How Much Does It Cost to Paint a House in Melbourne?

The short answer

For a typical Melbourne home, a full interior repaint runs $3,500 to $15,000, and a full exterior repaint runs $4,000 to $20,000. Doing both at once on a standard three or four bedroom house usually lands somewhere between $8,000 and $30,000 depending on condition, storeys and how much of the trim work is included.

Those are wide ranges, and anyone who gives you a narrow one without looking at your house is guessing. What follows is what actually moves the number, so you can work out roughly where your property sits before anyone walks through the door.

Labour is the cost, not paint

On almost every residential painting job, 70 to 85 per cent of the price is labour. Paint and materials are the smaller share.

This is the single most useful thing to understand about painting quotes, because it explains nearly every price difference you will encounter. When one quote is $4,000 below another, the cheaper painter has not found a secret supplier. They have allowed fewer hours — usually in preparation, sometimes by dropping to a single topcoat.

It also means upgrading from a builder-grade paint to a premium system typically adds a few hundred dollars to a job that costs many thousands, while adding years to the life of the finish. It is generally the best-value decision available in the whole quote.

What drives an interior price

Ceiling height matters more than floor area, because the cost follows wall surface, not the footprint. A room with 3.3m ceilings has a third more wall than the same room at 2.4m, and it needs trestles.

Scope is the other big one. Walls only is the cheapest job in the house. Adding ceilings, then cornices, then skirtings, architraves and doors roughly doubles the labour of a room, because trim work is slow, detailed cut-in work.

Then there is condition: cracking, nail pops, water staining, old wallpaper and previously failed coatings all add preparation hours before a drop of colour goes on.

What drives an exterior price

Substrate is the biggest single factor. Weatherboard costs substantially more than render or brick because every board edge has to be scraped, sanded and feathered by hand, and any bare timber has to be primed the same day it is exposed.

Height is next. A double-storey home needs scaffolding or an elevated work platform, which is a real hire cost plus set-up time, and every stage of the work is slower at height.

Condition finishes the picture. An exterior that is faded but sound needs a wash and two coats. An exterior that is peeling and blistering across the north and west elevations needs to be scraped back to bare substrate over a large area, and that can double the labour.

How to compare three quotes properly

Put the three quotes side by side and compare the inclusions line by line rather than the totals. Specifically:

• Number of topcoats — one coat and two coats are different products of work
• Whether preparation is included or listed as a variable to be charged later
• Exactly which surfaces are in scope: walls, ceilings, cornices, skirtings, architraves, doors
• Named paint products and finishes, not just 'quality paint'
• Whether patching, crack repair and timber repair are included or extra
• Access equipment for anything above single-storey
• Public liability insurance, with a certificate of currency available
• Whether it is a written itemised quote or a number over the phone

Ways to genuinely reduce the cost

Paint while the house is empty if you can — between tenants, or before you move in. Removing furniture handling and letting the team work continuously across multiple rooms is a real saving, not a compromise.

Stage the work across years. High-traffic areas — hallway, living, kitchen — show wear first and deliver the biggest visible change. Bedrooms can wait.

Leave sound trims out of scope. If your skirtings and architraves are in good condition, refreshing only walls and ceilings can cut a large slice of labour without the room looking half-done.

What we would not cut is coats, preparation, or paint quality in wet and high-traffic areas. Those three decide whether you repeat this exercise in three years or in twelve.