Why sellers repaint
Fresh, plain walls make rooms look clean and let buyers picture their own things in them. That's the usual reason for repainting before a sale. It's also a job with a deadline, often many rooms, and decisions to make quickly. This guide covers what changes the price.
The whole house, room by room
A whole-interior proposal should list each room and what's included in it: walls, ceilings, trim, doors and closets. Closets are easy to leave out and easy to miss in a comparison. Hallways and stair walls take more ladder work than their size suggests. Ask the painter to price by room, or at least list the rooms, so you can drop one if the budget is tight.
Patching: where the hours go
Years of living leave nail holes, wall anchors, dings, scuffs and the odd larger hole. Before paint, each is filled, sanded and spot-primed. A family room full of picture holes adds up; a damaged wall or a water-stained ceiling adds more. The drywall repair and surface preparation guide explains each repair. Ask whether patching is included as a whole or priced as found.
Color decisions
The quickest repaint is a light neutral over a similar light color, which may cover in fewer coats. Going from a deep accent wall to a light neutral can need primer and extra coats. One color for walls throughout, one for ceilings and one for trim keeps the job simple and the cost down. Ask the painter how many coats each room will need with the colors you've chosen.
Empty or furnished
An empty house is faster: no furniture to move, fewer obstacles, open floors to cover. If you're still living there, the crew has to shift and cover furniture, work around your routine and perhaps do the house in sections. Ask how the price changes either way.
Working back from the listing
Count back from the day photographs will be taken. Paint needs to be dry, rooms cleaned and furniture back in place before then. Leave time for touch-ups after the crew's walk-through. If other trades are working too, such as flooring, ask the painter where they fit in the order.
Painting with the heat on
NOAA's engineering weather data for Green Bay (period of record 1973 to 1996) lists about 8,086 mean heating degree days and 637 mean cooling degree days a year, with January the heaviest heating month at 1,513 heating degree days.
Degree days measure how much heating or cooling a building calls for. For an interior repaint, a heavy heating month means a closed-up house with the windows shut and the furnace running. In general, paint dries well in heated rooms but still needs fresh air moving to carry off moisture and odor. Ask the painter how they'll ventilate in cold weather, whether they need the thermostat held at a certain setting, and how long rooms should stay empty. Paint labels list minimum temperatures for indoor use too.
Older paint
Prep sanding can disturb old layers. Under EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, anyone paid to do work that disturbs paint in homes, childcare facilities and preschools built before 1978 must hold RRP certification, firms included, even sole proprietorships, and their workers must be trained in lead-safe work practices. If the house was built before 1978, ask whether the firm holds RRP certification and how dust is contained and cleaned up. That adds time and materials to a whole-house job.
Comparing whole-interior bids
- the rooms listed, closets included;
- walls, ceilings, trim and doors in each;
- patching included or priced as found;
- coats per room with your colors;
- furniture moving and floor protection;
- a finish date that works for the listing.
See interior painting and the pricing guide.