pricetheworkEstimating on public data

Paint calculator

How many gallons a room takes at your coverage, and what the paint and the painting cost.

Wages follow the area. Material and haulage do not.
ft
Walk the walls and add them up. A 12 by 12 room is 48 feet.
ft
sq ft
Taken off the total. A door is about 21, an average window about 15.
sq ft / gal
What the tin claims. Bare drywall and rough surfaces drink more.
%
What stays in the tray and the roller.

Breakdown

U.S.
ItemQuantityUnitCost
Paintwall area x coats / coverage, plus waste allowanceseed $45.00 at 2026-07 · WPU0621 448.296 to 448.296 (2026-07)2.3 gal$45.00$103.31
Painting175 sq ft per worker-hour, per coatOEWS 2025-05 · 47-2141 · incl. payroll burden4.25 hr$34.63$147.24
Direct cost$250.55

What to charge

your markup, your overhead
%
%
$
%
Direct cost$250.55
Price to the client$322.74
Gross marginmarkup 28.8% on cost is a margin of 22.4% on price22.4%
Overhead at 15.0% of revenuea property of the business, not of this job: annual overhead over annual revenue-$48.41
Net margin7.4%
What is left after this job carries its share of the business$23.78

Keep it

saved against today’s figures

The markups above are starting values, not advice. Profit is not asked for separately on purpose: a markup already carries your profit intent, and adding a profit percentage on top of it counts the same money twice. Overhead is taken out of revenue rather than added to the price, so the gap between gross and net is the part most estimates never show.

Labour comes from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release for the selected state, multiplied by 30% to cover payroll taxes, insurance and workers’ compensation, because the published figure is a wage and not what an hour costs an employer. Material starts from a figure of ours and is carried forward by the BLS producer price index. Both are starting points. Your own costs will differ, and the numbers you enter are the ones worth keeping.

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