← Popcorn ceiling bid calculator
Painting and drywall contractors get shopped on a published $1.50 / sq ft popcorn removal Facebook special. Those numbers cannot see the skim or the height. An 8-foot first-floor light scrape-and-prime is a different job from a two-story painted-over heavy cottage-cheese with a Level 5 skim, two coats of paint, an asbestos test, and interior scaffolding.
Open the free popcorn ceiling bid calculatorPopcorn removal is a ceiling, then a scope, then how you reach it. Length times width is the scrape area. Scrape-and-prime is a dry scrape. A Level 4 skim adds mud and a second pass. Level 5 plus two coats is another crew day. Eight-foot is walkable. Vaulted needs a lift. Two-story is scaffolding.
The cheap special is almost always light popcorn on an 8-foot ranch, no skim, no paint, no asbestos test. A Level 5 skim-and-paint is a different crew day. Matching a scrape-and-prime per-foot number on a painted two-story job is how a sold ceiling becomes a three-day loss after the first containment.
Interior painting is walls and a flat ceiling as a coat. Drywall hang-and-finish is new gypsum and a Level 5 on new board. Exterior painting is house elevations. Cabinet refinishing and hardwood refinishing are different surfaces. This prices popcorn ceiling removal: scrape, skim, and extras. Closet ceilings and stain repairs here are line items on a scrape, not those other jobs.
Load the wage with payroll burden. Add overhead as a share of direct cost. Then take margin as a share of the customer’s price, not a markup on cost. The walk-away number is total cost. A proposed price under that number loses money before you take anything out of it.
This page is a walkthrough of the arithmetic in the popcorn ceiling bid calculator. It is not a drywall specification, an asbestos clearance, a lead-paint determination, or a price you should copy onto a contract.
Charge from ceiling area, scope, height, and extras — not a published $1.50 / sq ft special. An 8-foot first-floor light scrape-and-prime is a different job from a two-story painted-over heavy cottage-cheese with a Level 5 skim, two coats of paint, an asbestos test, and interior scaffolding.
No. Scrape-and-prime is a dry scrape and a coat of primer. A Level 4 skim is a different crew day. Level 5 plus two coats is another one still. Matching a scrape-and-prime special on a skim-and-paint job is how a sold ceiling becomes a three-day loss after the first containment.
An 8-foot first-floor ceiling is walkable. A vaulted or cathedral room needs a lift. A two-story stairwell needs scaffolding. Height does not live in a published per-foot dump.
No. Interior painting is walls and a flat ceiling as a coat. Drywall hang-and-finish is new gypsum and a Level 5 on new board. This prices popcorn ceiling removal: scrape, skim, and extras.