Nobody can answer this without knowing the size of your home.

How big is this home? How high are ceilings? How much trim is involved & has it been previously painted?

Home is 3800 sq feet. Trim is always sprayed. This is not a castle for the queen. Yes it’s an old house. Nothing has to be repaired it’s ready to paint.

Well, it’s been quite awhile - years - since I’ve hired indoor painter for LR with 2 story vaulted ceiling, downstairs & upstairs hallways & kitchen / great room & ceiling - that was in PNW area & cost under $5k. I’d be getting several more bids if I were you. . That’s the only way you’ll know what’s typical for your area & this current nuts market. Interior painting costs much more than exterior due to labor & detail.

I know of a major builder who paid $70K 30 years ago for the interior painting of his new 28,000 sf home.

There can be a great difference in price between occupied and empty homes. Especially if the occupied home is jammed with valuable collectibles (or junk) and the clients are hyper-fussy.

Not to mention the quality of the paint. Farrow and Ball, anyone? starting at $100 per US gal.

Competitive local quotes are your best tool to a fair price.

Empty home

The square footage only tells you how much flooring you need. You need to calculate wall square footage and linear feet of trim. 32K would not be unheard of for a proper prep and paint. Potential pricing impacts would be if the walls or trim are in poor shape, are positive for lead, texture removal and wall repair was involved, and various other tedious and time intensive tasks were being done.

There’s a huge difference between a buget non painter just rolling a new same color coat, on top of an uncleaned and unprepped wall, and an expert painter, stripping alligatored peeling lead positive trim, with too many paint coats on it already, and then stabilizing that, and repainting.

@HU-727078151 it seems there would be an in between there somewhere. How about a budget painter painting already prepped and ready walls that did not have lead anywhere? All he has to do is come in and paint.

Price depends on whether the painter giving the bid is actually interested in getting the job. That price might just be a passive aggressive way of declining the work

Seems high to me, but there are a lot of variables to consider. If it helps, I just looked at my bill: we recently paid $9K to paint the entire interior (1900 SF which included: 3 beds, 2.5 baths, front entry & laundry rm). That included prep, materials, 2 coats of BM, trim & ceilings. We used the same color throughout - with the exception of the 3 bathrooms - which were all the same color. We used an experienced, licensed painter & live in Boston, if that helps.

Also don't forget things like scaffolding, if you have a high ceiling staircase or difficult to access spaces and ceilings. Are the ceilings textured? That definitely costs extra... Also, was the paint and primer included? Some contractors include and some don't.

I am sure you will be looking into other quotes as well, then you will know.

My initial thought was that it seems high. But I also would not expect to hear 20 k either.

Get some comparisons and ask questions so you know you are comparing apples to apples.

Good luck!

We had our 1200 sq ft condo painted two years ago and I almost had a heart attack when the quotes came in ranging from $10-17K (all supplies included). We’re in a HCOL area but that appeared to be the going rate for quality work. I was expecting something under $5K, so it was quite the surprise.

A year ago, $14,000 for a new 3,500 sf house interior. 5 different wall colors, all ceilings, doors and wall base. House has no crown. Included priming all surfaces. 9’ ceilings.

Georgia area

Have others come in and give you a quote, so that you can compare them.