How Much Paint Do I Need To Paint My House

How To Calculate Paint Needs

For a rough estimate of your paint needs, divide the square footage of your homes paintable surface by the coverage of a gallon of paint. A gallon of paint covers 250 and 400 square feet, and a gallon of primer can cover 200 to 300 square feet. The exact coverage varies and is often listed on the can.

For example, a 1,500 square foot home will need five gallons of paint for a single coat with a 300 square foot coverage . There are also free paint calculators available online to assist with this calculation. Keep in mind that most homes will need two coats of paint.

Interior House Painting Costs

Interior paints, while not designed to withstand the same wear and tear as exterior paints, are stil formulated to resist staining and physical damage i.e. scuff marks and scratches. Theyre also relatively easier to clean and can be scrubbed without damaging the paints finish.

Below is the average cost to paint a houses interior:

Per Room $300-750

Per sqm: $20-30

Per Project: $3,200-$5,959

Your average two-bedroom home with a single bathroom will generally cost between $2,500 $3,500. A four-bedroom, two-bathroom home will cost between $3,500 $5,000. A three-bedroom house will typically start from $7,000 and a five-bedroom place can be as much as $9,000.

Lower-end prices for paint jobs are typically associated with minimal prep work and using only a single paint colour. Conversely, higher-end prices, e.g. $40 per sqm, often include more in-depth prep work, a multi-colour painting job, and other added finishes such as wallpapering.

How Can You Save The Cost When Buying Excess Paint

Knowing how much paint you need before you make the purchase may save you a considerable amount of money.

This is especially true if you are going with a higher-quality and thus, higher-priced paint.

One way to alleviate the cost of having extra paint around is to purchase an excess liter or gallon and not have it tinted.

This can lower down your painting costs much if you want to buy a premium paint product in large quantities like for 2200 or 3000 square feet areas.

Just in case you do not use it, then you can tint the paint the way you want for another project in the future.

If it turns out you need the extra paint, then you can purchase the tint from the paint store and mix it in.

The bottom line

When you consider that the average liter of good quality paint can run $35, which becomes less per liter with the more paint you purchase, understanding how much you need will make a considerable difference in staying within your budget.

Using an online paint calculator or a paint estimator tool is one of the smartest and easiest ways to figure out how much paint you will need for your interior & exterior paint projects.

Remember that there is no exact science to this, but overall you should err on the side of excess to ensure that you have enough paint to do the job.

It also helps if you have other uses for the leftover paint.

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How The Calculator Works: Examples

Using the calculator is simply a matter of entering the length and height of the walls to be painted, then entering the number of windows and doors that interrupt the wall areas. All mathematical computations occur invisibly to produce a fairly accurate estimate of how much paint you’ll need.

For example, let’s imagine you have a 12 x 12 room with standard 8-foot-high ceilings. Using the calculator works like this:

Automatically, the paint calculator gives you an estimate of 2 gallons of paint for applying two coats to a 12 x 12 room with 8-foot ceilings with two windows, 1 door, where you have no intention of painting the ceiling.

Here’s another example: You have a shed or garage with exterior walls that are 25 feet long and 10 feet tall, for a total of 1,000 square feet. Because the existing walls are weathered and in poor shape, they’re likely to absorb a lot of paint and you estimate that three coats will be necessary. There are three windows and one door in your shed or garage. If you enter all these values into the paint calculator, you are given an estimate of 9 gallons to paint your structure.

Of course, you could do these calculations by hand. But why bother, when this convenient app does the work for you?

Cost To Paint Brick And Masonry

Like metal siding, brick and masonry are easy to brush down and clean with a solution of water and triphosphate sodium but they take longer to dry. They can be brush painted but spray painting cost less about $1.50$2.00 per square foot. Both methods offer good coverage, but many painters recommend brush painting brick because it forces the paint into more nooks and crannies for a longer-lasting finish.

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Cost To Paint Plaster And Stucco

Fresh stucco has a waiting period of up to two months before it can be painted. Contractors use a special moisture meter to tell if its cured enough for paint to stick. Hardened stucco takes just a quick power wash to clean, and it dries quickly.

Brush painting stucco is time-intensive and costly at up to $5 per square foot, but spray painting runs less than $3 per foot, and the results are similar. For rough stucco, expect to use twice as much paint as you would on a solid surface. Gentler textures require less, and spray painting makes the most of every drop.

