Painting Quote Calculator
Enter the area to paint and the number of coats, what one tin of paint covers and costs, your preparation time, how much area you paint per hour and your hourly rate, then the markup you add. You get the tins needed, paint cost, labour hours and cost, and the quote. Use square metres or square feet consistently. Nothing is sent anywhere.
In one sentence: A painting quote is tins of paint plus hours of work, both driven by the area times the coats, with a markup on top.
Formula: painted area = area × coats; tins = painted area ÷ coverage per tin, rounded up; paint cost = tins × price; hours = prep hours + painted area ÷ area per hour; labour = hours × rate; quote = (paint + labour) × (1 + markup %).
Measuring the area
Wall area is the perimeter of the room times the wall height, minus doors and windows; add the ceiling if it is being painted. Measure rather than estimate, and keep the unit consistent: if the area is in square metres, coverage per tin and area per hour must be too. Paint manufacturers state coverage per litre or per tin on the label, usually for one coat on a smooth surface; porous or textured surfaces take more, so reduce the coverage figure for those. Tins are rounded up because you cannot buy a fraction of one, which is also why a small job can carry a high paint cost per area.
Productivity and preparation
Area per hour is the figure most painters know from experience and most quotes get wrong by optimism. It depends on the surface, the paint, cutting in, ceilings and access. Preparation is separate because it does not scale with coats: masking, filling, sanding and moving furniture take the same time whether you apply one coat or three. Enter them honestly; a quote built on a fast day loses money on a normal one.
Markup and the final number
The markup covers the costs that are not paint or hours on this job: vehicle, insurance, equipment, quoting time and profit. The contractor markup calculator works out what percentage your overhead and profit need. For jobs with mixed trades or materials beyond paint, the job quote calculator builds the price from cost, overhead and margin.
Frequently asked questions
How do I handle primer or different paints?
Run the calculator once per paint type and add the quotes, or treat primer as an extra coat with its own coverage if the price is similar.
Can I quote per square metre instead?
The last line gives the quote per unit of area, which you can use as a rate card figure for similar jobs.
Is my data stored?
No. Everything runs in your browser.