What it costs
What your project will cost, before you talk to anybody
Almost nobody in this trade publishes prices. The reason usually given is that every job is different, which is true, and also not a good enough reason to make you sit through a sales visit to learn a range. You can tell within a minute whether a project is in your budget. We would rather you find that out here.
So here is our rate card, a calculator that runs on it, and an honest list of what we do not cover. If our number is more than you want to spend, that is useful information for both of us.
Interior painting
Per square foot of wall. A 10x10 room in two coats runs about $589.
See the detailsWallpaper installation
Per square foot. Pattern repeat and wall prep decide where you land.
See the detailsWallpaper removal
Per square foot, going up with layers and with damage underneath.
See the detailsProject minimum
Any project, any service. Setup and cleanup cost the same on a small job.
See the detailsInstant estimate
Price your project right now
No form first. No phone call. Change any answer and watch the number move.
1. What are we pricing?
2. How many rooms?
Average room size
Ceiling height
Add-ons
3. Condition and prep
Coats
Color change
Interior painting estimate
$3,507to$4,364
Real range from our rate card. No form, no sales visit needed to see it.
- Walls1404 sq ft of wall at $1.85
- $2,597
- Ceilings504 sq ft at $0.85
- $428
- Trim, doors and baseboard1404 sq ft at $0.62
- $870
What is included
- Premium paint and all materials
- Furniture moved and floors covered every day
- Patching, caulking and spot priming
- Free touch-ups for one full year
- Lifetime workmanship warranty
These figures come from our published rates and get confirmed at your walkthrough. If the walls turn out to be in worse shape than expected, we tell you before we start, not after.
Levers
What actually drives a number up or down
Two rooms of the same size can price hundreds apart. Here is why.
Pushes the price up
- Ceilings and trim added to a wall-only scope.
- Heavy patching, old plaster, nail pops, cracks that need real repair.
- Dark to light color changes that need an extra coat.
- Two story stairwells, vaulted rooms and anything needing staging.
- Wallpaper layers, or paper that was installed over unprimed drywall.
Pulls the price down
- Walls only, one color, in decent shape.
- Rooms cleared out before we arrive.
- Bundling several rooms in one visit instead of one at a time.
- Staying close to the existing color.
- Scheduling in our slower stretch instead of peak season.
The minimum
What our $450 minimum is for
A one wall accent job and a three room repaint cost us the same to start. Load the truck, drive out, cover the floors, tape the edges, mix and cut in, then clean everything and haul it back. That is most of a day either way.
The $450 minimum covers that setup so we can say yes to small jobs at all instead of quietly declining them. If your project comes in under it, you are usually better off adding another room or a stretch of trim and getting real value for the trip.
If you have a genuinely tiny repair, tell us anyway. Sometimes we can attach it to a job already scheduled on your street.
Always included
In our price, not an add-on
Some companies bill these separately. We do not.
- Moving and protecting furniture, floors covered, edges taped.
- Patching nail holes, dings and small cracks before we paint.
- Caulking gaps at trim so the lines actually look straight.
- Two coats where two coats are called for, not one thin pass.
- Cleanup at the end of every day, not just the last day.
- A walkthrough with you at the end, and a punch list if you find anything.
- Free touch-ups for one year, and a lifetime workmanship warranty.
Not included
What our price does not cover
Better you read it here than find out on a Tuesday.
- Paint and wallpaper material when you want to supply your own, that comes off the estimate rather than on.
- Drywall replacement, water damage repair and structural carpentry. We patch, we do not rebuild.
- Lead abatement on pre-1978 homes. We work lead-safe, but full abatement is a licensed specialty.
- Mold remediation. If we find it, we stop and tell you who to call.
- Permits or association approvals. We will give you what you need to submit.
- Furniture we are not allowed to move, pianos, aquariums and anything fragile you would rather handle yourself.
The written estimate
How the number gets confirmed
From the calculator on this page to a signed scope, here is every step.
Step 1
You get a number before anyone visits
The calculator on this page uses our real rate card. Most people know within a few hundred dollars whether the project is worth going further on.
Step 2
We walk the job with you
We look at the actual walls, the trim, the ceilings and whatever is hiding behind the furniture. This is where a number gets confirmed or corrected.
Step 3
You get it in writing, itemized
Scope, surfaces, coats, products, what is included and what is not. One page you can compare against anyone else's bid line by line.
Step 4
The price does not change quietly
If something turns up mid-project that changes the scope, we stop and talk to you first. No surprise line items at the end.
Go deeper
Cost guides, written out in full
Cost & Pricing
What interior painting actually costs in Huntley and the Fox Valley
Interior painting runs $1.10 to $5.00 per square foot of wall. Here is what pushes a job to the low end or the high end.
6 min read
Cost & Pricing
What wallpaper installation costs, and why installers are getting hard to find
Wallpaper installation runs about $1.75 per square foot. Here is why good installers are scarce and what a bad install looks like later.
6 min read
Cost & Pricing
What wallpaper removal costs, and what makes the number go up
Wallpaper removal starts from $1.25 per square foot. Layers, old adhesive, and drywall damage are what push it higher.
5 min read
Cost & Pricing
Cabinet refinishing versus new cabinets, what each one really costs
Refinishing is priced by door, drawer, face, handle and hinge count, plus a materials base. New cabinets are a different trade with a different cost structure entirely.
6 min read
Cost & Pricing
Why a cheap painting quote is usually cheap for a reason
A low bid can be the right call sometimes, but usually it means thin coats, skipped prep, or no insurance behind the work.
6 min read
Cost & Pricing
What our project minimum is for, and why we have one
Our project minimum is $450. Setup, travel, and cleanup cost the same on a small job as they do on a larger one.
5 min read
Ready when you are
Get it in writing
Send us your rooms and we will walk it, confirm the number and put every line of it on paper.
Ask us anything
Still have a question?
Send it over and we will answer it. We answer questions publicly on this site, because if you are wondering it, someone else is wondering the same thing and nobody has told them straight.