A painter quote in Switzerland pays off when it lists measurements, preparation work, painting, materials, scaffolding and payment terms as separate line items — and when those items are based on an on-site inspection. An hourly rate of CHF 60 to 90 is standard, prices per m² for interior wall painting range from CHF 25 to 45, and anyone quoting a facade must include scaffolding from the very start. These rules of thumb do not replace your own calculation.

The general rules — how to structure a quote, what wording to use, what is legally required — are covered in our big guide to creating quotes with the right software. This article is about what is specific to painters: measurements, substrate, paint consumption, scaffolding, billing models and the payment terms that make the difference in the painting trade.

The key points at a glance

• Painter hourly rate: CHF 60–90 per hour, depending on region, business size and specialisation — towards the upper end in Zurich and Geneva, towards the lower end in rural cantons
• Prices per m²: CHF 25–45 per m² for interior wall painting, CHF 35–70 per m² for facade painting — plus scaffolding
• Paint consumption: around 0.13 l per m² per coat — for 120 m² of wall surface and two coats that is over 30 l of paint you have to price in
• Scaffolding: CHF 15–30 per m² of facade — the most frequently forgotten item in painter quotes
• Payment terms: 30 days net is standard, a 2% discount for payment within 10 days speeds up payments, a deposit of 30–50% protects your cash flow on large jobs

Writing a Painter Quote: Site Visit and Measurements as the Foundation

No serious painter quote is written at a desk. Anyone who names a price after two photos via WhatsApp takes on the full risk of the substrate — and in the painting trade that is the most expensive risk of all. The site visit is the moment when you gather all the information your calculation rests on.

Record at least the following at every inspection:

• Wall and ceiling areas in m²: height × perimeter per room, minus door and window openings. Industry practice is to count openings at half — because the frame around them costs time and masking effort even though the opening itself is not painted. State your rule in the quote and there will be no discussion.
• Lengths in linear metres: skirting boards, ceiling trim, radiators, pipes and panels — everything that has to be painted or masked but is not captured in m².
• Piece counts: doors, window reveals, radiators, shutter boxes. Each piece is its own preparation and painting object.
• Substrate condition: type and condition of the old coating (latex, dispersion, oil paint?), wallpaper, cracks, moisture damage, nicotine deposits, hairline cracks in plaster. An oil-based coating under dispersion paint means sanding and a special primer — impossible to calculate without checking.
• Room situation: occupied or empty, moving furniture, parking for the van, lift or fifth floor without? All of this costs time and belongs in the quote.

Photograph every room. When the customer claims weeks later that the crack in the hallway «has always been there», your date-stamped photos — and the quote that listed the crack — will save you.

Tobias from Bern paid CHF 1,400 for this lesson. He quoted painting a 3.5-room apartment in an old building at a flat CHF 4,200 — calculated on the basis of two photos the landlord had sent him. On site it turned out that beneath the woodchip wallpaper lay oil paint from the seventies: the wallpaper could not be stripped off, the substrate had to be sanded, filled and primed. Three additional working days, materials included — CHF 1,400 he had to front out of his own margin. Today he never goes to an inspection without a moisture meter and a knife for the wallpaper test cut, and every one of his quotes states the identified substrate verbatim, insofar as it could be assessed.

The measurement record is the second part of the foundation: «Living room, 4.2 × 5.6 m, height 2.45 m, minus 2 doors and 1 window (counted at ½): 42.4 m²». The customer sees that you measured — and at final invoicing you have the basis for your numbers if suddenly «the small office was meant to be included after all».

Preparation Work and Substrate — the Costs That Break Quotes

An uncomfortable truth applies in the painting trade: the painting itself is quick to calculate, the preparation is not. Filling, sanding, masking, covering, removing wallpaper, priming — in an old building these preparation tasks often account for more than half of the total cost.

Calculate preparation work as its own line items, not as «included in the flat rate»:

• Masking and covering: tape on trim, frames and ceiling edge, masking film on the floor, fleece in high-traffic zones. Material costs of CHF 60–120 for an apartment plus the pure time — budget 0.5 to 1 hour per room.
• Filling and sanding: for an old-building renovation with cracks, dowel holes and uneven spots, 0.3 to 0.5 hours per m² of wall surface is realistic — more for badly damaged substrates. New drywall builds with joint tape are faster, but joint work has to be learned and calculated.
• Removing wallpaper: depending on adhesive and number of layers, between 0.2 and 0.5 hours per m². Multi-layer wallpaper over plasterboard is the worst case — stripping technique and residue removal belong in the quote as separate items.
• Priming: an absorbent or uneven substrate needs a primer, otherwise the top coat will blotch. Primer is both material (see below) and time — and over dark old coatings it is not optional but mandatory for an opaque result.

The sum of these items determines the billing model: for clearly defined rooms with a good substrate, a flat rate works. For old buildings, unknown substrates or partial renovations in occupied spaces, you bill preparation work by time spent — with an hourly rate stated in the quote and a cost ceiling.

