How are paint material and labour costs calculated?

Material cost is the whole selected tin count multiplied by your supplied price for that tin size. Quoted labour is net painted surface area multiplied by your supplied rate per square foot or square metre, once. Labour is not multiplied by coats; enter a rate covering your quoted work. Other supplied costs are added as a total.

What does a 100 square foot example total?

At 100 square feet, two coats and a spread rate of 100 square feet per gallon, the quantity is two gallons, or two one-gallon tins. At 40 per tin, material is 80. An entered labour rate of 3 per square foot adds 300, and 20 in other quoted costs gives 400. The amounts use the currency of your quote.

Can I use this for interior or exterior painting costs?

Use measured painted faces and the spread rate for your chosen product, then enter prices and quoted labour for that work. House floor area does not establish exterior wall area. This page does not supply local market rates, choose preparation methods or identify coatings, and it excludes tax, delivery and charges you omit.

What happens if I change the area units or tin size?

The current area and whole tin count update. Supplied prices and rates stay in their fields, so update them to match the new tin size and rate unit printed beside each input. These additional cost fields are not saved; the original surface and paint settings keep their existing browser storage behavior.

How are cents rounded?

Each component and the unrounded subtotal are rounded half up independently to two decimal places. A half-cent rounds upward, and adding the rounded rows can differ from the subtotal by a cent.

Paint Cost Calculator

Measure the painted surfaces, set coats and enter your paint’s spread rate. The separate cost section uses the whole tin count for your entered material price and net painted area for your quoted labour rate. Blank costs are omitted.

Paint needed0galType a wall width and height to start, in feet.

Wall area: not yet
Openings: 0 sq ft
Coats
Spread rate, editable
Per: sq ft per gallon
Tin size
Units
Leading with

Measure each wall along the floor and up to the ceiling and type the two numbers. A ceiling is one more surface: its length and its width. A spread rate of 350 sq ft per gallon is an editable example. Use the coverage printed on your paint tin for your own calculation.

Walls and ceilings

Each surface is a width and a height, in feet.

Wall 1 widthWall 1 heightnot yet

Doors and windows

Anything you are not painting comes off here. Add one line per size and say how many of it there are.

Supplied paint costs

Enter prices and rates from your quote. Material uses the whole tins calculated above. Labour uses net surface area once, without multiplying by coats.

Price per 1 gal tin

Quoted labour per square foot

Other quoted costs, total

Blank costs are omitted. Amounts use your quote’s currency, rounded half up to two decimal places. The subtotal uses unrounded components, so rounded rows can differ by a cent. Changing area units or tin size keeps these inputs: update the rates and price for the new units. Delivery, tax and omitted charges are excluded. No average market price or preparation method is inferred. These extra costs are not saved.

Worked examples

Load an example to see its measured surfaces, coats and spread rate in the fields.

A 12 by 14 ft room8 ft ceilings, one door, two windows, 2 coats at 350
371 sq ft net · 2.12 gal · buy 3 × 1 gal
A ceiling on its own12 by 14 ft, 1 coat at 350
168 sq ft net · 0.48 gal · buy 1 × 1 gal
A 5 by 4 m room2.4 m high, one door, two windows, 2 coats at 11
38.52 m² net · 7 L · buy 3 × 2.5 L

Quantity, not chemistry. Exact arithmetic on the area, coats and spread rate you give, with your openings subtracted. The spread rate on your tin is the one that counts. It cannot know how porous the wall is or how much colour change you are covering. There is no product list here and nothing to buy: the page gives you area, volume and tin counts, with optional arithmetic on supplied amounts.

Common questions

How are paint material and labour costs calculated?: Material cost is the whole selected tin count multiplied by your supplied price for that tin size. Quoted labour is net painted surface area multiplied by your supplied rate per square foot or square metre, once. Labour is not multiplied by coats; enter a rate covering your quoted work. Other supplied costs are added as a total.
What does a 100 square foot example total?: At 100 square feet, two coats and a spread rate of 100 square feet per gallon, the quantity is two gallons, or two one-gallon tins. At 40 per tin, material is 80. An entered labour rate of 3 per square foot adds 300, and 20 in other quoted costs gives 400. The amounts use the currency of your quote.
Can I use this for interior or exterior painting costs?: Use measured painted faces and the spread rate for your chosen product, then enter prices and quoted labour for that work. House floor area does not establish exterior wall area. This page does not supply local market rates, choose preparation methods or identify coatings, and it excludes tax, delivery and charges you omit.
What happens if I change the area units or tin size?: The current area and whole tin count update. Supplied prices and rates stay in their fields, so update them to match the new tin size and rate unit printed beside each input. These additional cost fields are not saved; the original surface and paint settings keep their existing browser storage behavior.
How are cents rounded?: Each component and the unrounded subtotal are rounded half up independently to two decimal places. A half-cent rounds upward, and adding the rounded rows can differ from the subtotal by a cent.

Exact arithmetic on the area, coats and spread rate you give, with your openings subtracted. The spread rate on your tin is the one that counts. It cannot know how porous the wall is or how much colour change you are covering.