How we price painting.
Every price on TheFatBook is built from a bill-of-materials model. We multiply Craftsman National Estimator labor hours by BLS OEWS regional wages and a burden rate to get loaded labor cost. We add materials adjusted with FRED Producer Price Index data, city permit facts from our permits dataset where available, and NAHB-benchmarked contractor overhead. The result is cost-to-deliver. Compared against verified market pricing, the gap is the contractor margin and the savings opportunity.
Data sources: BLS, Craftsman, FRED
Reference URLs: BLS OEWS · FRED PPI · PermitCalculator.com
Markets: 15 metros + national average
Services tracked: 15
Headline service: Whole House Painting
Index version: 2026-07-10
Update cadence: source review before each published cost-index refresh; visible pages currently updated Jul 2026
Cost index author: David Olson, Creator of the Cost Index & Permit Dataset
Methodology reviewer: Leonard "Chuck" Thompson, LC Thompson Construction Co.
Permit data: from permitcalculator.com, our sister project covering verified building-department fees and contacts.
Whole House Painting, derived end-to-end.
The same 12 steps apply to every service in every metro. Numbers below use the national-average record for Whole House Painting; metro-specific numbers (wage, permit, PPI) replace the national values city-by-city.
Craftsman labor hours
Labor hours come from the Craftsman National Estimator, the industry standard cost-estimating reference. For Whole House Painting, the bill of materials specifies 111 labor hours for a typical 2500 sq ft project.
BLS wage and burden rate
Hourly wage rates come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (BLS OES) for the relevant trade and metro. National average for this trade: $26.64/hr. Burden rate (FICA, workers' comp, unemployment, insurance) adds 37.2% for a loaded wage of $36.54/hr.
Labor cost
Materials, PPI-adjusted
Material costs come from the Craftsman BOM and are multiplied by the relevant FRED Producer Price Index series to inflation-adjust to the current quarter. Current PPI multiplier: 1.0508. For Whole House Painting: $2,364.
Direct cost
Contractor overhead
Overhead (general & administrative, marketing, supervision) is benchmarked against the NAHB Cost of Doing Business study, which measures it as a percent of revenue. Materials pass through at cost and carry no overhead.
Cost to deliver
What it actually costs a contractor to do the job, before profit.
Lowest realistic price
Cost to deliver plus the leanest margin a crew can sustain for this scope, modeled rather than observed. Functions as a counter-offer anchor in negotiation. National floor for this service: $8,640.
Typical contractor bid
The modeled typical quote: cost to deliver plus the market's usual margin. National typical bid: $9,440 (range $8,640 to $11,428).
Contractor margin
The gap between the typical bid and cost-to-deliver, as a share of the bid. Higher margin = more room to negotiate.
Savings potential
See this model run in your market.
The same method, with each city's BLS wage and permit fees applied.