How Much Does it Cost to Paint a House Interior

One of the most common questions we get is how much will it cost for interior painting. In this post I will share how we price out interior painting projects.

There are three common surfaces we paint on the interior. These include walls, ceilings, and trim.

Walls

Painting your walls is the simplest surface to prep and paint in the home. There is not a great amount of masking and prep work unless drywall repair is required. We typically price out walls at around $1.50 a sqft. Factors that can add to that sqft price could be prep work, amount of masking, type of paint, and if we need to remove wall hangings or move any furniture.

Ceilings

Ceilings can be a bit more complex than walls. They require complete masking of all of the floor space and possibly walls if they aren’t being painted. A common misconception is that ceilings are less surface and should be quicker to paint than walls in a room. That is simply not the case. Although it is less surface area, masking off is a lot more labor-intensive than simply rolling the surface. Ceilings also come with 3 different textures.

Flat Ceilings – Flat ceilings are the most labor-intensive as they usually require spackle work and a primer coat in order to get even coverage and appearance.

Popcorn Ceilings – You also have popcorn ceilings. This type of texture is generally found in older homes and needs to be painted carefully. There is a possibility of the texture falling down if the surface is rolled. This happens because the texture gets wet and heavy and the roller pulls it as it is dragged across the surface. This is why we recommend spraying these ceilings to minimize the risk.

Knockdown Ceilings – The final type is knockdown ceilings. These are the simplest ceilings to paint.  We can either roll or spray these ceilings. Typically ceilings are priced out very similar to walls at around $1-1.50 a sqft. Factors that can affect price are the height of the ceiling, type of texture, amount of masking, if walls need to be masked, and if we need to prime the ceilings with KILZ to avoid stains from coming through the fresh coat of paint.

Trim

The final surface is trim. This is the most complex surface to paint. Trim includes baseboards, door frames, window frames, and doors. Cabinets and built-ins will be covered in a separate post. Trim usually is either painted or it can be stained. In both situations, we will need to mask all areas that will not be painted. It is extremely important to mask off properly as trim paint can be really difficult to remove as it is meant to be a harder more durable coating. The prep work for painting trim includes: scuff sanding the clear coat if it is stain, caulking any cracks, putty any nail holes, primer coat, bondo to smooth out any dents or imperfections in the wood, sand and vacuum dust, and finally 2 coats of paint. Depending on the amount of trim we will recommend to either spray or brush the surfaces. Pricing for trim is typically $6 a linear foot and for doors it’s around $50 a side. Factors that can change the price for trim are current surface condition, amount of masking, type of paint, and style of trim.

I hope this post gave you some insight as to how interiors are quoted. I will also be making a video soon demonstrating our quote process. If you found this helpful please share and follow us on our social media channels to stay updated on new posts.

We Serve the Entire Kansas City Metro Area

Our interior painting contractors serve all of the Kansas City Metro Area including the following Missouri counties Jackson County, Clay County, Platte County and cities like Kansas City MO, Lee’s Summit MO, Liberty MO, Smithville MO, Parkville MO, Nashua and the Northland. Our Kansas City painters also serve the following Kansas counties Johnson County, and cities like Overland Park KS, Olathe KS, Shawnee KS, Leawood KS and beyond.

To get your free, no-obligation painting estimate, call us at (816) 686-5684 today!