How much does it cost for a painter to paint a whole house?
A house is priced by the area of wall and ceiling that takes paint and by the state those surfaces are in, never by the number of bedrooms or the floor area. Preparation is most of the hours, and it is where a cheap quote is cheap. Handyman Algarve publishes no euro figure for painting in the Algarve, because the state of the walls moves the price too far for one number to be honest. What sets your figure is below, and quoting your house costs nothing.
Nobody can price a house from the number of bedrooms. What is being bought is the area of wall and ceiling that takes paint, multiplied by the condition those surfaces are in. A newly rendered three bedroom house and a forty year old one with cracks and a wall that has had damp are two different jobs with the same description.
What a painting quote is actually made of
- Protection. Floors, furniture, frames, sockets, and everything staying in the house. In an occupied house this repeats every working day.
- Preparation. Scraping back anything loose, opening and filling cracks, filling old fixings, sanding, treating stains, washing down. Most of the hours live here.
- Priming. Over repairs, new render, absorbent surfaces and anything that would bleed through. Not optional in those places.
- Coats. Two in normal conditions, more for a strong colour change or an uneven surface.
- Woodwork and metalwork. Doors, frames, skirting, stair rails, grilles. Each is prepared and coated separately and is far slower per square metre than open wall.
- Making good. Removing tape, cutting in edges, putting the house back.
The factors that move the number
| Factor | Effect on the price |
|---|---|
| Real wall and ceiling area | Ceiling height changes the area without changing the bedroom count |
| Surface condition | Cracks, blown render, old stains, wallpaper to strip |
| Empty or furnished | Protecting and moving is paid time, every day |
| Ceilings included | Overhead work is slower and less forgiving |
| Doors, frames, skirting | Counted per unit and per coat, not by wall area |
| Colour change | Dark to light can add a full coat throughout |
| Exterior | Access and scaffold, height, and a limited weather window |
| Previous damp | If the source is not fixed first, paint is not the answer |
Why preparation weighs more here than the brochure suggests
The Algarve has 201,078 buildings, of which 60.4 per cent were built before 1991, and 29.3 per cent are recorded as needing repair. Nationally that repair figure is 35.8 per cent. Source: INE, Censos 2021, quadro Q205, Algarve and national scope.
The regional stock is in better condition than the country as a whole, and that still leaves close to a third of buildings needing work, on top of a majority that are over thirty years old. In practice a house bought here usually has older render under the paint, with shrinkage cracks, patches from earlier decades and layers that do not all bond the same way. That is precisely where two quotes separate: one assumes walls ready for paint, the other includes putting right what is not. Comparing the totals without reading what each does before the first coat is the quickest way to choose badly.
Why no euro figure appears here
Because the per square metre figures published for Portugal average new build with renovation. On a new house preparation is almost nothing. On an eighties house with cracked render it is half the job. An average between the two describes neither, and a reader who plans around it meets a real quote nowhere near it.
What can be done today is look at the house and give the right number, free. The service page for painting in the Algarve covers what the work includes and how a request is handled.
What to send for a quote that holds
- A photo of each room from the corner, with the ceiling visible.
- Close photos of any crack, stain or area that has had damp.
- The approximate floor area and the ceiling height if you know it.
- Whether the house will be empty or furnished while the work runs.
- Whether you want ceilings, doors, frames and skirting included.
- Any colour change, and from what to what.
The three lines to ask for before signing
Ask every quote to state the preparation included, the number of coats, and the paint brand and range. Those three lines explain most of the difference between two prices and none of them is visible once the work is finished. If the house has had damp, add a fourth: what happens if the stain comes back. The right answer is that the source of the water is dealt with first, because no coating survives water pushing out from behind it.
Get the number for your own job
Every price on this page depends on details only your job has. Describe it to Handyman Algarve, add a photo, and the quote comes back with the figure for that job, at no cost.
Free and without obligation.