foot or per room
Painters quote in different ways: per square foot of wall, per square foot of floor, per room, or as a lump sum. To compare quotes, convert them to the same basis. Per square foot of wall is the most reliable, because it does not depend on what counts as a “room”. The cost per square foot calculator turns a quote into dollars per square foot of wall and shows where it sits in the typical range.
A $2,400 quote for 1,200 sq ft of wall and ceiling
- $2,400 ÷ 1,200 = $2.00 per sq ft
- Typical range for walls and ceilings: $1.50 – $4.00
- Verdict: within the typical range
From the cost per square foot calculator.
Very low and very high quotes
A quote well below the range is not automatically a bargain. Check what is missing: one coat instead of two, no ceilings or trim, no prep, the cheapest paint, no insurance, or a painter who will need the money up front. A quote well above the range may reflect real work you have not seen, such as rotten wood, lead-safe practices on an old house, or difficult access; or it may be a polite way of saying the painter is busy. Ask what drives it. How to read a painting quote lists what to check line by line.
Interior and exterior prices
Exterior work spans a wider range than interior work, because access and prep vary so much more: a single-storey house with sound paint is a different job from a two-storey house with peeling clapboard. Exterior quotes are often given per square foot of siding, sometimes per square foot of floor area, and sometimes as a lump sum with trim and doors listed separately. Convert them to the siding area before comparing; measuring a house exterior shows how to get it from the ground.
How painters are paid
Most painters ask for a deposit to secure the date and buy materials, then payment on completion; larger jobs are often paid in stages. Keep the deposit modest and tie the stages to visible progress, such as rooms finished or sides of the house completed. Pay the final amount after the walk-through and touch-ups. A written contract with the scope, the schedule and the payment terms protects both sides, and in many states it is required above a certain amount.
Lead paint in older homes
In US homes built before 1978, renovation work that disturbs painted surfaces is covered by the EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule, which requires certified firms and lead-safe work practices. That adds cost and is not optional. Ask any painter quoting on an older house whether they are RRP-certified.
Getting the best price for the job
- Get three written quotes for exactly the same scope: surfaces, coats, prep, paint brand and line.
- Do the cheap parts yourself. Moving furniture, removing hardware and clearing the exterior can cut hours.
- Bundle rooms. A painter’s setup and travel cost is spread over more work.
- Supply nothing yourself unless agreed. Many painters prefer their own paint and will not warrant a finish with paint they did not choose.
- Be flexible on timing for interiors in the busy season.