On our own jobs, a full exterior repaint of a single-storey house costs $9,000 to $18,000 + GST, and the inside of a three-bedroom house $7,000 to $14,000 + GST. Here's what moves a house to either end, and how to read a quote.
How much to paint a house depends mostly on how much work the surfaces need before any paint goes on. On our own jobs across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, a full exterior repaint of a single-storey house costs $9,000 to $18,000 + GST, and walls, ceilings and trim through a three-bedroom house cost $7,000 to $14,000 + GST. The size of the house matters less than you'd expect. Prep, height, repairs and the number of colours decide where in those ranges your house lands.
Those figures are a guide from our own jobs, not a quote, and they are the only figures in this post. We haven't quoted national averages or per-square-metre rates from elsewhere, because a rate measured on someone else's houses tells you little about yours. Below is what each kind of job costs us, what moves the price, and how to compare two quotes fairly.
These are the ranges on our own jobs in 2026, with paint, labour and clean-up included.
| Job | Typical cost, for our jobs |
|---|---|
| Exterior, single-storey house, full repaint | $9,000 to $18,000 + GST |
| Exterior trims, fascias and doors only | from about $3,500 + GST |
| Interior, three-bedroom house, walls, ceilings and trim | $7,000 to $14,000 + GST |
| One room, walls and ceiling | from about $900 + GST |
| Colorbond roof, repainted | $4,500 to $8,500 + GST |
| Concrete tile roof, sealed and painted | $5,500 to $10,000 + GST |
| Deck, cleaned and oiled or stained | $35 to $60 a square metre + GST |
| Paling or picket fence, painted | $30 to $55 a linear metre + GST |
Commercial and strata jobs are quoted per job, because no two buildings are alike.
You can add these together for a rough picture. Say your single-storey weatherboard house needs the outside done, the Colorbond roof has gone chalky, and there's 20 metres of picket fence out the front. That's $9,000 to $18,000 for the walls, $4,500 to $8,500 for the roof and $600 to $1,100 for the fence, or about $14,100 to $27,600 + GST in all. The visit tells you where in that range you sit.
Prep. This is the biggest variable on every exterior job. A house whose paint is still firmly stuck needs a wash, a sand and spot priming. A house that's flaking on every wall needs days of scraping back to a sound edge before a brush touches it. Two houses the same size can be thousands of dollars apart on prep alone, and it's the part of the work you never see once it's finished.
Height and access. Most single-storey houses can be reached from ladders and planks. Two-storey walls, high gables and houses on steep blocks may need scaffolding or a mobile platform, and that's hired, delivered and put up before work starts. If your house needs it, a fair quote says so and includes it. Narrow side paths, dense garden beds against the walls and a house that sits right on the boundary all slow the work down too.
Repairs. We find soft or rotten boards, cracked render and loose trims during the visit and show you. Small soft spots can be cut out and filled. A board that's rotten right through needs a carpenter, and the cost of that appears as its own line. Painting over rot only lasts a season, so we'd rather tell you than hide it.
Exposure. Houses close to the beach or the harbour, like the Stockton pickets in our sample projects, may need a primer with more corrosion resistance on metal parts and more care with nail heads. The west and north walls take the most sun and usually need the most prep.
Colours. One colour over the whole house is quickest. Every extra colour adds cutting in, where two colours meet along a straight line, and that's slow hand work. A two-tone scheme with a contrasting trim and a third colour on the front door takes noticeably longer than one colour and white trims. A big change, like dark to light, can also need an extra coat.
Coats. We put two full coats over a primer or sealer where one is needed. That's our standard on every job, and the quote shows it. A quote that's much cheaper than the others often has one coat, and one coat is the first thing to fade.
Inside, the walls themselves are rarely the slow part. Ceilings take the most effort per square metre, because every stroke is overhead and a missed patch shows from every angle. Ornate cornices and ceiling roses in older houses are cut in by brush.
Doors, skirtings, architraves and window frames take a surprising share of the time. Each one is sanded, filled, wiped down and painted in an enamel that needs longer between coats than wall paint. A house with a lot of internal doors and timber trims costs more than one with plaster returns and few doors.
