Interior Wall Paint Estimating

[RGAID1]

What is the easiest way to estimate interior wall paint?  using the materials list?  Other?

[Kbird1]

The ML will only give you square feet of wall surface area but as long as you can calculate the rest it will work by adding a 0" layers to your wall definition outside the Drywall , eg a layer of Primer Paint and 2 layers of the Chosen Colour. the Sqft. will show up in the Wallboard section of the ML. It might get a bit much if every room was a different colour as the ML only reports exactly what is modeled but you can add the extra layers to your default Wall definitions so most of it it automatic. You can actually do the same thing in the Ceiling Finish definition I believe.

 

I don't personally do this , so maybe others will chime in and say if it is a good Idea or not....

 

M.

 

 

[glennw]

You could also use the Wall Covering option on either a wall by wall basis or room by room basis.

This will calculate to the Material List as area in the Interior Trim section.

This option may give you more flexibility by keeping away from the wall definition and avoiding zero thickness wall layers which can sometimes cause problems.

 

Once you have the area, you just need to calculate the volume of paint by using the paint manufacturers coverage rates.

You can do this by inserting a formula into the ML to convert the paint Trim area into paint volume.

If the coverage is 16sqm/Litre (sorry for the metrics), divide the Trim area by 16 to get the litres of paint (you will have to change the units from square to volume).

Double click in the Count column and Interior Trim paint row.

It should say "= automatic_count".

Edit this so that it says "= automatic_count/16" (or what ever your paint cover rate is).

Double click in the Unit column and scroll down and select a unit for the paint quantity (pints, gallons, etc).

You may need to create a new Unit Conversion if a suitable unit is not available.

 

In the ML, you will get the paint volume on a wall by wall basis (as well as a total) and prices if you enter any costings.

 

You can end up with something like this: