What Painting Costs in Ottawa

Published ranges by job type

These are the bands most Ottawa jobs land in. A quote outside its band is not automatically wrong, but it should come with a reason attached, and if you are looking at one that is well below it, the section below on cheap quotes is the one to read.

• Single bedroom, walls only: $400 to $700
• Single bedroom with trim and ceiling: $700 to $1,200
• Whole three-bedroom interior: $4,500 to $8,500
• Whole four-bedroom interior: $7,000 to $13,000
• Bungalow exterior: $6,000 to $11,000
• Two-storey exterior: $9,000 to $18,000
• Kitchen cabinets, sprayed: $3,500 to $6,500
• Cabinet refinishing: $3,000 to $6,500
• Popcorn ceiling removal: $3.50 to $6.00 per square foot
• Deck staining: $3.50 to $6.50 per square foot
• Fence, one side: $4 to $8 per linear foot

Preparation is the line item that moves the most

Prep is typically 20 to 40 percent of an interior bill and more than that on a neglected exterior. Patching, skim coating, plaster crack repair, scraping and priming are all labour with no visible product attached, which is exactly why it is the first thing removed from a quote that is competing on price. Two houses of identical size can be thousands apart on prep alone, and that gap is the whole difference in how the job looks in year five.

Access, ceiling height and storey count

A wall you can reach from the floor is cheap. The same square footage in a two-storey foyer, over a staircase, or on the second floor of an exterior needs staging, and staging is time before any coating happens. Cathedral ceilings, open-to-below stairwells and exteriors with poor ground access around the back of the house are the three things most likely to move a quote to the top of its range.

Colour change, coats and product grade

Going light over dark, or covering a saturated red or navy, adds a coat and 15 to 25 percent. Premium interior lines run roughly $90 to $110 a gallon against about $40 for builder grade — worth it in living space and on trim, arguably not worth it inside a closet. We will spec down where it genuinely does not matter rather than pricing every surface at the top of the range.

Reading a quote that is 30 percent below the others

There is almost always a reason, and it is almost always one of five: no primer, one coat instead of two, builder-grade product, prep excluded and priced later as an extra, or no written scope at all. None of those are visible on the day the job finishes. Compare quotes line by line rather than on the bottom number, and if a line is missing from one of them, ask what it would cost to add rather than assuming it was included.