Cost repainting for 1500 house in edmonton

9/3/2012 at 11:42:09 AM

Hi Maya,

Good question and an opportunity to clear up a misconception that a lot of people have. Your house is 1500 sq. ft. of floor space but the painter is not painting the floors, they are painting the walls, trims, and ceilings.

To give you an example, take a 10 X 12 room, 8 ft ceilings - maybe a bedroom. You have 120 sq. ft. of floor space but for painting you actually have 120 sq. ft. of ceiling, 350 sq. ft. of walls (minus openings, 2 doors & 1 window - probably about 65 to 70 sq. ft.) and about 90 to 100 lineal feet of trim. If you have crown as well, add about 44 lineal feet of trim.

You are actually painting 300 sq. ft of walls and ceilings, 70 sq. ft. of doors, and 100 lineal feet of trim. I am assuming 3 colours (walls, ceiling, trim) but if you are like my wife, maybe a feature wall so 4 colours in some rooms.

When I do a paint job, most of the actual labour is in the prep work - scraping loose paint , plaster / drywall compound, patching, sanding, filling little holes, sometimes moving furniture, laying down & moving drop cloths etc., etc. then a good quality primer and at least 1 and sometimes 2 coats of good quality paint, depending on the colours and colour changes.

I can't comment on the actual price you got but can only assume that the painter had a good look around, did some measuring, made notes about how much prep is needed, got a clear idea of what you want in the finished product, and gave you a fair price for the work. If you want to confirm or compare his price, you should get 2 or 3 more quotes but make sure you use the same specification for all so you can actually do a fair comparison.

Good luck with it!

Jim Kuzma

Kettleby Handyman Services