Learning how to bid a paint job properly is what separates painters who are busy from painters who are profitable. Paint bidding rewards measurement and punishes vibes: the gallon math is knowable, the labor rates are knowable, and the prep is visible if you actually look. Here’s the bid process from walkthrough to winning number.
Step 1: Walk the Job Like an Adjuster
The walkthrough isn’t a formality — it’s where the bid is made or lost:
- Measure the surfaces. Wall area = perimeter × ceiling height, minus big openings. Note ceilings, trim runs, doors, and windows separately — they’re different rates.
- Read the prep. Water stains, peeling, nail pops, gloss that needs scuffing, dark colors needing extra coverage. Every one is hours.
- Check the logistics. Furniture to move, floors to protect, stairwells needing ladders or planks, occupied rooms needing sequencing.
- Confirm the colors. A color change from dark to light (or the reverse) can mean a third coat — bid it now or eat it later.
Step 2: Do the Paint Math
One gallon covers roughly 350–400 sq ft per coat. So: 1,400 sq ft of wall × 2 coats ÷ 375 = ~7.5 gallons, rounded up to 8. Price the actual product you’ll use — contractor-grade at $35/gallon and premium at $70 are different bids, and naming the product in your bid (“two coats Benjamin Moore Regal, eggshell”) is both honesty and sales.
Step 3: Estimate Labor From Production Rates
| Task | Typical Rate |
|---|---|
| Walls, roll 2 coats | 150–200 sq ft/hour |
| Cutting in | 40–60 linear ft/hour |
| Trim and baseboards | 30–50 linear ft/hour |
| Doors (panel, both sides) | 45–60 min each |
| Prep (patch, sand, prime spots) | Job-specific — walk it, don’t guess it |
Use your own real rates as soon as you have job history — the table gets you started; your records make you accurate. Multiply hours by your loaded rate (wages plus insurance, vehicle, equipment, and overhead — typically $50–75/hour billed for a legitimate operation).
Step 4: Assemble and Present the Bid
Itemize so the client sees the work, not just the number: prep as its own line, walls by area, trim and doors counted, materials named, protection and cleanup included. Add exclusions (wallpaper removal, carpentry repairs, lead-safe surcharge on pre-1978 homes), a validity date, and a signature line. The painting estimate template has this structure ready; for fixed-scope repaints use the painter quote template.
Where Paint Bids Go Wrong
- Free prep. Bidding walls and “including” three hours of patching is how good painters subsidize bad walls. Prep is a line item.
- Per-room pricing on non-standard rooms. “Rooms are $400” works until the two-story foyer. Measure.
- Forgetting the second color. Every additional color is cutting-in time and a brush/roller change. Count the colors, bid the colors.
- Racing the lowball. An uninsured $1,200 bid against your $2,100 isn’t competition — it’s a different product. Your bid’s job is to show the difference: named products, visible prep, insurance on the letterhead.
- Slow bids. Repaints are impulse-adjacent; the bid that arrives same-day wins ties and sometimes wins outright. Follow up after three days of silence.
Bid It Once, Bid It Right
Measured surfaces, real production rates, prep on the page, and a clean PDF — that’s the whole craft of the winning paint bid. Build yours in OfferKit and send it before the walkthrough cools; if the job has genuine unknowns, lead with the estimate template instead.
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