Painting quotation format: what to include, a sample table, and how to price per sq ft
Many painting quotations are one line: "₹X per sq ft, all inclusive." Many disputes start right there. A rate only means something once the quote says which square feet you measured, what prep goes under the paint, which product goes on, and how many coats. A quotation that wins has seven sections: scope, measured areas, surface preparation, the paint system, rates split into material and labour, GST, and terms (exclusions, payment, validity, sign-off). Below are the format, a sample table, and the measurement rules worth borrowing from the Indian Standard.
Leads — Done with junk leads? Capture OTP-verified buyers from your own site.
Search “painting quotation format” and many of the results are letterhead templates: a logo, one line reading “painting work, 2,000 sq ft, ₹X per sq ft, all inclusive,” and a total. Two painters can quote that same rate for very different jobs. One measured the floor and the other the walls. One does two coats of putty and the other does patches. One names a premium emulsion and the other uses whatever is in stock. A quotation that wins the job, and still makes money after it, spells out what sits under the rate.
The seven sections of a painting quotation that wins
- Scope, in two lines. Site, interior or exterior, new plaster or repaint, and which rooms and surfaces. “Interior repainting of a 2BHK flat: walls and ceilings of all rooms, three panelled doors, four window grills.” The client should understand the job before seeing any numbers.
- Measured areas, in sq ft, by surface. Walls, ceilings, exterior faces, doors and grills each get their own line, just as IS 1200 (Part 13), the Indian Standard for measuring painting of building surfaces, measures walls and ceilings separately. Quote on the surface you paint, not the floor. A 12 × 10 ft bedroom with a 10 ft ceiling has 120 sq ft of floor but 560 sq ft of walls and ceiling before openings. Then state your openings rule. Part 13 makes no deduction for openings up to 0.5 m² (about 5.4 sq ft), deducts openings over 3 m² (about 32 sq ft) while measuring their jambs and reveals, and applies face-by-face rules in between. (That is the 1994 text. BIS revised Part 13 in 2024, so check the current edition if you’re bidding on a tender.) For doors and grills, IS 1200 (Part 15) converts them to flat area: × 1.3 per side for a panelled door measured flat with its frame, × 1.2 per side for flush joinery, × 0.8 per side for fully glazed joinery, and grills measured flat overall at × 1 for painting all over. For textured plaster, Part 13 lets you convert the area to an equivalent plain area: add 50% for sand-faced plaster and 100% for rough-cast plaster with stone aggregate up to 10 mm.
- Surface preparation, written as work. Scraping, sanding, crack filling, putty (full area or patches, and how many coats), primer, and fungus or algae treatment. The same standard asks for preparatory work to be described and for previously painted surfaces to be measured separately from new ones. “Putty work” with no area or coat count is an argument waiting to happen.
- The paint system: brand, product, shade, finish, coats. “Premium emulsion” is a grade, not a specification. Name the product so the client can compare quotes and check the litres, because coverage is published per product. Asian Paints, for example, lists Apcolite Advanced Heavy Duty Emulsion at 140–160 sq ft per litre for two coats on normal masonry, over primer, acrylic wall putty and a second primer coat. For a warranted exterior system, put the conditions on the quote. Asian Paints says its exterior performance warranty applies only when more than 40 litres are used on the site and must be activated within 15 days of purchase, so write down who activates it.
- Rate per sq ft, split into material and labour. The client reads one rate, but two columns let you re-price a product change, or a job where the client buys the paint, without reopening the whole negotiation.
- GST, shown separately. Painting services sit under SAC 995473, in the building completion and finishing group. A registered contractor painting a private home or office generally charges 18% under the construction-services entry: 9% CGST plus 9% SGST. Government work and some new-construction jobs fall under other entries, so check those with your CA. Only a registered person can collect GST (section 32, CGST Act). Registration generally becomes compulsory for a service provider once aggregate turnover crosses ₹20 lakh (lower in some special category states), and a contractor on the composition scheme can’t collect tax from the client. An unregistered contractor and a composition contractor both quote with no GST line.
