Painting Quotes in Switzerland: Template

A painting quote in Switzerland is well founded when it shows measurements, set-up work, painting, material, scaffolding and payment terms as individual items based on an on-site inspection. The following price and productivity figures are fictional calculation assumptions, not collected market prices. Replace them with your costs, your own reports and specific supplier offers; Scaffolding and access are part of the calculation right from the start.

We have put together the general rules - structure of an offer, wording, what is legally required - in the large guide to creating an offer with the appropriate software. This is about the painter-specific: measurements, substrate, paint consumption, scaffolding, billing models and payment terms, which are crucial in the painting trade.

The most important things in brief

• Illustrative rates: CHF 60–90 per hour are pure calculation assumptions here; Set your actual rate from your cost and time calculations.
• Fictional sqm rates: CHF 25–45 per sqm of wall painting, CHF 35–70 per sqm of facade painting — plus scaffolding
• Paint consumption: around 0.13 l per sqm and coat - with 120 sqm of wall space and two coats, that's over 30 l of paint that you have to factor in
• Illustrative scaffolding allowance: CHF 15–30 per sqm of facade — the most frequently forgotten position in painting offers
• Payment conditions: 30 days net is standard, 2% cash discount within 10 days accelerates payments, advance payment of 30–50% protects your cash flow for large orders

Create a painter's offer: inspection and measurements as a foundation

No serious painting offer is made at a desk. Anyone who quotes a price via WhatsApp after two photos takes on the full risk of the surface - and that is the most expensive risk of all in the painting trade. The inspection is the moment when you collect all the information that your calculation carries.

At each inspection, include at least the following:

• Wall and ceiling areas in square metres: Height × circumference per room, less door and window openings. Agree on how openings and reveals will be measured and billed. A flat rate half-crediting is not a generally binding industry rule.
• Lengths in running metres: Skirting boards, ceiling trim strips, radiators, pipes and panels - everything that needs to be painted or masked but is not covered over square metres.
• Quantities: Doors, window reveals, radiators, blind boxes. Each piece is its own preparation and painting object.
• Substrate condition: Type and condition of the old paint (latex, dispersion, oil paint?), wallpaper, cracks, moisture damage, nicotine deposits, hairline cracks in the plaster. An oil coat under a dispersion paint means dulling and special priming - cannot be calculated without testing.
• Room situation: Inhabited or empty, moving furniture, parking spaces for the car, elevator or fifth floor without? All of this takes time and is part of the offer.

Photograph each room. If the customer claims weeks later that the crack in the hallway has been there “always,” save the date-stamped photos — and the quote that listed the crack.

Tobias from Bern paid for this lesson with CHF 1,400. He offered to paint a 3.5-room apartment in an old building for a flat rate of CHF 4,200 - calculated on the basis of two photos that the landlady had sent him. On site it turned out that there was oil paint from the 1970s underneath the woodchip wallpaper: the wallpaper could not be removed, the surface had to be sanded, filled and primed. Three additional working days, materials included — CHF 1,400, which he advanced from his margin. Today he no longer goes to a viewing without a moisture metre and a knife for the wallpaper test cut, and in each of his offers the determined substrate is stated verbatim, as far as it can be assessed.

The measurement is the second part of the foundation: «Living room, 4.2 × 5.6 m, height 2.45 m: gross wall area 48.02 sqm; Openings and reveals separately according to agreed measuring rules”. The customer sees that you have measured - and you have the basis for the final invoice if suddenly “the small office was also included”.

Masking and surface preparation: costs that can derail a quote

There is an uncomfortable truth in the painting trade: the painting itself is quickly calculated, but the preparation is not. Filling, sanding, masking, covering, removing wallpaper, priming - these preparation work often make up more than half of the total costs in an old building.

Calculate setup work as separate items, not as “flat-rate included”:

• Taping and covering: Adhesive tape on strips, frames and ceiling edges, covering film on the floor, fleece in stressed areas. Material costs of CHF 60 - 120 for an apartment plus pure time - calculate 0.5 to 1 hour per room.
• Fillering and sanding: When renovating an old building with cracks, dowel holes and uneven areas, 0.3 to 0.5 hours per square metre of wall area are realistic - more for heavily damaged surfaces. Rigips new buildings with joint tape are faster, but the joint work needs to be learned and calculated.
• Removing wallpaper: Depending on the adhesive and number of layers between 0.2 and 0.5 hours per square metre. Multi-layer wallpaper over plasterboard is the worst case scenario - peeling technology and removal of residues are included in the offer.
• Primer: An absorbent or uneven surface needs a primer, otherwise the top coat will stain. Primer is material (see below) and time - and it is not optional for dark old paintwork, but mandatory for an opaque result.

