A Whole First Floor in Aurora: Walls, Repairs, and Three Ceilings for $9,062

An Aurora homeowner in one of the newer developments off Route 43 wanted the first floor repainted before fall: every wall, the repairs that come with a house that had a large aquarium built into a wall, and nothing else. Partway through she added three ceilings and a plaster repair in the living room. Here is the job as it was estimated, as it was added to, and as it was billed.

The original scope: walls and repairs

Walls only, two coats, throughout the first floor: kitchen, living room, dining room, office, hallway, half bath, and the open stairwell. Ceilings and trim stayed as they were, at the owner’s request, and the estimate said so in plain words. The repair list was real: removing the built-in fish tank, closing the wall behind it, patching, skim coating where the old texture would have shown through, and caulking every seam.

• First-floor walls, two coats, with the repairs and the tank removal: $7,850
• Priced from a walkthrough at our published rate, with paint at our cost

The add-ons, priced the same way

Once the walls were going on, three rooms clearly needed their ceilings done too. We priced them as add-ons on the invoice at the same rate as the original job, not at a change-order premium.

• Ceilings, two coats, master bedroom, first-floor half bath, and office: $875
• Living room plaster repair: $337
• Add-ons: $1,212

The total and the time

Invoice total $9,062, paid in stages, which is how most of our whole-floor jobs run. The crew spent 128 hours on site over three days, between four and seven painters depending on the day. The estimate had budgeted 142 hours.

That puts a full first floor of walls with real repairs at the upper-middle of our published range for a 1,500 to 2,500 square foot home, which is $4,500 to $12,000 and up. The repairs are what moved it: without the tank removal and the skim coating, the same square footage of walls would have landed near $6,000.

Questions Aurora and Solon homeowners ask

• Can I add rooms once you start? Yes. Add-ons are priced at the same rate and shown as their own lines on the invoice.
• Why are ceilings a separate line? Because they are separate work: a different paint, a different roller, and a full room of masking. Many homeowners skip them, and we price it so you can choose.
• How long for a whole first floor? Two to four days with a crew of four to six, depending on the repairs.
• Is there a winter rate? Interior work booked by November 15 for a November to February start gets 10 percent off the labor.

Get your number

Text photos of each room, and of any damage, to 440-382-5701, or use the quote form. Aurora, Solon, and Bainbridge estimates come back within a day with every room on its own line.