- Terms: exclusions, payment, validity, sign-off. Exclude furniture shifting and covering, civil and plaster repairs, seepage and waterproofing, polish on woodwork, and electrical work. Tie payment to stages: an advance to buy material, a payment after putty and primer, and the balance on completion and touch-up. Set a validity of 15–30 days and end with a signature or e-approval block.
A sample painting quotation you can copy
Quotation — Interior repainting, 2BHK flat, [Client], [Site] Scope: Repainting of walls and ceilings in all rooms, 3 panelled doors, 4 window grills. Occupied flat.
# Surface and specification Area (sq ft) Material ₹/sq ft Labour ₹/sq ft Amount (₹) 1 Walls: sand, 1 coat primer, 2 coats [brand + product] emulsion, shade [code] 1,850 9 8 31,450 2 Ceilings: 1 coat primer, 2 coats ceiling emulsion 620 6 7 8,060 3 Putty: 2 coats acrylic wall putty, patch areas marked on site 438 4 5 3,942 4 Doors (panelled): 2 coats enamel, flat area × 1.3 per side 164 10 12 3,608 5 Window grills: 2 coats enamel, measured flat overall 80 8 10 1,440 Subtotal 48,500 GST @ 18% (CGST 9% + SGST 9%), SAC 995473 8,730 Total 57,230 Openings: none deducted up to 0.5 m² each; larger openings per IS 1200 (Part 13). Excludes: furniture shifting and covering; civil repairs, seepage and waterproofing; polish on woodwork; electrical work. Payment: 40% advance for material · 40% after putty and primer · 20% on completion and touch-up. Validity: 15 days. Rates are for the products named; a change of product is re-quoted. Approval: signature / e-approval below.
The rates are illustrative, so price from your own material costs and crew output. The door line is three doors of 7 × 3 ft overall including the frame, both sides, × 1.3. For the advance, a UPI QR code for the exact amount lets the client pay from any UPI app. MoonQR’s free UPI QR code generator makes one from your UPI ID. If you also do carpentry, ceilings or full fit-outs, the interior-work quotation format builds the lines from a BOQ. For the fields every Indian quote needs (quote number, GSTIN, proforma vs tax invoice), see the general quotation format guide.
Why painting quotes lose the job, or win it and lose money
- “All inclusive” with no product named. A cheaper painter quotes the same wording with a lower-grade paint, and you lose on price to a job that isn’t the same job.
- Floor area versus paint area. The client hears “₹17 per sq ft” and multiplies it by their 1,000 sq ft flat. Your bill is on 2,470 sq ft of walls and ceilings. Neither number is wrong. The dispute comes from a quote that never said which one the rate applies to.
- Prep left vague. “Putty work” turns into an argument over full coverage versus patches, one coat versus two.
- Painting over damp. If seepage shows through the new paint, the client blames the painter. Asian Paints’ own warranty guidance says to fix leakage before painting. Exclude seepage and waterproofing, or quote them as a separate line.
- No validity, no stages. The client comes back three months later at the old rates, or you’ve bought the paint and wait for payment until the last coat.
Some jobs are lost before any quote goes out, when a website enquiry sits unanswered until evening. Leads is built for contractors and local services where the first callback wins. It captures enquiries from your own site, and on the Premium plan it verifies each one by mobile OTP and email, sends the verified lead to WhatsApp, SMS, email and the app at the same time, and generates a quotation PDF instantly. Two or three qualifying questions after capture (interior or exterior, rough area, new or repaint) mean the site visit starts with the scope half-written. For why response speed matters, see WhatsApp notifications for website contact forms.
The short version
Format the painting quotation in seven sections: a two-line scope, areas measured by surface, surface prep written as work, a named paint system with coats, rates per sq ft split into material and labour, GST shown separately, and terms covering exclusions, stage-wise payment, validity and sign-off. Quote on the surface you paint, not the floor, and write down your openings rule. Name the product, not the grade. That way the client compares like with like, and the job you win is the job you priced.