Plaster condition is the other big factor. Cracks, old picture hooks, dents and patched holes all need filling and sanding, and dark colours show every flaw. On the New Lambton navy wall in our sample projects, the wall was filled and sanded twice before the colour went on. Our page on interior painting explains how we protect floors and furniture while we work.
A quote you can compare should list each area and surface separately: walls, eaves, fascias, gutters, windows, doors, trims and any fences or decks. For each one it should say:
Ours lists every coat by brand, product and colour, and we aim to have it with you within two business days of the visit. If a quote says only "paint exterior, two coats, $12,000", ask for the detail before you compare it with anything else.
Lay them side by side, line by line, and look for what one includes that the other doesn't. The usual gaps are prep (a quick wash against a full scrape and prime), the number of coats, the paint itself (a named trade product against "quality paint"), and the parts of the house each quote actually covers. Eaves, gutters and fascias are often left off a cheap exterior quote.
Then check the business. In NSW, a contractor licence is needed to do, contract for or advertise residential painting worth more than $5,000 in labour and materials, including GST. Stand-alone interior painting contracts have been exempt since 2015. For an exterior job or a roof over that amount, ask for the licence number and check it online with NSW Fair Trading before you sign.
Finally, ask who will be on your site. A crew you've met at the quote is easier to deal with than a subcontractor you'll meet on day one.
Paint the parts that need it. If the walls are sound and only the trims, fascias and doors have weathered, doing those alone starts from about $3,500 + GST on our jobs and can carry the house another few years.
Keep the colour close. Going a similar shade is faster than covering a dark colour with a light one, and it often saves a coat.
Do it before it flakes. A house repainted while the old paint still holds needs far less scraping than one left until it's peeling. Waiting a few extra years usually costs more in prep than it saves.
Don't cut the prep or the coats. They're what make the paint last, and they're the first things a cheap quote drops.
If your house was built before 1970, there's one more step before anyone sands it. Our post on the lead paint test explains what the Commonwealth guide says to do first.
The ranges above tell you roughly where your house sits. A visit tells you exactly, because it's the prep, the height and the repairs that set the final number. We work from Adamstown across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, and our page on exterior house painting shows how we prepare weatherboard, render and brick. When you're ready, ask for a free written quote and we'll walk around the house with you, bring sample pots if you're changing colour, and send you a price that lists every coat.
As a guide from our own jobs in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, walls, ceilings and trim through a three-bedroom house come to $7,000 to $14,000 + GST. The low end is a tidy house going a similar colour. The high end has cracked plaster, dark colours being covered, high ceilings or a lot of doors and trims in enamel.
It can save some time and setting up, because the ladders, planks and drop sheets are already there and one crew works through both. The roof is still priced as its own line, because it has its own wash, primer and paint. Ask for both on one quote with each part shown separately, so you can drop one if the total is too high.
Nearly always because the cheap one leaves something out. Put the quotes side by side and look for the prep, the number of coats, the paint by name and what's excluded. One coat of an unnamed paint over a quick wash is a different job from scraping, priming and two coats of a named product, even if both say 'repaint exterior'.
Sometimes, on small jobs like moving furniture, taking down curtains or clearing garden beds away from the walls. Scraping, filling and sanding are harder to hand over, because we're the ones who stand behind the finish and we'd need to redo anything that won't hold paint. On a house built before 1970, read our lead paint post before you sand anything.
We quote a fixed price for the job after looking at every wall, and the quote lists what that price covers. Hourly rates make it hard to compare painters, because a fast crew and a slow one can have the same rate and very different totals. A fixed, itemised price tells you what you'll actually pay.
For us, usually within two business days of the visit. We come out, look at every wall, measure up and check the prep each surface needs, then write it up surface by surface and coat by coat. The quote is free and you're not committed to anything by asking for one.
A few lines and a photo or two is enough. We'll ring to book a look, then leave you a written quote with every surface and every coat on it. No obligation, and no follow-up calls chasing you if you decide to wait a while longer.