Painting Estimate Template for Interior and Exterior Jobs

• Painting contractor and estimate details: business name, address, phone or email and a license number line, then the estimate number, date, "Valid until" date and who prepared it.
• Client and property: the client's name and contact details, the property address and a short description of the home. The sample's is "2 stories, about 2,100 sq ft, built 1988".
• Colors and finishes: walls, ceilings, trim and doors, and the exterior, each with its color and sheen.
• Interior labor, by room and Exterior labor, by surface: room or surface, prep and coats, quantity, unit, unit price and amount, each with its own subtotal.
• Materials: paint and supplies with quantity, unit and unit price, and a materials subtotal.
• Totals: subtotal, "Sales tax, if applicable" and the estimated total.
• Notes: "Prep and protection" and "Exclusions".
• Acceptance: client signature, print name and date.

The sample prices four interior surfaces plus doors and trim, the exterior siding, trim and fascia, and a front door. Interior labor comes to 2,526.00, exterior labor to 4,902.00 and materials to 1,809.00, for an estimated total of 9,237.00 with tax at 0%. Every price on it, including the per-square-foot rates, is a sample to overwrite, not a market rate.

The "Prep and coats" column is where each line says what the price covers. Be specific: "Patch and sand; 2 coats" or "Wash, scrape and spot-prime; 2 coats". Writing the coat count down avoids an argument about a third coat later. If the color change is large, or the surface is new or heavily patched, decide whether it needs a primer coat and say so.

The sample's "Prep and protection" note says the prices per square foot cover the prep and coats listed on each line. That's why prep isn't a separate line: it's built into each surface's price, and the column shows what's included. If you'd rather price heavy prep on its own, add a line for it in the right section.

Prep is where painting jobs grow, so describe the level you've allowed for: washing, scraping and sanding loose paint, filling holes and small cracks, caulking, spot-priming, masking and covering. Take photos of the surfaces before you start. If they turn out worse than they looked, the photos show what you priced from.

The "Colors and finishes" lines record the color and sheen for each kind of surface. If the client hasn't chosen yet, write "to be confirmed", and keep the sample note that says colors and sheens are confirmed in writing before work starts.

The materials section lists paint and supplies as quantity × unit price. The first column takes the product, for example "Exterior paint, satin", and the "Prep and coats" column is left as "-". The sample groups primer, caulk, patching and masking supplies as one lot line.

To work out how many gallons to buy, multiply each surface's area by the number of coats and divide by the spread rate the manufacturer gives for that product on its label or data sheet. Spread rates vary by product and surface, so use the figure for the product you're pricing.

Keeping materials apart from labor shows the client what the products cost and makes a product change easy to reprice.

Tax. Whether sales tax applies to materials, labor or both depends on where you work. Check with your state or local tax agency before filling in the "Sales tax, if applicable" line. The template starts it at 0%.

In the US, the EPA's lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule applies to work in housing and child-occupied facilities built before 1978. EPA lists painting preparation among the covered activities and names painters among the trade contractors covered. In general, anyone paid to do work that disturbs paint in that housing must be certified, and the rule includes pre-renovation education, training and work practice requirements.

EPA says paint testing isn't required, but unless you have documentation that the paint isn't lead-based, the rule's requirements apply. Minor repair and maintenance that disturbs six square feet or less of paint per room inside, or 20 square feet or less outside, isn't covered. Window replacement and demolition of painted surfaces are always covered.

This is why the year the home was built belongs on the estimate. The sample home was built in 1988. For an older home, check EPA's page for the full rule before pricing the prep, and show any lead-safe work or testing as its own line.

Licensing also depends on where you work. In California, for example, the Contractors State License Board has a C-33 Painting and Decorating Contractor classification. Elsewhere, check the licensing rules where you work. The template's "License no." line says "if required where you work"; fill it in if you hold one.

1. Add your business details and license number, the estimate number, the date and the "Valid until" date.
2. Enter the client, the property address and a short description of the home, including the year it was built.
3. Fill in the colors and finishes.
4. List each interior room and surface and each exterior surface with its prep and coats, quantity, unit and unit price. Leave a section empty if the job has no interior or no exterior work.
5. List paint and supplies under materials.
6. In the Excel file, each line amount, the three section subtotals, the subtotal, the tax and the estimated total are calculated by formulas. The tax rate starts at 0% and is applied to the subtotal. To leave tax out, set its rate to 0% rather than deleting the row, because the total refers to it. Each section has one blank row; if you need more lines, insert rows inside the section and copy the amount formula down. In Word or on the PDF, work out the amounts yourself.
7. Edit the prep and protection notes and exclusions for this job, then send the estimate to the client and keep a copy.

The PDF is a blank form for printing and filling in by hand while you measure. The Word and Excel files have the same layout with the sample job filled in, so you can overwrite them and save a copy for each job.