How much per foot should i charge to paint a house?

my landlord is paying us to paint our house and wants me to come up with a price. i have no idea how much to charge her. the living room alone is 16 1/2 feet long x 8 1/4 feet tall x 9 1/2 feet wide. can someone plzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me. i need to know how much per sq ft.How much per foot should i charge to paint a house?
I'm sorry to disagree with Diva, but painters do charge by the square foot. You can confirm this by flipping through a construction estimate book at Home Depot.


I charge $0.75 per square foot for one coat and $0.50 per square foot for a second coat.


In your calculation, you do not exclude windows or doors as cutting in around windows requires time as well.


This is for labor only, not materials.


Don't forget to charge for the ceilings if you are going to paint the ceilings!How much per foot should i charge to paint a house?
If you want to find out how meany sq meters there are on your walls, you have to multiply the length by the height then you get the total sq meters of your room. Now you measure the windows length by the height, then multiply it. Once you have do that you will come up with the window total then you subtract how ever much the windows came to from the room total. Then that should be how meany sq meters there are in your room.
It depends on many things, like who is buying the materials, how difficult is the job and how much is your time worth.


I'm a self employed handyman. For painting I figure my time is worth $15 per hour. I can roll 500 sq. feet of walls or ceiling in an hour, and that uses just over a gallon of paint. The real time consuming parts of painting are moving furniture, masking trim, cutting(brushing) around doors, windows, corners, ceilings and all that. As a rough guide, I would figure on an average of $125 to $150 per room, if you are supplying the paint and tools, and using light or neutral colors over similar colors. Painting over dark colors, or painting in a dark color requires more coats of paint and primer. Add extra if there is patching or repairing walls needed. Smaller rooms will offset larger rooms.


You also need to consider whether or not you are painting the trim. Trim painting is time consuming. But if you have stained/finished wood trim, you won't be painting it.


Most paint covers 400 to 450 Sq feet per gallon. To calculate the Sq footage measure length and height of each wall and multiply, then subtract the openings like windows and doors. I like Behr paint from Home Depot. It covers nicely, doesn't spatter when you roll it on and is highly rated for value and durability. I bought 2 gallons today for my living room. I paid $23.98 per gallon for interior satin. As a comparison, Sherwin Williams is about $34.95 for similar paint and it spatters all over like crazy.
Painters don't charge by foot.... they charge by the hour. Usually, between 14 and 20 an hour..... They don't charge by square footing, as sometimes you must put primer, then two and sometimes 3 coats and even more. If you charge by square foot, you'll lose out. Do it the way real painters do it.... by the hour!
I am a painting contractor and I do indeed charge by the sq. ft. the going rate for two coats in my geogeaphic area is.approx $1.40 sq.ft....labor cost only ...materials extra.
charge her one million dollars