Painting costs
8 priced projects, from a $500 ceiling painting to a $4,000 exterior house painting. Drawn on one axis they stop being a list and become a shape.
All 8, one axis
national ranges · typical marked · $0 – $10,0002 of the 8 have a cost guide of their own; the rest are priced from the same dataset.
The trade range, metro by metro
$0 – $10,000The typical project, adjusted by each metro's measured labour index. The spread between the cheapest and the dearest metro is 56% on identical work.
Price painting work
The typical one runs $4,990 in Chicago against $3,190 in San Antonio. The calculator below does the same for all 8. The method sets out where the factor comes from.
Cost Calculator
To get exact pricing for your project, request written quotes from at least three licensed contractors in New York.
How the scale is built
Base ranges
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025
- Published contractor and industry pricing ranges
- Manufacturer and retailer material pricing
Metro adjustment
Labor adjustment factors are measured from BLS metropolitan wage data: the median ratio of local to national hourly wages across the ten trades this site prices.
Drawing rules
Every chart on a page shares one axis unless its caption says otherwise. Bars are drawn from zero and are never truncated. Full method →
Last updated: July 2026
Estimates, not quotes. These cost estimates are based on aggregated data from public sources. Actual costs vary by project scope, contractor, and local conditions. Always obtain multiple written quotes from licensed professionals. This site sells nothing, lists no contractors and takes no payment for placement. Methodology →