Cost to Repaint a House Calculator
A repaint over sound, similar-color paint is often one coat and lighter prep than a fresh job — so it should cost less. Set the price and prep to match your surfaces and get a repaint budget from your own numbers.
A repaint of 3,000 sq ft at $1.80/sq ft plus labor is about $6,820.00. A repaint over sound, similar-color paint is often one coat and lighter prep than a fresh or color-change job — set the coats and prep add-on to match your surfaces.
Calculator inputs
Repainting is not the same job as painting from scratch. Over sound, similar-color paint you are often laying one coat with light prep — a wash, a scuff-sand and a bit of spot-priming — so the price per square foot and the add-ons should come down accordingly. This tool is the general house-cost math with the expectation that you dial the coats and prep to match a refresh.
Where it stops being a repaint: a big color change, bare or failed surfaces, or a switch from dark to light. Those pull you back toward a full two-coats-plus-primer job — price those with the cost-to-paint-a-house tool instead, and use the coats reference to decide which case you are in.
Formula
Same quantity × price sum as a first paint — you just feed it repaint-level coats and prep:
total = (area_sqft × $/sq ft + labor + add‑ons − discount) × (1 + contingency%)
- $/sq ft — often a little lower for a one-coat, light-prep refresh.
- add-ons — keep them to what the repaint truly needs (spot-prime, minor patching).
- contingency — a labeled 5–10% planning buffer.
Worked example
3,000 sq ft at a repaint rate of $1.80 a square foot, $800 of labor, no add-ons, 10% contingency:
(3,000 × $1.80 + $800) × 1.10 = ($5,400 + $800) × 1.10 = $6,200 × 1.10 = $6,820
About $6,820. Painting the same house from scratch at $2.00/sq ft with more prep would run higher — the repaint saving is the coat and the prep you no longer need.
Measure first, avoid re-orders
Be honest about “repaint.” The savings only hold if the existing paint is sound and the color is similar. A dark-to-light change or a peeling exterior is a full job wearing a repaint’s clothes — price it as one.
- Set the coats to reality. One coat over a like color; two if you are covering anything meaningful.
- Keep prep proportional. A refresh is a wash and a scuff-sand, not a full strip — only add the prep you will actually do.
- Do not skip the buffer. Old walls hide surprises; the contingency is what keeps a small patch from becoming a re-order.
Reference table
Labeled all-in planning bands — a sanity check only. You enter your real price; costs swing with texture, color change, coats, prep, trim, ceilings, height, access, region and labor.
| Job | Typical all-in $/sq ft |
|---|---|
| Interior walls | $1.50–$4.00 |
| Interior walls, ceilings and trim | $2.00–$5.00 |
| Exterior siding | $1.50–$4.50 |