Cost to paint interior of house?
- Thread starter DenimChicken
- Start date
displacedtexan
WKR
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2022
Labor, overhead etc isn't cheap.
Good paint and mud work is a skill.
It's way more than a few cans, which aren't cheap.
Silveroddo
WKR
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2019
Taperpin/Displacedtexan you guys are doing an excellent job explaining it and laying out how it is, but you're going to run out of crayons long before some of these guys understand it.
If you've never bid residential projects for homeowners, its hard to fully grasp.
If you've never bid residential projects for homeowners, its hard to fully grasp.
Premium paint is $90 a gallon. Do you think a skilled tradesman is worth $10 an hour?
It's amazing to me how people think that skilled tradesman should be charging $25 an hour to perform services that have taken years to perfect, meanwhile will pay a mechanic $140 an hour to do ball joints that anyone could do watching a YouTube video.....
Sent from my SM-G990U2 using Tapatalk
Yoder
WKR
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2021
$200/hr to paint the interior of a house is insane. My children have painted their own rooms. You would have to be eating crayons to pay that.
Yoder
WKR
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2021
So it's harder to paint a wall than change a ball joint? How skilled do you need to be exactly? Does the $90/gallon paint have gold leaf in it? If they bid $100/hr I could understand. I know things are expensive and nobody wants to work anymore.
Where did the $200 an hour number come from? Did I miss something?
Sent from my SM-G990U2 using Tapatalk
Silveroddo
WKR
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2019
It’s Yoders home owner estimate based on his kids doing some painting and being able to paint a house in 40 man hours.
Yoder
WKR
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2021
Sorry, $10k or more to paint a 2k sq ft house just seems a little crazy to me. I had a B dry system installed in my basement. They jack hammered for two days straight, installed drain pipes around the entire basement with a sump pump the buried a 200 ft discharge pipe. Total cost was $8500. We're talking about putting paint on the wall. I would imagine professionals could get it done pretty quick. Maybe use sprayers, automatic rollers. How much time could it take? I don't live in the Trump tower. I don't need meticulous, perfect paint put on the wall at $90 gallon. Maybe others here have million dollar houses and value that, I'll just go to Lowes for paint and do it myself for free.
displacedtexan
WKR
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2022
No one wants to work for nothing...
*zap*
Savage
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2018
- Location
- N/E Kansas
I have found the high $ paint to be worth buying for exterior, it probably is also good for interior. Maybe not the top/top tier paint but I would use something from the top 25% of what is available. If your painting your own home then it is probably worth opening an account at sherwin williams and getting the discounts....also worth buying the very wide roller and accessories....it is crazee how fast you can do a prepped room with one.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Silveroddo
WKR
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2019
I'm not trying to bust your balls (To hard) but people don't understand that construction services are more than say, a can of paint and a roller.
I'm not a painter, but I'd guess you need an insurance policy (and an environmental policy rider), a truck or a van,(Commercial auto policy, probably a health card to be legal) $50-60k capital investment and probably $.40/mile to maintain and insure it. I'd guess there's $5-10K in tools/ladders/sprayers/whatever. Your day starts at the shop, you commute to the job with your employee that started getting paid at the shop, you get to the job, you start setting up for the day, you just get rolling and the first 15 minute break for the day kicks in, afterwards you continue moving furniture, taking doors off, masking, putting down drop cloths, whatever. Lunch kicks in you stop for lunch, get rolling again for 3 hours, then its time to start packing in for the day and head back to the shop to keep everything under 8 hours. I'd guess getting 6 productive hours a day in would probably be average, but its costing you 8, which in turn is paid for by the customer. Our state has mandated employee time off now, so that is another cost that will inevitably be passed on to the home owner.
If you've been doing it for awhile and you plan to stay in business you probably buy the paint that costs 30-40% more because you want to do it once have it turn out right , and not come back for rework.
My buddy is a foreman for a local home builder and he's been tearing his hair out lately because his bosses keep going to low bidder on everything, including the painter, and they end up spending thousands fixing the screw ups, or have homeowners getting on them about the flunkies smoking pot in the van in the driveway.
I'm on the tail end of starting up a new contracting venture and OUR COST to have an employee is around $42/hour straight time, no benefits, on top of that is our General Liability Policy and every other thing.
I don't like it anymore than you do, but Joe Bidens America sucks. I need to build a SMALL deck/back porch and its killing me that its going to be 6-7K to do it myself and the last one I did like it was under $3k 10 years ago.
displacedtexan
WKR
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2022
Homeowner discount is less than half what the lowest volume contractor account will get you.
And you have to have an actual business to get a business account.