The sum of these items determines the billing model: for clearly defined rooms with good subsoil, a flat rate applies. In the case of old buildings, unknown subsoils or partial renovations during operation, you will invoice the set-up work based on effort - with an hourly rate stated in the offer and a cost ceiling.

Do not sign an offer with “subsurface preparation as required” without having seen the need - the sentence is a blank check. If you cannot assess something during the inspection, write the assumption as an assumption: "Existing subsoil according to the inspection, other findings charged at cost." This means you remain open to negotiation in the event of unexpected discoveries instead of having to bear the damage.

Painting and working time: primer, multiple coats and drying times

The pure painting seems like the simplest part of the calculation - square metre size multiplied by time per square metre, done. In practice, however, three factors determine working time that do not fit into a simple formula.

First: the multi-layer coating. White wall on a white surface in good condition: one coat is sometimes enough. Dark red old paint on white planned: two to three coats plus primer, otherwise the surface will shine through and the customer will rightly complain. The number of layers is not a question of detail, but a price factor of up to 100% of the painting costs. Specify in the offer how many coats are included - and at what rate each additional coat will be charged.

Secondly: the drying time. Depending on the product and the room climate, emulsion paints can be painted over after two to four hours. In a five-room apartment, you rarely paint everything in one day — you work in blocks while drying takes place elsewhere. The drying time does not cost any money, but it is the reason why you promise execution weeks instead of execution days in the offer.

Third: working in an inhabited environment. Moving furniture, protecting floors, working between residents - this takes time and requires coordination. Clear rules in the offer prevent the question of why three planned days become a week.

Fictional example: Sandra from Lucerne was painfully affected by the multi-layer paint. She offered to renovate a 4.5-room apartment at a price per square metre, calculated with a coat of paint - according to the landlord, the previous tenant had “light walls”. On site: rich dark red in three out of five rooms. Two additional coats of paint plus primer, around 26 hours and CHF 850 more material, which she could no longer charge for because the quote stated “paint, one layer”. Today, each of her offers states the number of coats per room, depending on the surface and the old paint colour - the customer knows in advance what he is paying for and she no longer works for free.

As a rough guide: On prepared, freely accessible walls, an experienced painter can create around 25 to 35 sqm per hour with emulsion paint; The value drops significantly on ceilings, behind radiators or on scaffolding. Your billing rate multiplied by the real hours per square metre gives you your minimum painting price - do the math before you accept a square metre price, “because the competition will take that too”.

Calculate materials: paint, adhesive tape, masking film

Material is not the largest item in painting work - but it is the item that is most often underestimated. There are three building blocks that belong in every material calculation.

Paint consumption per square metre. Check the coverage in the technical data sheet of the specific paint product and the substrate. Fictional assumption: 0.13 l per square metre and coat of paint. So for 120 sqm of wall area with two coats you need over 30 l of paint - plus reserve for rework. Primers are similar, while varnishes and latex paints have significantly lower yields. Extrapolate the consumption per project and round to actual container sizes - you buy two 15 litre buckets and one 5 litre bucket, never 31.2 litres.

All consumables. Painter's tape, masking tape, masking film, fleece, filler, sandpaper, thinner, cleaning agents - these are quickly CHF 150 to 300 per apartment, which are not automatically included in any sqm figure. Run it as a blanket or as an effective position, but run it.

The material added value surcharge. As is customary in the industry, companies charge a surcharge of 15 to 30% for source materials - for procurement, storage, transport and the risk that remaining containers remain unused. This is legitimate practice as long as you declare it: “Material with a 20% surcharge on the purchase price” in the offer prevents queries as to why the ten litre of paint costs CHF 89 in the retail trade and CHF 106.80 in your invoice.

Specify product, quality, gloss level and supply responsibility. For customer-supplied paint, assess its recognisable suitability and warn promptly about defects or risks to the result (Art. 365(3) OR). Document the express warning and any contrary customer instruction. A blanket liability exclusion does not replace these duties; Art. 369 OR links loss of defect remedies to defects attributable to the customer.

Scaffolding, ladder and disposal: the forgotten positions

When painting the interior, the ladder and small mobile scaffolding are resources that are billed at your hourly rate. When it comes to painting facades, things look completely different - and this is where the most expensive calculation error in the painting trade lies.

