What it actually costs to paint a house in Perth
2 August 2026 · 4 min read
Real numbers for interior and exterior work, what drives the price up, and why two quotes for the same house can differ by 40% without either being wrong.
Painting is priced on labour, and labour is priced on preparation. Once you understand that, most of the confusion about painting quotes disappears.
Here is what the work costs, using our own rates.
Interior repaints
Typical interior repaint, ex GST, unfurnished, sound condition
Those figures assume standard 2.4m ceilings, a sound substrate needing a wash and a light sand, and an empty house. Every one of those assumptions can move the number.
What moves the price
Condition — the biggest single factor
A new build takes one pass. A tired repaint takes three.
| Condition | Multiplier | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| New build | 1.0x | Sealed plasterboard, nothing to remove |
| Repaint, sound | 1.3x | Wash, light sand, spot fill |
| Repaint, fair | 1.6x | Cracks, gaps, some flaking to wet areas |
| Repaint, poor | 2.2x | Widespread failure, stripping back |
The jump from "fair" to "poor" is where jobs go wrong for both sides. It is also the hardest thing to judge from photos, which is why the only fixed price we give is after someone has stood in the room.
Furniture
An empty house is the cheapest house to paint.
| Occupancy | Loading | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Vacant | — | Nothing to move, nothing to protect |
| Part furnished | +8% | Moving and re-covering each day |
| Furnished, occupied | +16% | Daily set-up and strike, working around people |
Ceiling height
| Height | Loading |
|---|---|
| 2.4m standard | — |
| 2.7m | +8% |
| 3.0m | +16% |
| Raked or void | +25% |
Above 2.7m or on a second storey, scaffold or an elevated work platform is required and a day rate of $270–$400 applies on top. That is not paint — it is setup, strike, harnessing, and a crew working more slowly because they are working safely.
Where the money goes inside a job
People are often surprised that walls are not the expensive part.
Where the labour goes on a typical 3x2 interior repaint
Largest area, fastest to cover
Overhead work, cornices cut by hand
Small area, enormous labour
The part you cannot see afterwards
Trim is the line people underestimate. A door needs both faces, four edges and the frame, sanded between coats, in enamel that is slower and less forgiving than wall paint. A house with fifteen doors is genuinely a week of work.
Ask what is in the trim number
If one quote is much cheaper than another, trim is usually where the difference is. "Two coats throughout" and "two coats to walls, one to trim" are very different jobs and can look identical on a one-page quote.
Exteriors
Typical exterior repaint, ex GST
Exteriors carry more preparation risk than interiors because more of the failure is hidden until you start. A wall that looks tired from the driveway can be sound; a wall that looks fine can have a rotted sill behind the coating.
Why two quotes differ so much
Assume both painters are honest. The gap usually comes from one of five things:
- **Number of coats.** Two coats is standard. One coat over a similar colour is a legitimate option, and half the price, and should be stated.
- **What "preparation" covers.** Filling and sanding, or a wash and go.
- **Trim.** Included, partly included, or quietly excluded.
- **Product.** The difference between a builder-grade and a premium acrylic across a whole house is real money and real years.
- **Whether they have allowed for what they found.** A painter who has not looked at the substrate is guessing.
The way to compare quotes is not to look at the totals. It is to put them side by side and check they describe the same work.
Getting a number
Our instant estimator gives you an indicative range in about two minutes. It is genuinely indicative — it cannot see your walls. The on-site measure is free, takes about half an hour, and is the only thing that ends in a fixed price.