TaperPin
WKR
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2023
I completely agree hiring a professional isn‘t required for any of the trades - it’s somewhat easier to let someone else do it, and there’s much less risk that the end result will be good. Maybe 25% of what clients are paying for is the knowledge - just knowing how to do it.
Kids can paint their rooms, but can you send them into a house you’ve never seen, without supervision and make important decisions about the products used, propper application, preventing problems, safeguarding the physical house as well as not causing damage to personal property? No, and we haven’t even touched on professional quality prep and application, not to mention standing by the quality of the end result.
A high quality paint job leaves the house in near new condition. It’s easy to paint, but it’s quite a skill to paint well. Paint a ceiling, even with a roller, and small dots of paint on the new window coverings you just paid $5k for suddenly becomes a big deal. Drop a paint can on a carpeted floor and even with drop cloths you’ll probably be buying new carpet for that room. I’ve been on a job where the painting subcontractor used high school kids with more energy than smarts and they scratched almost every window in the house. The liability insurance company said they wouldn’t pay for negligence, the insurance company had to be sued - and the painter lost in court - and replacing the windows was on his dime.
I‘ve had painters slop paint onto kitchen cabinets and cleaning the drips off took off some cabinet finish, so refinishing the face frames of the upper cabinets was on the painter.
Cheap painters are notorious for doing a poor job on doors, as I mentioned earlier in a previous post. One of the hardest things to fix on a door is getting a lot of drips or sags in the groves of a wood textured door - or putting paint over a bathroom door that has hair spray all over it - modern hair spray often has stuff in it that fisheyes as many coats of paint as you put on it. Paint it without a good cleaning first and you’ll end up buying the door.
Kitchens with years worth of cooking grease require more effort to get paint to stick. Even many good painters stay away from caulking the edges of kitchen and bath cabinets, or touching up caulking around granite and tile prior to paint. I don’t trust the average painter to do specialty caulking, especially color matched sanded caulking. Inexperienced tile setters often bump tile into trim and try to grout up to the trim making a stopping spot for paint impossible - the grout is chipped out, the area is painted and the correct color matched caulking is applied between tile and trim.
Another favorite is baseboard that’s been dropped because the clients had carpet replaced with vinyl plank, and there’s a line of old caulking in the texture. In those cases I charge as much to fix the texture as new trim 1/2” taller would cost, so we replace the baseboards and do it right.
One of my primary niches is old historic homes. Replacing old ornamental sagging trim, especially around windows and door isn’t an option, and knowing how to fill large gaps so the 10 layers of previous caulk and paint isn’t seen is a valuable skill.
Log and wood interior finish and refinish is a whole new set of issues, products, and techniques.
One house I was working on at Lake Tahoe was primarily covered with fancy stained cherry wood raised panels inside - very little Sheetrock in the entry and great room. Nobody else wanted to install and color match a $2,500 custom door - stain matching and finish coat matching is a whole other price point, but is something a painter should know in case it’s needed.
This photo shows a completely crappy ceiling retexture - as light glances across vaulted ceilings it makes flatness much more important. I flipped out. Then the cherry wood paneled wall was jacked up by an experienced painter when his boss gave him a new product that was applied differently. I was yelling and kicking saw horses when I saw how blotchy it was, and still is to this day. That was the last time I ever worked with that painting contractor.
I could keep going - there’s a really good example of a client using inexperienced guys to paint custom cabinets I built, that had the client crying, a painting contractor lost his ass, and a simple three day paint job turned into two weeks of stripping fresh paint, sanding and repainting. The guys weren’t any better at sanding than they were at painting and began to ruin the woodwork until I suggested the issues aren’t getting resolved and both sides should just stop bickering. It’s the only time I’ve been in front of a client and had to tell the owner of a successful painting company to stop trying to blow smoke up my ass - they just were in over their head. It took a few years, but the painter talks to me again.
I did all the stain grade trim and doors in a house and the wrong finish was misapplied - everything had to be stripped and reapplied.
I’m usually the guy that clients hire because I know as much about painting as the painter doing the work knows, and can prevent issues and fix it myself if need be.
I really don’t miss all those hassles. Lol
Kids can paint their rooms, but can you send them into a house you’ve never seen, without supervision and make important decisions about the products used, propper application, preventing problems, safeguarding the physical house as well as not causing damage to personal property? No, and we haven’t even touched on professional quality prep and application, not to mention standing by the quality of the end result.
A high quality paint job leaves the house in near new condition. It’s easy to paint, but it’s quite a skill to paint well. Paint a ceiling, even with a roller, and small dots of paint on the new window coverings you just paid $5k for suddenly becomes a big deal. Drop a paint can on a carpeted floor and even with drop cloths you’ll probably be buying new carpet for that room. I’ve been on a job where the painting subcontractor used high school kids with more energy than smarts and they scratched almost every window in the house. The liability insurance company said they wouldn’t pay for negligence, the insurance company had to be sued - and the painter lost in court - and replacing the windows was on his dime.
