Painting Cost Calculator NZ

Labour = Hours required × Hourly rate (see Stats NZ for regional wage benchmarks)

Work out how long the job will take based on production rates:

• Interior walls — 30–50m² per hour (rolling, two coats)
• Ceilings — 20–35m² per hour
• Exterior — 15–30m² per hour (varies with surface and access)
• Prep work — Budget 30–50% of painting time for sanding, filling, and masking

Multiply your total hours by your hourly rate ($45–$75/hr for most NZ painters). For a 3-bedroom interior, expect 80–100 hours total including prep.

Materials = Paint + Primer + Consumables

• Paint — Budget 1L per 12–14m² per coat (smooth surfaces) or 1L per 8–10m² (rough/textured). Two coats minimum.
• Primer — Required for bare surfaces, stain blocking, or major colour changes. Adds 10–15% to paint costs.
• Consumables — Rollers, brushes, tape, drop cloths, filler, sandpaper. Budget $150–$300 per job.

Materials make up 15–25% of the total job cost. For a 3-bedroom interior, expect $1,000–$1,500 in materials.

Overhead = Travel + Admin + Equipment + Insurance

These are the costs of running your business that don't show up on a materials receipt:

• Travel — Fuel, vehicle wear, and time driving to site
• Admin — Quoting, invoicing, scheduling, phone calls
• Equipment — Ladders, scaffolding hire, sprayers, tool replacement
• Insurance & ACC — Public liability, vehicle, and ACC levies

A common approach is to add 10–15% on top of labour and materials. If you're not including overheads, you're paying for them out of your profit.

Profit = Subtotal × Your margin (20–40%)

Profit is what's left after every cost is covered — it's not your wage. A healthy painting business targets:

• 20% margin — Covers basics, but leaves little room for slow periods or unexpected costs
• 30% margin — Sustainable and gives you room to reinvest in the business
• 40% margin — Strong position, but check your pricing is still competitive

If your margin is under 20%, you're likely undercharging. Read our guide on painting business profit margins to understand where the money goes.

Here's what a typical quote looks like when you follow all four steps:

This is a realistic mid-range estimate for a 3-bedroom interior repaint in good condition. Exterior work, heavy prep, or multi-storey access will add to the total.

Calculating all of this manually takes time. Use our quoting tool to generate estimates like this in minutes.

• Easy to miss costs — Prep work, surface repairs, primer, and scaffolding are often left out of manual estimates. These hidden items adds 20–40% to the real cost of a job.
• Time-consuming — Measuring every surface, looking up rates, calculating materials, and adding overheads takes hours per quote. That's unbillable time you're not getting paid for.
• Inconsistent pricing — Without a system, two similar jobs can end up with very different quotes depending on the day, your mood, or how busy you are. Inconsistency erodes trust with clients.
• Risk of underquoting — One missed cost or miscalculated area can turn a profitable job into a loss. The bigger the job, the more expensive the mistake.

Most quoting mistakes come from missing hidden work, not the painting itself. If you want consistent, accurate quotes without spending hours on every estimate, try our quoting tool.

Instead of calculating everything manually, our AI quoting tool estimates your job in minutes — based on real costs, margins, and job details.

• Accounts for labour, materials, and overhead — nothing gets missed.
• Applies realistic margins — so every quote protects your profit.
• Generates consistent quotes — same process, every job, every time.
• Saves time on every job — minutes instead of hours per quote.

For a step-by-step manual approach, see our guide to quoting painting jobs.

Here's how the two approaches compare side by side:

Manual quoting works when you're doing a handful of jobs. But as your workload grows, the time spent estimating eats into your earnings — and the risk of underquoting goes up with every job.

Try AI quoting free →

Once you've estimated a job, check your profit margin to see if the price is right for your business:

Work Out Your Hourly Rate Equivalent

Divide your total quote by estimated hours to see your effective hourly rate. For example, if you quote $16,840 and the job takes 200 hours across your team, you're charging $84/hr — well above the NZ average of $45–$75/hr.

If your effective rate is under $50/hr, your quote is likely too low. Consider adding 10–15% or reviewing where time is being lost to unbillable work like travel, admin, and re-quoting.

Want to run these numbers on your own jobs? Use our quoting tool to calculate costs, margins, and pricing in minutes.