Painting category
This category helps painting contractors estimate labor hours, crew duration, production rates, overhead, and margin before preparing a customer quote.
Estimate man-hours, crew days, loaded labor cost, overhead, and profit margin — includes the full man-hours vs. crew-days breakdown.
Open calculator CommercialAdd paint, equipment, schedule premiums, contingency, overhead, and margin — with a full worked office-repaint example and FAQ built in.
Open calculator CabinetsPrice doors, drawers, cabinet boxes, preparation, materials, and setup labor — with labor ranges by kitchen size and a full worked example.
Open calculator RatesBuild an hourly billing rate from wage, burden, overhead, and margin, then check it against a square-foot price.
Open calculator TakeoffCalculate room wall area, ceiling area, paint and primer gallons, waste allowance, and rough labor hours.
Open calculatorBenchmark square-foot and unit rates, plus a full field-data method for replacing them with your own crew's numbers.
Read guide MethodologyThe complete formulas, a six-step walkthrough, and worked math behind every FieldBid Tools painting calculator.
Read methodology ChecklistReview scope, labor, materials, overhead, exclusions, and schedule risk before sending a bid.
Open checklistStart with the labor calculator for a simple project. Use the commercial bid calculator when materials, equipment, schedule premiums, or contingency are important. Use the cabinet calculator when the work is driven by doors, drawers, boxes, and handling time rather than wall area. Each calculator now includes its own worked example, FAQ, and guidance in place — there's no separate example page to hunt down.
All calculators are planning tools. Replace default production rates with your own job history whenever possible, and verify local labor costs, taxes, insurance, materials, and contract terms before submitting a quote.
For a real bid, use the tools in sequence instead of treating one calculator result as the final answer. Start with room or project takeoff (which now includes paint and primer gallons), then estimate labor hours, then check hourly labor cost and overhead recovery against a square-foot sanity check. Finally, work through the checklist to confirm that scope notes and exclusions are clear before the number leaves your desk.
This workflow is intentionally repetitive because missed assumptions are where painting bids usually fail. A contractor can win a job with an attractive price and still lose money if the estimate ignores after-hours access, color changes, drying time, customer protection, or callback risk. The tools on this page are meant to slow down those decisions just enough to make them visible.
Estimator workflow
Separate walls, ceilings, trim, doors, cabinets, exterior siding, and specialty surfaces. Each category has a different production rate and preparation requirement, so combining everything into one number can hide the real labor.
Use a rate that matches the work method. Rolling open walls, cutting occupied rooms, spraying commercial space, and refinishing cabinets all move at different speeds. The best estimate starts with a realistic crew output, then adjusts for condition and access.
After man-hours are estimated, add loaded labor cost, materials, overhead, and target profit. Keeping these steps separate helps a contractor see whether a bid is low because the hours are wrong or because the business costs are missing.
Look for schedule limits, customer protection, surface repairs, color changes, lift rental, travel, cleanup, and warranty expectations. These items should be written into the scope or carried as contingency before the final number is sent.
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