Fictional example: Marco from Zurich made it. He offered to paint the facade of a single-family home in Zurich-Wollishofen for CHF 12,400 - calculated based on wall area, painting and working time, everything was clean. He had “included” the scaffolding in his head, but never calculated it as his own position. The reality: Scaffolding tenants demanded CHF 3,800 for rent, assembly and dismantling for the two-story facade around the house, and the construction took up two full working days in which not a square metre of paint was put on the wall. His calculated margin of around CHF 3,200 was gone in one fell swoop - the order ended at practically no cost. Today, in each of his façade offers, the scaffolding is listed as a separate item with rental price and set-up time, and if the customer provides his own scaffolding, the offer also notes exactly who is erecting it, who is liable for the stability and who is dismantling it.

Illustrative scaffolding allowance for budgeting: CHF 15 to 30 per sqm of facade area for rent including assembly and dismantling, depending on height, accessibility and duration. Add the setup time to your working hours — and note that scaffolding is often ordered two to three weeks in advance during high season. If you only order the scaffolding after the order has been placed, you risk idle time in which the team will have to wait.

Other positions that are regularly missing from painting offers:

• Disposal: Classify waste according to material and pollutant load and clarify the intended disposal route. Not every scrap of wallpaper is hazardous waste. Disposal offers and quantities form the basis for calculation; CHF 80 to 200 are just a fictional budget assumption.
• Getting there and parking: In cities, parking permits or expensive short-term parking spaces are required - a week of construction site parking in Zurich quickly costs CHF 150 to 250. Outside of this, kilometre flat rates apply.
• Cleaning: Handover cleaning and final cleaning are work. If you do them for free, say so - if not, they'll be in the offer.

Flat rate, hourly wage or price per square metre: the right billing model

There are three common billing models for painters - none of them are generally the best.

For the hourly wage calculation example we assume CHF 60 to 90 per hour without deriving a market price from this. The rate must cover your total costs: wages, AHV contributions, vehicle, tools, insurance, administration and your business income - based on the actually billable hours, not on the time of attendance. A rate of CHF 70 sounds good until you calculate that out of 2,000 annual hours, often only 1,400 are invoiced directly.

For a illustrative square-metre rate we use CHF 25 to 45 - whereby the definition is decisive: Does the price only include the painting on the prepared wall, or are set-up work, primer and multiple layers included? A square metre price “including everything” for CHF 28 is a losing proposition in an old building; a painting price of CHF 28 on a perfectly prepared surface is solid. Write the definition litreally in the offer - otherwise the competition that includes less will sound cheaper.

In the fictional facade example we calculate CHF 35 to 70 per square metre, plus scaffolding, because working height, weather and subsurface pretreatment drive the effort. The Carpenter invoice shows how craftsmen from the construction and roofing trades solve the same billing questions - the logic of positions instead of mixed prices is the same everywhere.

Surcharges, VAT and payment terms in the painting offer

These points belong in every painter's offer - not as small print, but as a visible block.

Weekend and night surcharges. Commercial customers sometimes request work outside of normal hours — night work in the hotel, weekend work in the office building so that operations can run on Monday. Surcharges of 25 to 50% on the hourly rate are common in the industry; specify them in the offer as long as no one is under pressure.

VAT. Ordinary taxable domestic painting work generally carries 8.1% when registered; see the FTA rates. Check qualifying worldwide turnover and actual commencement or effective deregistration: voluntary or continuing registration can exist below CHF 100,000. Compare output VAT, eligible input VAT, customer prices, method and administration, not only purchases. Check VAT registration in the UID register or with the FTA, not just the commercial register. See VAT for freelancers. Art. 26 governs the later invoice; for explicitly VAT-inclusive prices, the applicable rate is sufficient.

Time-limited or non-binding? “Valid until” limits the acceptance period of a binding offer; “non-binding” can exclude commitment under Art. 7 OR. With such a reservation, customer acceptance does not automatically form a contract: specify when your order confirmation becomes binding. The full wording and circumstances matter. The template below is a time-limited binding offer with a clear price basis; document approved changes separately. The invoice template helps with later billing.

