Painting Estimate Calculator: bid by the square foot, prep included
Bid paint by the surface, not by feel: wall and ceiling area, the coats, the prep that eats the hours, plus your overhead and profit.
Paint is cheap. The labor is the bid, and prep is the labor people forget. Anvil HUD bids a paint job by the surface: the wall and ceiling area, the number of coats, and a paint cost that respects real coverage. Prep gets its own line, because the patching, sanding, masking, and priming are where the hours actually go. Add supplies, a waste allowance, a contingency, and your overhead and profit, and you have a bid that holds up when the second coat takes as long as the first.
How we price painting
- Each surface is a line item: square footage times a paint cost per square foot (a gallon covers about 350 to 400 square feet a coat), plus labor for the coats it needs.
- Prep is where painting bids go wrong, so it gets its own labor line: patching, sanding, masking, and priming take longer than the topcoat. Add supplies and a waste allowance.
- General conditions, a contingency, then overhead and profit finish the bid. Tune the coverage and production rates to how your crew actually works.
Every line is published at the math. No black box. The engine is free; you only sign in to save your work.
Questions
How do I bid a painting job?▾
Measure the wall and ceiling area, decide the coats, and price the paint on real coverage (about 350 to 400 square feet per gallon per coat). Then price the labor, with prep as its own line, because patching and masking take longer than rolling the topcoat. Add supplies, a contingency, and overhead and profit. Anvil HUD does the build-up.
How much does prep add to a paint job?▾
Often more than the painting. On a repaint with patching and caulking, prep can be half the labor or more. Pricing it as its own line item, instead of burying it in a per-square-foot rate, is the difference between a profitable repaint and a loss.
Is the calculator free?▾
Yes. Pricing the bid is free. Pro unlocks the proposal export, the dashboards, the jobs log, and inventory.
Know your craft.
Build your painting bid on your real numbers, free. Sign in to save projects and export a client-ready proposal.