A good way to give a quote is to figure how many hours it will take and the amount of paint and materials it will take to get the job completed.

I am a general contractor that has many years of experience in estimating painting jobs. You cant go wrong with this formula. New construction; residential interior 3 coats, primer & 2 top coats, limit to 3 color choices any more $350-$500/ color. $3.00/sq-ft, that's fair, if you know you got the job and its a wealthy friend $4.00/sq-ft, figure $/sq-ft in material, $.75 cents-$1.25 for ceilings, $1.25-$2.00/sq-ft for walls. Buy a sprayer for exterior and new construction interior. No matter what any old timer says it not only cuts your time by 60% if your good but provides a better application. For exteriors use a sprayer, if it needs back brush, but use the sprayer to apply paint and chase it with a brush. New construction spray ceilings and walls with Promar 400 flat white, 2 coats, this serves as primer for all new drywall and final coat on ceilings. Then spray all doors and trim with semi or gloss, then use orange core blue tape off all baseboard trim and use 18" roller to blast the walls, allow 24 hours dry time for trim before taping off. Repaints depending on what you need to move, cover, etc=$4-$7/sq-ft, exterior sq-ft of home time 1.10, don't forget to double for 2nd story. Good luck. Always have a detailed contract, even if its your grandmother, always collect 60-75% up front, most people will stiff you if you give them the opportunity, don't trust anyone as a contractor but be professional about it.

There is a professional way to bid painting. It called products rate estimating. Go to the painting decorating contractors of America web site. You can find books and training classes. This works with all types of projects. If you want to bid correctly you need to know your costs. You need to job cost every job you do. This is a big eye opener. You will learn which jobs make money and which don't. Half the battle is avoiding the losers. Good luck.

I charged 50 cents a square foot for typical interiors/exteriors and 75 cents a square foot for kitchens and backrooms 25 years ago. including the paint. It they seemed hard to work with I added 4 days extra labor. They usually called me for the job. lol I did the jobs by waiting list. I do the job when I am done with the one before you. Don't like it find someone else. I always got the jobs. scary.

Really are you people serious? Was this page from 1970? Look, a 10×10 bedroom 1 coat $270 ceiling 1 coat $50 extra 2ND coat on walls $200. I have been painting for 35 years and most of the people on this page are handy Andy's jack of all trade's and the master of nothing. I'm city & state licensed and I have workers comp and 1 mill dollar insurance. You need not listen to the jerk maintenance man at $25 per room, what a moron. That is what drives the trade down. You can't get a plumber or anyone else for less than $65 per hour so you should be no different. My company works 6 men 6 days a week and we didn't slow down at all during the recession. New construction starts at $2.50 PER FLOOR SQ FT 2 COATS ON WALLS & WOOD. New work always pays less because all painters do it. I do new custom homes starting at $6 per sq ft base price but I worked my way up to that. What you need to remember is you don't deserve to make what I do unless you have been painting as long or do as good of work. If I START work at burger king today I will not make what the manager makes. Work your way up but don't try to start at the top. Figure at least $50 per hr per man and $35 per gal of paint if you are only biding 1 or 2 room's double it 3 or more rooms double the first 2 then go to $50 per hr on a 3 room job you should be at $1,325. Anyone in the trade not charging that needs to stay home. You need to stay away from rental properties they don't want to pay. Go for high end work and do good work, that's what will make you. I have not had a callback for a mistake in over 18 years and that is why I can charge what I do. Remember quality is what makes you worth it. PS; at $50 per hr it should cover your small items like tape and paper, if not you need new helpers. A 10 x 10 room should only take 1 man 1 hr to roll and trim. Any more than that then there costing you.