How Much Paint You Need For Trim

Painting trim a different color than the walls can really make a room pop. Consider painting baseboards, windows, doors and crown molding in a different finish or color.

You can calculate how much paint youll need to paint a rooms trim by finding the area of each piece of trimdo this by multiplying its length by its width. Finding the area of trim seems tedious, but most trim has the same width so you may not need to recalculate each items width, just its length.

Add all of these areas together to get the total area of trim youll need to paint. Then, divide that number by 350 to get an estimate of the number of gallons of paint youll need to paint your trim.

In most cases, you wont even need an entire gallon of paint to paint one rooms trim. Consider purchasing paint in quarts instead.

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Cost To Paint A House

Painting the exterior of your home is an investment. Whether you want a fresh new look, or your paint is in disrepair, it will cost roughly $3600 $4800 to repaint an average 2500 square-foot two-story home. Why the wide range in price? Because more than color, paint is a layer of protection against the elements. It shields siding from water damage and keeps insects away, so quality matters.

Painting is a project that requires intense preparation but done well it can last up to 15 years and add curb appeal that increases the value of your property. Lets take a closer look at how contractors estimate the cost of painting your home by using our simple paint cost calculator.

Dr Dulux: How To Work Out How Much Paint You Need For Any Home Decorating Project

How much paint do I need? Let Dulux show you how to calculate your paint coverage. Estimate the paint needed for woodwork, feature walls and any size room.

How much paint do I need for my project? How many coats of paint are needed? If youre asking these questions, youre not alone. Buy too little paint and you end up back and forth to purchase more. Buy too much and you end up with cans stacked up in the shed If only such thing as a paint calculator existed, eh? Well, youre in luck, because were here to show you just how simple it can be to calculate the paint you need with just three easy steps, no guesstimates necessary.

Step 1 – Measure up

First off, you need to grab a tape measure to work out the height and width of the surface you want to paint. Then, multiply the height and width together to get your square metre measurement. Subtract any windows and doors by using the same calculation method and deducting it from the total.

Step 2 – Calculate your coats

This is where we answer your how many coats of paint query. If you use Dulux Simply Refresh, youll only need to apply one coat of paint. But if you opt for a more durable finish with Dulux EasyCare Washable & Tough, multiply your number by two . Thats your paint coverage sorted.

Step 3 – Divide and conquer

Finally, divide the number by the square metre per litre listed on your paint tin or in the online product information. And there you have it, youve worked out the amount of paint you need.

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How This Paint Calculator Works

This paint calculator helps you work out the minimum litres of paint you need per project, so you dont buy too much. The calculation is based on 10m² per litre of paint which is a pretty standard measurement, but some paints can vary. You just need to enter the dimensions of the space youre painting and a little more info, and you get a precise amount. You can even take off the square metres of the areas you dont want to paint too, things like windows and skirting boards, for example. Once you have measured the room and taken away all of the areas you dont want to paint, youll know the amount of paint to buy.

How To Paint The Exterior Of Your House

This article was co-authored by Andres Matheu. Andres Matheu is the Owner of Hömm Certified Painting Systems, an Interior and Exterior Residential painting business based in the Washington, DC Metro area. Andres specializes in interior and exterior residential painting, color consultations, cabinet refinishing, wallpaper removal, and epoxy flooring among other services. An EPA Lead-safe Certified Firm, Hömm Certified Painting Systems has been awarded the Best of Houzz 2019 Service, Angie’s List Super Service Award 2019, and Northern Virginia Magazine’s 2018 Best Home Experts award.There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 47,436 times.

After a while, painted houses start to reveal wear and tear, so once in a while, doing a refreshing exterior house-painting project can bring back your homes vibrancy. There is a lot of preparation work required for repainting a house but it’s important to not skip this part because it makes the painting work much easier and ensures that the paintwork endures and stays in great condition.XExpert SourceCommercial PainterExpert Interview. 28 July 2020.

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Signs You Need To Paint The Interior

If your walls havent seen a paintbrush in the last five to seven years, its likely time to freshen things up. Through the years, walls can absorb moisture, grease stains, and sun filtering through the windows as well as show dirt, scuffs, fingerprints and paw-prints from the people and pets who inhabit a home.

Here are some signs its time to repaint.

