Calculators
Pro painting calculators
Sprayer usage, tip sizes, production rates, drying windows and the maths of a bid.
A painting bid is production rates times hours times a rate, plus materials, plus the overhead and profit that keep the business alive. The rates are the part most people guess. The production rate calculator here uses published figures by task and method as a starting point, and every pro should replace them with their own timed jobs, which is why they are inputs rather than constants.
The sprayer calculators do the arithmetic from the tip chart: fan width and orifice from the tip number, flow at pressure, and the overspray that an airless rig puts into the air rather than onto the wall. The drying calculator turns data-sheet times at 77 °F and 50% humidity into something closer to the day you are actually working.
7 calculators
Airless Sprayer Paint Usage Calculator
Gallons through the gun with overspray and thinning, spraying minutes from the tip flow, and buckets.
Spray Tip Size Calculator
The airless tip number for your material and fan width, its flow, and whether your pump can run it.
Painting Production Rate Calculator
Hours per task from your production rates and the job conditions, with crew days and hours per 100 sq ft.
Painting Bid Builder
A bid from labour, materials, markup, overhead and profit margin, with the price per square foot.
Paint Drying & Recoat Time Calculator
Touch-dry, recoat and cure times by product, adjusted for temperature, humidity and airflow.
Crew & Schedule Calculator
Working days and a finish date from the hours, the crew, recoat waits and the working week.
Markup vs Margin Calculator
Price, markup, margin and profit from any two of them, with the conversion between the two percentages.
Guides for this topic
Airless spray tips explained: the three digits
A 517 tip sprays a 10 inch fan through a 0.017 inch hole. Once you can read the number, choosing a tip for any paint and any pump takes a minute.
Building a painting bid: labour, materials, markup and margin
A bid is five numbers added in the right order. Get the order wrong, or confuse margin with markup, and a job that looked profitable pays less than planned.
Deck stain coverage: new wood, weathered wood and product type
Deck stain coverage is set by the wood, not the can. A new, smooth deck might take a gallon; the same deck weathered and grey takes two. Here is how to tell which you have.
Dry, recoat and cure: how long paint really takes
Latex is dry to the touch in an hour and not fully hard for about three weeks. Knowing which clock you are on decides when to recoat, when to rehang doors, and when to wash the walls.
Planning a fence stain: sides, styles and weather
A 100 ft privacy fence, both sides, is over 1,200 sq ft of rough wood, three and a half times the walls of a 12 × 12 ft bedroom. Here is how to plan the stain, the days and the weather.
Wet film, dry film and volume solids: coverage for pros
Every coverage figure on a can comes from one line of arithmetic. Learn it and you can compare paints honestly, check a crew's film build, and predict coverage for any coating.
Painting kitchen cabinets: how much primer and paint, and why
A kitchen of cabinets is only about 180 sq ft of surface, but it is the hardest-wearing paint job in the house. The quantity is small; the prep and the product decide whether it lasts.
Painting production rates: how long a room, a wall, a door takes
A painter with a roller covers about 200 sq ft of wall an hour, one coat, cutting in included. A door takes about 45 minutes a side. Those two numbers explain most painting schedules.
Spraying vs rolling: paint usage, overspray and finish
A sprayer is several times faster at putting paint on a wall and always uses more paint doing it. Whether it saves time on your job depends on the masking, not the spraying.
Textured and popcorn ceilings: coverage, product and technique
A popcorn ceiling can take two thirds more paint than a smooth one of the same size. Here is why, how to plan for it, and how to paint it without pulling the texture down.
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.
Questions people ask
- What spray tip size for latex walls?
- A 515 or 517 is the usual choice: a 10 in fan with a 0.015 or 0.017 in orifice, which most 0.5 gallon-per-minute pumps support at full pressure. Trim and doors take a 310 to 412; thick elastomeric or block filler needs a 0.021 to 0.031 in orifice and a larger pump. The spray tip calculator maps material and fan width to a tip number and checks it against the pump.
- How much extra paint does spraying use?
- Airless overspray is typically 20 to 25% on interior walls, 30 to 40% outside in any wind, and 40% or more on fine-finish settings and on open railings. Rolling loses about 5% in the roller and tray. The spray versus roll calculator puts the two side by side in gallons and dollars.
- How many hours does a room take a pro?
- Walls of a 12 × 12 room, two coats rolled with cutting in, run about 3 to 4 hours of labour for an experienced painter; add the ceiling, trim and doors and a full room is most of a day. Prep can double it. The production rate calculator builds the total from each task.
- What is the difference between markup and margin?
- Markup is profit as a share of cost; margin is profit as a share of price. A 25% markup on a $1,000 cost gives a $1,250 price and a 20% margin. Bids priced "at 20% margin" and "at 20% markup" differ by about 5% of the total, which is often the whole profit.
- How long between coats when it is humid?
- Data-sheet recoat times assume about 77 °F and 50% relative humidity. At 85% humidity or below 50 °F, latex recoat times of 2 to 4 hours can stretch to 6 or more, and alkyds should wait overnight. The drying and recoat calculator applies those adjustments; the data sheet for your product is still the final word.
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