How much do painters charge in Toronto and the GTA?
Updated · Our figures come straight from our own quoting engine · Dylan, owner
Painters in Toronto and the GTA publish $1.80–$4 per square foot of wall for interior painting; we charge $0.67. Priced by our own quoting engine, a whole home works out at $2.85 to $3.59 per square foot of floor area for walls, baseboards and interior doors, and a three-bedroom house comes to $3,933.92.
Published GTA ranges, set beside what our own pricing produces for the same work. Every figure below either comes out of the calculator on this site or is a range somebody else published, and we say which is which on every line.
First, find out which square feet they mean
This is the single most useful thing to know before comparing any two painting quotes, and almost nobody states it. Some companies quote per square foot of the floor area of your home, the number on your listing. Others quote per square foot of the wall surface actually being painted. In an ordinary room the second is close to three times the first, so the same job can be advertised at two very different-looking rates and both be honest.
We charge on wall surface, because that is what gets painted. Here is our rate expressed both ways, so you can line it up against whatever you have been given:
- What we charge, per square foot of wall
- $0.67
- The same rate per square foot of floor
- about $1.87
That conversion assumes a square-ish room at an eight-foot ceiling, which carries roughly 2.8 square feet of wall for every square foot of floor. A long narrow room, a nine-foot ceiling or a whole house with partition walls painted on both sides all move it, which is exactly why a per-square-foot rate is a poor way to compare two quotes, and the total for your actual rooms is a good one.
Get the total for your own rooms
If you would rather skip the conversion: across the six layouts below, our own whole-home quotes work out at $2.85 to $3.59 per square foot of floor area, for walls, baseboards and interior doors throughout. That figure divides a real quote by a real floor area, so it assumes nothing at all, but it is still the wrong thing to choose a painter on, because it moves with how many walls your floor plan happens to contain.
Comparing quotes on more than the rate? How to compare painting quotes covers what a good quote should list, how to check out the painter, and what a cheap quote leaves out.
What a whole home comes to
Six layouts, priced by the same engine that quotes your job. The second column is the one price our online quote gives for those rooms at our typical sizes. The first is how far that price usually moves once a real home's rooms turn out bigger or smaller than typical. Your own quote gives one figure for your rooms, at your sizes or ours.
| Layout | Typical range | Online price |
|---|---|---|
| 2-bed condo2 bed · bath · living · kitchen | Typical range$1,950–$2,650 | Online price$2,300.40 |
| Main floorliving · dining · kitchen · hall | Typical range$1,450–$2,050 | Online price$1,747 |
| Whole house3 bed · 2 bath · main floor | Typical range$3,300–$4,550 | Online price$3,933.92 |
| Bungalow2 bed · bath · living · dining | Typical range$2,600–$3,600 | Online price$3,097.04 |
| Townhouse3 bed · 2 bath · two storeys | Typical range$3,000–$4,150 | Online price$3,575.84 |
| Basementrec room · bed · bath · hall | Typical range$1,500–$2,050 | Online price$1,767.80 |
A room or two
Not every job is a whole home. These are the smaller starting points our online quote offers, priced the same way. A small job carries its setup and travel over fewer square feet, so it costs more per foot than a house does, and the smallest of them sit close to our minimum booking.
| Job | Typical range | Online price |
|---|---|---|
| One bedrooma single bedroom | Typical range$400–$600 | Online price$513.16 |
| One bathrooma single bathroom | Typical range$350–$450 | Online price$350 |
| Living roomjust the living room | Typical range$400–$600 | Online price$492.36 |
| Bed + batha bedroom and a bathroom | Typical range$700–$1,000 | Online price$836.88 |
| Kids' roomsnursery · bedroom · bath | Typical range$1,050–$1,500 | Online price$1,290.36 |
| Primary suitebedroom · ensuite · walk-in | Typical range$900–$1,250 | Online price$1,075.60 |
| Entry & stairsfoyer · stairwell · upper hall | Typical range$1,000–$1,400 | Online price$1,205.44 |
Costs by the kind of work
Each of these sets published GTA ranges beside what our own pricing produces, line by line.