• The paint is faded and discolored: Sun shining through windows can discolor the paint on walls. Darker paint colors fade faster than lighter shades, but all colors fade eventually.
• The color palette doesnt appeal to buyers: Mike Katona, a DIY and home improvement enthusiast, had trouble selling his home. Buyers couldnt get past the pink, purple, and mint green painted walls. After receiving agent feedback, he repainted the rooms a neutral white, and the house sold on the next showing.
• Your interior paint is peeling and chipping: You can remove some dirt marks and stains from interior walls with a deep cleaning, but chipping and peeling require sanding and repainting. Other signs its time to repaint include tough scuff marks, deep scratches, and grease stains.

Using The Paint Calculator

The paint calculator is useful if you’re planning an interior or exterior home painting project. It automates calculations you could make yourself using fairly basic math skills. The calculator makes several basic assumptions in its computations:

• One gallon of paint is assumed to cover approximately 350 square feet.
• A standard door accounts for approximately 20 square feet.
• An average window accounts for approximately 15 square feet.

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If All That Fails Just Scrape Some Paint Off

Lets say that youre out of ideas. You cant find anything else in your house that matches that specific shade of green on your bedroom walls, and nothing is quite like the off-white you put in the kitchen.

Youve been to the craft store to look at all the shades of thread, and nothing seems right. Youve even tried out the apps and still cant match that color.

An easy way to match your existing paint color is to simply take a knife and peel off the top layer of paint, says Scott Specker, owner of Five Star Painting in Suwanee and Alpharetta, GA.

Dont worry, theres no need to dig a deep gash into your otherwise pristine drywall or to remove a large section. Scraping a super thin, 1-inch-square sample will do the trick. Its like creating your own paint splotch!

If you take that piece into any local home improvement store, they should have computerized color-matching technology that can assess your paint and tell you its exact color, he adds.

Finally, when all else fails, consider consulting with a colorist. The pros have all the tricks for matching paint colors.

How Much Paint Do You Need For Interiors

This is a difficult question because interiors may require you to paint items apart from the walls.

You will need to add up the rooms and items you want to cover and then calculate how much paint will be needed.

You can start with the manufacturers recommendations which are usually found on their website and sometimes on the side of the cans.

However, the actual coverage rate can vary depending on the brand and the surface that needs to be covered.

For example, if you are covering a wall in a 10×10 sq ft room that has already been painted and you do not want to remove the underlying paint, then the manufacturers coverage rate should be about right.

However, if you are covering an unpainted area, then you may need about two times the amount of paint.

The difference is that you will need additional coats of paint to fully cover the area properly.

A general guess for interiors starts by assuming a standard room that is 12 x 12 x 9. From there, the following calculations can be made

Naturally, the larger the room , the more paint will be needed.

You should start by adding up all rooms that need to be painted.

For larger rooms, add whatever paint is needed while smaller rooms will need less. This should give you a rough amount.

It is better to have a little too much paint compared to too little because of the lower price per liter.

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Interior Painting Tips From The Pros

When repainting your house before selling, take a cue from the pros with the following expert painting tips.

• Paint the entire wall. NeJame recommends painting the whole wall. Spot painting rarely works, because the paint on the wall is slightly faded compared to the paint you had stored in the basement.
• Use good quality paint. Paint isnt the place to skimp, says Brad Taflinger, an Indiana real estate agent. Paying $18 for a gallon of paint might need two or three coats If you spend a little more on a better-quality paint that includes a primer, you can get it done in one shot, saving time and money.
• Paint the walls in a neutral color. Buyers gravitate to neutral color schemes, according to 98% of top agents surveyed in the Q1 2020 Top Agent Insights Report. Painting the walls in a neutral white, beige, gray, or earth tone, the home will look more spacious and invitingand provide a blank canvas for buyers. People need a blank slate to help them envision a house as their own, says Katona.
• For flawed walls, use flat paint. When walls have imperfections like dents, dings, or cracks, the lack of sheen in flat paint is more forgiving, explains NeJame. If you use an eggshell, satin or semigloss, flaws in walls and woodwork will be highlighted by the shine.

Freshening Up Your Facade Doesn’t Have To Cost An Arm And A Legor Your Sanity

They say its what inside that counts, but that isnt always the case for a house. Since first impressions matter, visitors will remember your shabby paint job or peeling siding even if the interior looks like the after in your favorite home renovation show.

So just how much does it cost to paint the outside of a house? It typically ranges from $1,700 to $3,700, but if youre smart about choosing supplies and the right contractor, you can get a lot of color for your cash. And its truly an investmentthe money you spend now means years of curb-appeal glory, instead of your house looking like the scruffy kid on the block.

Getting Started

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