Measuring guide
How to measure a room for painting.
Our online quote asks for two numbers per room: the floor's length and width, and the height to the ceiling. Here is how to take both, including the one thing nearly everybody gets backwards.
The two numbers we need
That is the whole job. A tape measure, a pen, and two figures per room.
1. The floor: length × width
Stand in the doorway and measure the two directions of the floor, wall to wall. Round each up to the nearest foot. That gives us the wall area to paint and the linear feet your trim runs along, so you never work either out yourself.
2. Floor to ceiling
One vertical measurement per room, taken from the finished floor to the ceiling, not to the top of the crown moulding. Eight or nine feet covers most homes here. On a sloped or cathedral ceiling, measure to the highest point.
Two things people get backwards
- Do not subtract windows and doors. Cutting in around a frame is slower than rolling open wall, not faster. Measure as if the openings were not there.
- Measure past closets and built-ins. Wall to wall, as though the wardrobe or the bookcase were not fitted. The wall behind it still gets cut in around.
How to measure, step by step
- 1Work one room at a time and write the numbers down as you go, because it is much slower to go back and re-measure than to note two figures per room.
- 2Measure the floor's length and width, wall to wall, straight past any built-ins. Round each up to the nearest foot.
- 3Measure once from the floor to the ceiling. Unless you have a raised or sloped ceiling, one measurement covers the whole house.
- 4Do not deduct anything for windows, doors, fireplaces or radiators. The quote already accounts for cutting in around them.
- 5Enter the rooms in the online quote. Anything you could not measure, pick the closest typical size instead.
Questions about measuring
What measurements does the quote actually ask for?
Two numbers per room, and nothing else: the length and width of the floor, and the height from floor to ceiling. Everything the price is built from (the wall area, the linear feet your baseboards and casings run along, the ceiling square footage) is worked out from those two. You never have to calculate a wall area yourself, and you never have to measure a wall standing up.
Do I subtract windows and doors from the walls?
No. Measure the room as though the windows and doors were not there. This is the single most common mistake, and it costs you rather than us: cutting in a neat line around a window frame, a casing and a sill is slower per square foot than rolling open wall, not faster. Deducting the openings produces a number below what the room takes to paint, so it gets corrected when we arrive and the price moves. Give us the plain floor length and width and let the quote handle the rest.
What about closets, built-in wardrobes and bookcases?
Measure straight past them, wall to wall, as if the built-ins were not fitted. A room measured to the front of a wardrobe is a room measured short, and the wall behind a bookcase still gets cut in around. The exception is a walk-in closet big enough to stand in with walls you want painted. That is genuinely its own room, so add it as one.
I do not have a tape measure. Can I still get a price?
Yes, two ways. Pace it out: a normal adult stride is close to three feet, so count your strides along each wall, multiply by three and round up to the nearest foot, which is accurate enough for a quote. Or skip measuring altogether and pick the closest of the three sizes each room offers. They are named by what fits, like a queen bed or a table that seats six. Both get you one price; measuring just makes it fit your rooms rather than typical ones.
Where exactly do I measure the ceiling height from and to?
From the finished floor to the ceiling itself, not up to the top of the crown moulding, and not from the top of a baseboard. Most homes around York Region are eight or nine feet. If you are in a newer build with a raised main floor you may be at ten. The quote will not accept anything under six feet, which is a deliberate guard against a height typed in metres.
My ceiling is vaulted, cathedral or sloped. What height do I put?
Do not try to average it. On the ceiling height screen, give that room the height at the highest point of the ceiling. Then, when you check your rooms at the end, open that room and mark its ceiling as Vaulted. That errs generous, which is the right way to err here: the wall area above the eight-foot line is exactly where the extra staging and the extra paint go, and an averaged height is the fastest way to a number that has to change when we arrive.
My room is not a rectangle. How do I measure an L-shaped room?
Split it into two rectangles and enter them as two rooms. The quote lets you name each one, so call them Living room A and Living room B and you will still recognise them on the estimate. If you would rather keep it as one, take the longest length and the widest width. That errs slightly generous, which is the right direction to err: we check it when we arrive, and a number that comes down is a much better conversation than one that goes up.
How exact does it need to be?
To the nearest foot, rounding up. Inches do not move the price. What does move it is the two things above, deducting the windows or stopping the tape at a built-in, because those are wrong by feet rather than by inches. Get those right and a rounded measurement is as good as a laser one.
Does measuring the rooms myself change the price?
It makes the price fit your rooms instead of typical ones. Every quote built online is one price, whether you measure or pick one of our typical sizes. What measuring buys is accuracy: we hold the price as long as what we find when we arrive matches what you entered, so real sizes are what keep the number on screen and the number on the invoice the same. You can always come back and replace a guess with a measurement.
Do I have to measure every room, or can I price the whole house at once?
Either. If you want a quick number, start from a typical layout (a condo, a main floor, a whole house) and pick the closest of three typical sizes for each room, so there is nothing to measure before you get to your price. If you want the price to fit your home exactly, add the rooms one at a time and put your own length, width and ceiling height in. You can start with the layout and go back to correct individual rooms.
What if a room is bigger than the online quote will take?
It tells you there and then, on the field you are typing into, rather than accepting the number and failing at the final click. Very large rooms and open-plan main floors past a certain size are ones we would rather look at before quoting. Call or email us the measurements and we will price it after a visit.
Will you re-measure everything when you arrive?
We check the job when we arrive, before anything is moved or covered. There is no separate visit beforehand, and it is a confirmation, not a re-quote. We are checking that the rooms are what your quote describes and looking at the prep the walls need. Honest measurements are what keep the number you were shown online and the number on the invoice the same.
Got your numbers?
Put them into the online quote and get one price for the whole job, with no in-home visit needed first.