Interior Painting Estimates by Square Footage

At AZ SRB Painting we only do our interior painting estimates in person and by square footage.

Why is that?

There are so many variables to an interior painting estimate that we need to see what we are dealing with firsthand.

Is someone living in the house and is it full of furniture? If it is empty, is the carpet coming out?

What are the conditions of the walls? Will they need some patching up and some drywall repair and texturing?

On the subject of walls:

1.) What is the old color that is being painted over?

2.) Are we matching the color or changing it?

3.) Will we be painting accent colors?

4.) Are the colors on the walls one color and the floor trim, door trim and doors a different color?

5.) Will the walls take one, two or even three coats of paint to cover with no bleed through?

6.) The paint we applying, will it have to hide a bad odor or smells like from smoking?

Square footage is different depending on a couple of factors.

Calculating square footage for painting is different than if you were doing it for carpet or flooring. For the floor, you simply get the two dimensions of the room, the length and width and multiply it. Let’s say the length is 12 feet and width is 14 feet. 12 x 14 = 168. Your square footage for carpet would be 168.

For paintable square footage you would get the length of each wall and how high those walls are. Sometimes you have sloping ceilings so the walls may vary in height.

Let’s say that same 12 x 14 room is 10 feet high with no slope. 12 + 12 + 14 + 14 = 52 and then multiply 52 by the height. That would be 52 x 10 = 520. So, the paintable square footage would be 520.

Why is the paintable square footage important?

A couple of reasons.

First: It gives us an idea how much paint we will need. On the back of any ‘Paint Can’ you can find the recommendation on how much that particular paint will cover by square foot. That gives a good starting point.

We then can calculate, depending on the color of the walls being covered, how many coats it will take to cover them without any bleed through. That is good information on how much paint it will take to cover that room.

Second: That also gives us a starting point on how much labor it will to take to paint that room.

4.) Is there wallpaper that will need to be stripped off? How hard will it be to take off? What many people do not realize is that wallpaper is not always the same to strip off the wall.

It all depends on who applied the wallpaper in the first place and whether they used a sizing paint to act like a barrier between the wallpaper glue and the wallboard underneath. If they did, we are able to use a liquid stripper called Dif that we spray on the wallpaper after we score it.

If they did not, it’s much tougher to get off because the wallpaper glue has bonded right into the drywall. If it has, we can still get it off, but it will beat up the wall in the process. We will have to plaster the wall smooth and then spray a texture back on it to match the rest of the house.

Go here to find out more about Removing Wallpaper

5.) We also want to find out from the owner if they have a completion date in mind. Many times, we give the owner an education on the work being done and then we can put our heads together on a realistic timeline.

As you can see from all the different variables from one home to the next, the interior of these houses are very different, so much so that we need to come and inspect each individually to figure out an accurate estimate to paint a whole house or individual rooms.

At AZ SRB Painting, we give free estimates in person.

I will come out to your home or business and meet you anytime that it is convenient for you.

We will get back to you with a written estimate within two days.

Call today!

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