In general, painters charge as much as they do because of the intensive labor time involved in painting a room or house.

The cost can be avoided or substantially reduced if you paint your house yourself, but be prepared to invest the time. Painting a full house can take train professionals upwards of 160 hours to complete the job. For this reason, many homeowners prefer to just outsource the labor.

Proper home maintenance is among the key responsibilities of home ownership, but caring for a home is much more complicated than it sounds. Everything from location to materials, to city ordinances, will affect house maintenance.

For instance, houses in different locations must adapt to different circumstances. The same HVAC system in Arizona won’t be used the same way in Ontario. This goes for most appliances in a home.

The biggest downside of caring for a house is that even the simplest maintenance tasks can be costly. The cost to simply paint a house is quite high. We’ll discuss the reasons for this and how you can make it more affordable in this article.

1. Labor

The vast majority of a paint job’s cost, as much as 85% of it, is due to labor. Despite all the talk of painting supposedly being easy, many people would prefer not to, largely because it’s tiring and time-consuming.

Labor costs are not set in stone, though. Each company will offer its services at a slightly different price, and there are several reasons for that. One of them is the experience level of the contractors. There’s a surprisingly high number of inexperienced painters in the business, which allows professionals to charge more for their expertise.

Keep in mind that licensure isn’t required to work as a house painter, so this is completely legal. Many inexperienced painters work for small companies, so looking for a larger contracting company is a great way to dodge some of the less-savvy operations.

2. Job Type

Another factor that plays into painting costs has to do with what’s being done. For instance, painting a room is going to be a much simpler task than painting a whole house, and painting the interior won’t cost the same as painting the exterior.

Labor costs are often determined based on the square footage being painted. However, some companies charge by the hour for each painter, so three painters at $40 per hour will cost a total of $120 per hour.

Then there are the technical aspects of painting a house. More difficult details such as floor or ceiling moldings and drawers could also affect the final price.

3. Price Range

What does all of this add up to? The truth is that the price range is quite large, costing under $1000 on the low end to over $10000 on the high end. Even for a given amount of square footage, the difference between the highest and lowest prices can add up to a few thousand.

The average house in the United States measures between 2200 and 2300 square feet, which means that the final cost is likely to be between $2000 and $10,000. 

How Much Does it Cost to Paint a House?

If you need to paint a house, you’re probably wondering how much it will cost. The truth is that the costs tend to be high, and they vary quite a bit. We’ve discussed some of the reasons for this in the paragraphs above, but there’s always more to learn about contracting and renovations.