Payment conditions. Three building blocks have proven themselves:

1. Deposit for large orders: 30% to 50% when placing the order, calculated on the total amount offered. This covers the pre-ordered material and the appointment reservation. For facade projects lasting several weeks, you add interim invoices according to milestones - scaffolding is in place, primer is finished, first coat of paint is done - and the final invoice balances everything out.
2. 30 Days net as standard payment term. For new customers or one-off private orders, payment upon completion of the work or 14 days can also be agreed - it is your offer, you set the conditions.
3. Discount as an incentive: 2% if paid within 10 days. This costs around CHF 140 for a bill of CHF 7,000 and gets you the money weeks earlier on average.

Ready-to-copy quote template for painters

Here is an offer template that you can use directly as an example. The numbers are placeholders, the structure - measurements, preparation and painting work separately, material with a surcharge, payment and execution conditions - is practical. If you prefer to start with Word, Excel or PDF, you will find further Offer template Switzerland.

QUOTATION — TIME-LIMITED BINDING OFFER

[Painting company company name] [Street, zip code, city]
[Phone] [Email] [UID: CHE-XXX.XXX.XXX]

Offer no.: 2026-014
Date: 20. September 2026
Validity: 30 days

To:
[customer name]
[Street, ZIP Code, City]

Object: 4.5-room apartment, Musterstrasse 12, 8004 Zurich
Visit from 12. September 2026 including measurements

MEASUREMENT
- Total walls: 168 sqm (under the expressly agreed measurement rule)
- Total ceilings: 62 sqm
- Doors: 6 pieces, skirting boards: 84 running metre

PREPARATION / SETUP WORK
- Filling and sanding walls, 168 sqm CHF 1,260.00
- Masking, covering (film, crepe, fleece) CHF 240.00

PAINTING
- Primer, 168 sqm at CHF 4.50 CHF 756.00
- Top colour dispersion white, 2 coats,
  168 sqm at CHF 21.00 CHF 3,528.00
- Paint doors and strips, 6 doors + 84 running metre CHF 1,440.00

MATERIAL
- Emulsion paint, 45 l at CHF 15.20
  (incl. 20% reference surcharge) CHF 684.00

ADDITIONAL COSTS
- Directions, disposal, final cleaning CHF 180.00

Subtotal net: CHF 8,088.00
VAT 8.1%: CHF 655.13
Total: CHF 8,743.13

PAYMENT TERMS
- 30% Deposit when placing the order (CHF 2,622.94)
- 30 days net, 2% cash discount within 10 days
- Payment methods: QR-bill

EXECUTION
- Expected week 41-42, 5 working days
- Report different substrates and extra coats in advance;
  obtain approval of additional scope and price before execution
  (agreed rate after approval: CHF 75.00/h)

Binding offer: acceptance within 30 days; reconfirm after expiry.

Three notes on this:

• Only show VAT if you are registered. Otherwise, delete the two tax lines and show the total as a net amount - an unregistered sole proprietorship is not allowed to charge VAT. The mandatory information that must later appear on the invoice is regulated by Art. 26 VAT Act.
• Make substrate reservations specific: report new findings and obtain approval of extra scope, price and timing effects before execution. A reservation is not a blanket release from liability.
• Have extra work approved: stating an hourly rate does not replace evidence of additional work or the necessary agreement.

The template covers the classic case — apartment, interior, emulsion paint. For facades, add the scaffolding position as a separate line; For purely hourly projects, reduce to the minimum allowance and the hourly block.

Frequently asked questions about painting offers in Switzerland

Conclusion: The painter's offer is your margin - or your loss

For a painter, the offer decides the outcome of the job, not the execution. Marco from Zurich delivered a technically perfect facade painting at almost cost price, Sandra from Lucerne gave 26 hours and CHF 850 of material, Tobias from Bern advanced CHF 1,400 to old buildings - none of them painted badly. You didn't offer enough details.

The countermeasures are mechanical and learn quickly: inspection with measurements and photos, set-up work as separate positions, painting layers defined instead of hoped for, material with consumption invoice and surcharge, scaffolding as a separate line, payment terms with advance, 30 days net and discount incentive. This structure costs you half an hour more per offer - and for a medium order it quickly saves the CHF 1,000 to 3,000 margin that would otherwise disappear underground.

When placing the order, include the accepted measurements and the agreed items in the invoice. Keep addendums separate and compare accounts with invoice number, net, tax and payment. An automatic advance/final invoice comparison is not required here. Information about the invoicing software and the prices can be found separately.

As of: September 2026. Sources: Art. 26 VAT Act; Art. 363 ff. OR (contract for work); ESTV VAT rates; Zefix Commercial Register; AHV/IV. The prices and hourly rates mentioned are fictional calculation assumptions and do not replace your own calculation.