Whether you are a solo painter, a remodeler adding paint services, or a homeowner curious about pricing, knowing what to charge to paint a room is essential. Charge too little and you erode profit; charge too much and you lose jobs. CountBricks helps residential contractors strike the perfect balance with real-time cost data, instant takeoffs, and voice-driven estimating.
• Labor hours and crew rate
• Material cost per square foot
• Overhead and indirect job expenses
• Desired profit margin
CountBricks benchmarks show that labor represents 55-65 % of the final paint price. Start by timing how long your crew needs to prep, cut in, roll, and clean a typical 12 × 12 room with an 8-foot ceiling. The median is 6-8 labor hours including one coat of primer and two coats of finish.
1. Multiply hours by your loaded hourly rate (wages + payroll burden).
2. Add a contingency factor of 10 % for schedule drift.
A 12 × 12 room with average texture requires roughly two gallons of finish paint and one gallon of primer. Include tape, plastic, patching compound, sandpaper, rollers, trays, and sundries. CountBricks updates regional supplier pricing every 24 hours, so your estimate reflects today’s actual shelf cost.
• Vehicle fuel and maintenance
• Advertising and lead acquisition
• Licenses, insurance, software subscriptions
• Non-billable admin hours
Divide annual overhead by productive labor hours to get an hourly overhead burden. CountBricks automatically applies that burden when you save your company profile in CountBricks.com/services.
Residential painters in the Memphis market aim for a 25-35 % gross profit. Decide on margin first, not last, then let the estimate back-calculate the sell price. When you create a quote in CountBricks, the software shows margin live as you tweak line items.
Per Square Foot
• $1.50–$3.00 per sq ft of floor area for standard finishes.
• Helpful when blueprint takeoffs are imported directly into CountBricks.
Flat Room Rate
• Commonly $350–$650 for a 12 × 12 bedroom in Memphis.
• Faster to quote during on-site walkthroughs with the CountBricks voice feature.
Time-and-Material (T&M)
• Hourly rate plus actual material receipts.
• Transparent but harder to upsell.
CountBricks geo-indexes labor and material costs automatically. Recent data for Memphis shows:
• Painter wage average: $23.40/hr
• Finish paint (mid-grade latex): $32.70/gal
• Overhead factor: 18 % higher than national average due to insurance rates
Plug these numbers into CountBricks and the platform returns a recommended sell price of $485 for the sample 12 × 12 room—delivering a 30 % gross profit.
1. Speak room dimensions into your mobile mic—CountBricks converts to square feet instantly.
2. Select paint system: primer + two coats, premium, or economy.
3. Review auto-generated labor hours based on historic crew productivity.
4. Approve real-time material pricing pulled from local suppliers.
5. Adjust overhead and target margin sliders; watch the sell price update live.
6. Tap “Generate Quote” to download a branded PDF or send directly from CountBricks.
• Ignoring ceiling height: Tall walls add square footage quickly.
• Forgetting surface prep: Damaged drywall can double labor.
• Skipping second-coat allowance: Touch-up costs are profit killers.
• Underpricing trim: Baseboards and crown need separate line items.
• Missing travel time: Add mobilization for scattered projects.
• Capture before-and-after photos inside CountBricks to justify your price.
• Bundle minor drywall repairs with paint to raise average ticket value.
• Offer a low-VOC upsell; CountBricks stores alternate assemblies so you can toggle pricing on the fly.
• Schedule back-to-back rooms in the same neighborhood to reduce overhead per job.
• Revisit your labor productivity rates quarterly; CountBricks trend charts reveal creeping inefficiencies.
Knowing exactly what to charge to paint a room keeps your business healthy and your clients happy. With CountBricks you gain live supplier costs, automated takeoffs, and margin control inside one platform. Ready to quote your next room with confidence? Visit CountBricks.com/consultation and try a free demo today.
Last spring, Maple Ridge Renovations—a small three-person residential crew in suburban Memphis—took on a repaint of a child’s bedroom. They bid $300 based on “gut feel” and finished the project in eight hours. After buying paint, caulk, and brushes, the owner discovered he had netted only $18. Frustrated, he signed up for CountBricks.
• Labor Benchmark: CountBricks recommended 6.2 billable hours, not eight, by suggesting a roller extension and an 18-inch tray system to boost coverage speed.
• Material Sourcing: The platform located a local supplier discount on the same brand, trimming gallon cost by 11 %.
• Overhead Allocation: Using company profile data, CountBricks applied a $9.40/hr overhead factor the crew had never tracked.
• Profit Target: The owner selected a 30 % margin slider. CountBricks landed on a $465 sell price.
The revised quote won the job. Actual field time was 6 hours, matching the system’s projection. Net profit: $148—an increase of 722 % over the earlier project. The customer accepted an additional $90 low-VOC upgrade proposed through CountBricks’ optional assemblies, pushing margin to 32 %.
1. Data beats intuition. Real-time rates prevent underbidding.
2. Small productivity tweaks compound into big gains.
3. Tracking overhead hourly ensures every job pays its share.
4. Presenting good-better-best options unlocks upsells without hard selling.
If you want similar results, explore CountBricks.com/services or schedule a live walkthrough at CountBricks.com/consultation. The next time a client asks “How much to paint this room?” you’ll answer with confidence—and profit.
