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Interior Painting Cost Calculator

Figure the whole room in seconds. Enter the room size (or your wall area), take out the doors and windows, and get the real takeoff — gallons of wall paint, ceiling, primer, trim, and tape — plus your material cost, your labor, and what to charge. Measured the right way, off wall area, not floor space.

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Materials takeoff
Charge about
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You priced the job. Now run it like a business.

That's the hard part done. SideWRK runs the rest from your phone: text the estimate, your customer taps approve, and the money hits — card, Apple Pay, Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle, no merchant account, no three-percent bite. It keeps a line on who still owes you, logs every material and cost so your real profit and your tax write-offs tally themselves, and stands up a free website with reviews that feeds you the next job. A free estimate today, or your whole operation in one app. Built for painting and every trade.

Estimate → approve → get paidCard, Apple Pay & VenmoSee who still owes youFollow up, keep customersCosts tracked for taxesFree website & reviews
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The paint is cheap — your hours aren’t

Material is maybe a fifth of a paint job; the rest is your cutting-in, your prep, your ladder time. So price the square footage honestly, then charge for the parts that eat hours: ceilings and trim, patching, dark walls that need an extra coat. A room quote that ignores prep is a quote you painted for free. Walk it first, write down what you see, and put a number on all of it.

Questions

How much does interior painting cost per square foot?
Walls-only interior painting runs about $2–$6 per square foot of floor space, labor and paint included — so a 1,500 sq ft interior lands roughly $3,000–$9,000. Add ceilings and trim and it climbs to about $4.70–$6.75 per square foot. Labor is 70–85% of the number, so your time is what you are really pricing.
Do I price by wall area or floor area?
Quote off the floor square footage. It is the number the customer already knows, it is how the big cost guides publish rates, and it tracks wall area closely in a normal-height room. If you are painting one accent wall or a stairwell, price the actual wall surface instead — the shortcut only works room by room.
How should I charge for prep work?
Never eat it. Patching, drywall repairs, sanding glossy surfaces, and covering dark colors add 25–50% to a job, and skipping prep is how repaints fail. Walk the rooms before you quote, call out the prep on the estimate as its own thing, and let the multiplier carry it — a job that needs two hours of patching is not the same job.
Is this calculator free?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser, there is no sign-up, and nothing is stored anywhere but your own device.

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