I‘ve had painters slop paint onto kitchen cabinets and cleaning the drips off took off some cabinet finish, so refinishing the face frames of the upper cabinets was on the painter.
Cheap painters are notorious for doing a poor job on doors, as I mentioned earlier in a previous post. One of the hardest things to fix on a door is getting a lot of drips or sags in the groves of a wood textured door - or putting paint over a bathroom door that has hair spray all over it - modern hair spray often has stuff in it that fisheyes as many coats of paint as you put on it. Paint it without a good cleaning first and you’ll end up buying the door.
Kitchens with years worth of cooking grease require more effort to get paint to stick. Even many good painters stay away from caulking the edges of kitchen and bath cabinets, or touching up caulking around granite and tile prior to paint. I don’t trust the average painter to do specialty caulking, especially color matched sanded caulking. Inexperienced tile setters often bump tile into trim and try to grout up to the trim making a stopping spot for paint impossible - the grout is chipped out, the area is painted and the correct color matched caulking is applied between tile and trim.
Another favorite is baseboard that’s been dropped because the clients had carpet replaced with vinyl plank, and there’s a line of old caulking in the texture. In those cases I charge as much to fix the texture as new trim 1/2” taller would cost, so we replace the baseboards and do it right.
One of my primary niches is old historic homes. Replacing old ornamental sagging trim, especially around windows and door isn’t an option, and knowing how to fill large gaps so the 10 layers of previous caulk and paint isn’t seen is a valuable skill.
Log and wood interior finish and refinish is a whole new set of issues, products, and techniques.
One house I was working on at Lake Tahoe was primarily covered with fancy stained cherry wood raised panels inside - very little Sheetrock in the entry and great room. Nobody else wanted to install and color match a $2,500 custom door - stain matching and finish coat matching is a whole other price point, but is something a painter should know in case it’s needed.
This photo shows a completely crappy ceiling retexture - as light glances across vaulted ceilings it makes flatness much more important. I flipped out. Then the cherry wood paneled wall was jacked up by an experienced painter when his boss gave him a new product that was applied differently. I was yelling and kicking saw horses when I saw how blotchy it was, and still is to this day. That was the last time I ever worked with that painting contractor.
I could keep going - there’s a really good example of a client using inexperienced guys to paint custom cabinets I built, that had the client crying, a painting contractor lost his ass, and a simple three day paint job turned into two weeks of stripping fresh paint, sanding and repainting. The guys weren’t any better at sanding than they were at painting and began to ruin the woodwork until I suggested the issues aren’t getting resolved and both sides should just stop bickering. It’s the only time I’ve been in front of a client and had to tell the owner of a successful painting company to stop trying to blow smoke up my ass - they just were in over their head. It took a few years, but the painter talks to me again.
I did all the stain grade trim and doors in a house and the wrong finish was misapplied - everything had to be stripped and reapplied.
I’m usually the guy that clients hire because I know as much about painting as the painter doing the work knows, and can prevent issues and fix it myself if need be.
I really don’t miss all those hassles. Lol
Mike D Texas
WKR
- Joined
- May 16, 2021
- Location
- North Texas
Based on your square footage that sounds about right.
And it will be worth every penny. I HATE painting and will gladly pay a professional to do it.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
And it will be worth every penny. I HATE painting and will gladly pay a professional to do it.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Yukon Cornelius
WKR
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2017
- Location
- Southwestern Alaska
I was raised by a house painter. I can always tell when someone does a DIY paint job. lol
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2016
- Location
- North Sentinel Island
I see the comparison you’re making but look at it like this. The value of the skill can fluctuate depending on the trade but the cost of operating vehicles, carrying insurance, administrative support stay fairly close for a lot of trades so a difference of +/- $15hr is a realistic measure not something like $50-$100. There was mention of dealership mechanic work at $150. Why is that less? Because you’re not paying for their dead time of loading up and commuting to you.
Similar threads
Featured Video
Latest Articles
- TT#64 Josh Boyd Elk Hunting Strategies for Every Season
- Aaron Davidson of Gunwerks
- TT#63 Dirk Durham’s Art of Elk Calling
- BIG Buck Stories with the Dirty Giants Podcast
- TT#62 Brian Barney Hunting Bulls without Calling
- Hoyt Alpha AX-2 SD Review
- Kuiu Kenai vs Outdoor Vitals Vario Hooded Jacket Review
- Hoyt RX-9 Ultra Review
- Hunting Vampire Bucks & Building an Optics Kit
- Darton Sequel ST2 35 Review