FreeConstruction · Painting

Paint quantity estimator

Gallons and 5-gallon pails of paint and primer for walls and ceilings.

Free for the painter and drywaller role. No account needed.

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Your numbers

Surface area (sq ft)Walls plus ceilings to paint, with openings already deducted.Finish coatsTwo coats is standard for new work or color changes.Coverage (sq ft per gal)Most latex paints cover 350–400 sq ft/gal on smooth primed surfaces.Primer coatNew drywall, patched areas or big color changes need primer.Primer coverage (sq ft per gal)Primer on bare drywall often covers 250–350 sq ft/gal.Paint price ($/gal)Your price per gallon for the finish paint.

For the bid and schedule8 more, filled with typical values

Application loss (%)Paint lost to rollers, trays, overspray and touch-up. Spraying loses more than rolling.Painting rate (sq ft per painter-hour per coat)Area one painter covers in an hour for one coat, cutting in included, from your past jobs.Painters (people)People on the crew.Labor rate ($ per hour)Loaded hourly cost per painter (wage plus taxes, insurance and benefits) [3].Primer price ($ per gal)Your price per gallon of primer.Recoat time (hours)Wait before the next coat, from the product data sheet; longer when cold or humid.Overhead and profit (% on cost)Your markup on material and labor.Building built before 1978?Homes, child care facilities and preschools built before 1978 fall under EPA's lead rule [1].

Paint quantity estimatorForge by Norventus

How it works

Press Calculate to see the gallons and pails of finish paint, the primer and the paint cost.

Paint: primer, then each finish coatRoom, roller, pails and cans countedThe room follows your numbers as you type: a bigger area draws a bigger room. Press Calculate and the roller paints the walls, a primer pass first when there is one, then one pass per coat; the finish paint, the primer and the cost appear here, worked out by the tool, and the pails and cans on the floor are its count.

Result

Ready when you are.Enter your numbers and press Calculate.

References

Check the work against these

The painting bid: material order with loss, crew hours and days with recoat waits, labor, overhead and profit, price per square foot, and the pre-1978 lead check. Numbers in the result and in the plain-words read point here.

1
Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program (RRP)Code
US Environmental Protection Agency
Firms paid to disturb paint in homes, child care facilities and preschools built before 1978 must be EPA-certified and use lead-safe work practices.
2
29 CFR 1926.62, Lead (construction)Code
OSHA
The worker-protection rule for lead in construction, including renovation: an action level of 30 micrograms per cubic meter and a limit of 50, averaged over 8 hours.
3
Occupational Outlook Handbook: Painters, Construction and MaintenanceData
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
National pay for painters: a median of $23.75 an hour in May 2025, before taxes, insurance and benefits. Use it to sanity-check your loaded labor rate.

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Every result you calculate is kept here, so you can open yesterday's numbers on the next job. It stays on this device; use Save to My work to keep a result in your account.

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Painter and drywaller Estimator

Paint quantity estimator

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Result

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