- Interior painting cost in Toronto and the GTA
Walls are the biggest single part of an interior quote, but not the whole of it: baseboards and doors are priced on their own and add a good deal on top. Get the wall rate right and you have the largest number on the estimate, which is why the per-square-foot basis, below, is worth two minutes of anybody's time.
- Exterior painting cost in Toronto and the GTA
This is the curb-appeal end of exterior work rather than a whole-house repaint: the front door, the garage doors and their surrounds, the pillars and railings on the porch. They are the parts of a house people actually look at, and they are cheap to change compared with everything around them.
- Deck and fence staining cost in Toronto and the GTA
Start with the minimum, because on this kind of work it decides more than the rate does. Two GTA firms publish what the smallest deck or fence job they will take costs, and for a small deck that number, not the per-square-foot rate, is what you actually pay.
- Popcorn ceiling removal cost in Toronto and the GTA
Published prices for this work appear to disagree by a factor of five. They mostly do not: they are quoting different jobs under the same name, and telling them apart is the single most useful thing on this page.
- Drywall repair cost in Toronto and the GTA
There are two numbers for a drywall repair and they are very different: what the patch itself costs, and what the visit costs. Confusing them is why a single small hole can be quoted at several times what the repair is worth, and why the same hole is close to free if somebody is already painting the room.
Every figure on this page is before HST, ours and the published ranges alike, which is how almost every painter in Ontario quotes. Thirteen per cent goes on at invoice time.
Questions about painting costs
When a painter quotes per square foot, which square feet do they mean?
Ask, because the two answers differ by roughly a factor of three and almost nobody says which they are using. Some quote the floor area of your home, the number on your listing. Others quote the wall surface actually being painted, which in an ordinary room is close to three times the floor area. Two GTA companies state flatly opposite conventions on their own websites, and several publish a per-square-foot price without saying which basis it is at all. That figure is not comparable to anything. Our own rate is per square foot of wall, and the guide converts it both ways so you can line it up against whatever you have been given.
Do these prices include HST?
No. Every figure here is before tax, ours and the market ranges alike, which matches what the calculator on this site shows you and what almost every painter in the province quotes. Thirteen per cent goes on top at invoice time. One caveat worth knowing when you compare quotes: a business under the registration threshold does not charge HST at all, so a quote with no tax on it is not necessarily a better price; it is a smaller operator.
Why do some of these show a range and others a single number?
The market figures are ranges because different painters charge different amounts for the same work. Where one of our own whole-home examples shows a band, it is there to show how far a price built on typical room sizes can move when a real home turns out bigger or smaller than typical. The single figure beside it is what our online quote gives for that example. Build a quote on this site and you get one number for your own home, at your sizes or our typical ones.
How current are the market ranges here?
They were read off published GTA cost pages and contractor rate cards, and we kept the sources on file rather than printing them. Two things are worth knowing about that kind of data. A lot of pages carry a current year in the title and a much older date on the content itself, so we went by the real publication date where one existed. And several of the most-cited comparison sites would not serve their pages to us at all, so nothing from those appears here. We would rather show fewer numbers than ones we could not read ourselves.
Do you work everywhere in the GTA?
No, and the guidance on this page is deliberately broader than our own service area because painting costs do not stop at a municipal boundary. We are a Richmond Hill crew and we work across York Region and North York. If you are outside that, the ranges here should still tell you roughly what to expect from a local painter, and if you would like us to look anyway, ask. We answer honestly rather than driving somewhere we cannot serve properly.
We are a Richmond Hill crew and we work across York Region and North York. The ranges on this page cover the wider GTA, because painting costs do not stop at a municipal boundary. If you are outside where we work, though, we will tell you so rather than drive somewhere we cannot serve properly. Ask anyway if you are close; we answer honestly.
Price your own job
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