How Much Does It Cost to Paint a Flat? A Room-by-Room Way to Budget Before Diwali 2026

A fresh coat of paint is the cheapest way to make an old flat feel new, provided the budget is built from real quantities and not from a painter's guess. This article explains how to size up the job in a Bangalore flat with a measuring tape and a calculator, and how to judge the quotes that come back.

Five Things That Set the Bill

The final figure depends on five variables, and each one can be fixed in advance.

• How much wall and ceiling surface is to be covered
• How many coats go on
• Paint grade, whether economy or premium
• The state of the walls, which decides the putty, primer and repair work
• Labour, which includes masking, moving furniture and clearing up

Deciding these before calling anyone keeps every quote on the same footing. It also stops gaps being filled with assumptions that favour the painter.

Measuring the Surface

What counts is the paint-covered surface of walls and ceilings, which runs to several times the floor area. Take one room at a time: double length plus width for the perimeter, then multiply by the ceiling height. The ceiling, equal in size to the floor, is added next, and doors, windows and floor-to-ceiling wardrobes are taken off.

Example: a master bedroom

Take a room of 13 ft by 11 ft with a 10 ft ceiling. The perimeter is 48 ft, which gives 480 sq ft of wall. The ceiling adds 143 sq ft for 623 sq ft, and removing a 21 sq ft door and a 20 sq ft window leaves 582 sq ft to paint.

The result is roughly a fourfold multiple of the floor area, which gives a quick guide for the whole flat. A 1,000 sq ft flat therefore has something like 4,000 sq ft to paint.

How Much Paint to Buy

Every tin states its coverage. On normal plaster, a standard interior emulsion goes 130-150 sq ft to the litre across two coats, and manufacturers advise two coats as the least for an even result.

Dividing area by coverage gives the volume. The master bedroom needs 3.9 to 4.5 litres, so a 5-litre buy leaves a little for touch-ups. Applied to the 1,000 sq ft flat, two coats come to 27-31 litres.

Actual consumption depends on the surface. Smooth, primed walls use less, while coarse or absorbent ones use more. Going from a deep shade to a pale one can mean a third coat and half again as much paint.

What the Walls Need Before Paint

Damp ruins any finish, so seepage must be stopped at its source before painters start. Cracks are filled and given time to set, and fungus is scrubbed off and treated. In flats, the cause is often a bathroom behind the wall, a leaking pipe or the building's exterior.

Repairs to outer walls and terraces are normally the owners' association's job, so mention them early. A painting quote does not include these costs, so they deserve their own line in the budget.

After repairs, the surface treatment depends on its age and condition. A new or heavily worn wall takes a coat of primer, then putty in two coats, then two coats of paint. A sound wall that has been painted before needs only filler in dents and cracks, primer on those spots and then the paint.

Primer goes 215-270 sq ft to the litre in a single coat on smooth wall, and putty 10-15 sq ft to the kg over two coats. The 582 sq ft bedroom would need 2.2 to 2.7 litres of primer for a full coat and 39 to 58 kg of putty over its whole area. Putty is priced on its own for this reason, so ask which walls get full putty.

Reading Quotes Side by Side

Quotes differ most because painters measure differently. A rate on painted wall area and a rate on floor area are not the same thing. A floor-area rate looks lower per sq ft, but the walls and ceilings add up to about four times that area.

Every painter should put these points in writing:

• How the area was measured, and the figure assumed
• Make and exact product name of the paint, primer and putty
• Coats of each
• Balconies, grilles, doors and ceilings: included or extra
• Who purchases the materials, and the return of unopened tins
• Masking, furniture covering and final cleaning
• Duration in days, and when payments fall due

A line saying only "premium emulsion, two coats" allows a cheaper product to go on the wall. Check tins on delivery, keep the bills, and keep the final payment back until daylight shows the walls are right.

Timing: Diwali Falls in November 2026

Painters are busiest in the weeks before the festival. Rain in October slows drying and complicates the treatment of damp walls, so booking early leaves slack for a rainy week.

Each layer dries in a few hours, as the tin states, so a single room takes several days. Many apartment associations limit work hours and the lifts used for materials, so confirm the rules first.

Putting It on One Page

Draw up one sheet: each room, its paintable area, and the paint, primer and putty (litres and kilograms) that area needs. Include labour, repairs, plus a small reserve for an extra coat.

With the sheet in hand, any quote can be checked line by line. Differences usually come from paint grade, putty quantity or how the area is measured, and once those match, the lowest price and the best value are often different quotes.