Never sign a quote that says «substrate preparation as needed» without having seen the need — that sentence is a blank cheque. If you cannot assess something during the site visit, write the assumption as an assumption: «Substrate as per site visit, other findings billed by time spent.» That keeps you negotiable on unexpected discoveries instead of carrying the loss.

Painting and Working Time: Primer, Multiple Coats and Drying Times

The painting itself looks like the easiest part of the calculation — square metres times time per m², done. In practice, however, three factors determine working time, and none of them fits into a simple formula.

First: multi-coat painting. White wall over a white substrate in good condition: one coat is sometimes enough. A dark red old coating with white planned: two to three coats plus primer, otherwise the substrate shows through, and the customer rightly complains. The number of coats is not a detail question but a price factor of up to 100% of the painting cost. State in the quote how many coats are included — and at what rate each additional coat is billed.

Second: drying time. Dispersion paints can be recoated after two to four hours, depending on the product and room climate. In an apartment with five rooms you rarely paint everything in one day — you work in blocks while elsewhere things dry. Drying time costs no money, but it is the reason you quote completion in weeks rather than days.

Third: working in occupied spaces. Moving furniture, protecting floors, working around residents — it costs time and requires coordination. Clear rules in the quote prevent the question of why three planned days turned into a week.

Sandra from Lucerne felt the multi-coat problem the hard way. She quoted the renovation of a 4.5-room apartment at a per-m² price, calculated with one coat — the previous tenant had «light walls», according to the landlord. On site: a rich dark red in three of five rooms. Two additional coats plus primer, around 26 hours and CHF 850 in extra material she could no longer bill, because the quote stated «painting, one coat». Today every one of her quotes states the number of coats per room, depending on substrate and old paint colour — the customer knows in advance what they are paying for, and she no longer works for free.

As a rough benchmark: on prepared, freely accessible walls an experienced painter manages about 25 to 35 m² per hour with dispersion paint; for ceilings, behind radiators or on scaffolding the figure drops significantly. Your hourly rate times the real hours per m² gives your minimum painting price — do the math before you adopt a per-m² price «because the competition uses it too».

Calculating Materials: Paint, Tape, Masking Film

Materials are not the biggest item in painting work — but they are the item most often calculated too tightly. Three building blocks belong in every material calculation.

Paint consumption per m². A standard dispersion paint covers about 7 to 8 m² per litre and coat, which is roughly 0.13 l per m². For 120 m² of wall surface with two coats you therefore need over 30 l of paint — plus a reserve for touch-ups. Primers are similar; varnishes and latex paints yield considerably less. Calculate consumption per project and round up to real 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 — for an apartment that quickly adds up to CHF 150 to 300, which is not automatically included in any per-m² figure. List it as a flat rate or as an actual line item, but list it.

The material markup. Industry practice is for businesses to bill purchased materials with a markup of 15 to 30% — for procurement, storage, transport and the risk that leftover containers go unused. This is legitimate practice as long as you declare it: stating «materials with 20% markup on purchase price» in the quote prevents the question of why the ten-litre paint costs CHF 89 retail and CHF 106.80 on your invoice.

Be specific in the quote about paint: product name, quality (scrubbable or not), gloss level and who supplies the paint. Some customers bring their own. That is allowed — but note in the quote: coverage and result depend on the product, and liability for insufficient coverage of customer-supplied paint does not lie with you.

Scaffolding, Ladders and Disposal: the Forgotten Items

For interior painting, ladders and a small rolling scaffold are work equipment billed through your hourly rate. For facade painting things look completely different — and this is where the most expensive calculation mistake in the painting trade lies.

Marco from Zurich made it. He quoted painting the facade of a single-family house in Zurich-Wollishofen at CHF 12,400 — calculated over wall area, painting and working time, all clean. He had «mentally factored in» the scaffolding, but never calculated it as its own item. Reality: the scaffold rental company charged around CHF 3,800 for the two-storey facade around the house, covering rental, assembly and dismantling, and the assembly devoured two full working days in which not one square metre of paint reached the wall. His calculated margin of around CHF 3,200 was gone in one stroke — the job ended at practically zero profit. Today every one of his facade quotes lists scaffolding as a separate item with rental price and set-up time, and if the customer provides their own scaffold, the quote states just as precisely who assembles it, who is liable for its stability and who dismantles it.

Rules of thumb for scaffolding: CHF 15 to 30 per m² of facade area for rental including assembly and dismantling, depending on height, accessibility and duration. Add the set-up time to your working hours — and note that in high season scaffolds are often booked out two to three weeks in advance. Whoever orders the scaffold only after the contract is signed risks idle time in which the team clocks waiting hours.

Other items that regularly go missing in painter quotes:

• Disposal: old coatings, wallpaper remnants and paint-soaked cloths are special waste — CHF 80 to 200 per project, depending on volume.
• Travel and parking: in cities you need parking permits or expensive short-term parking — a week of construction-site parking in Zurich quickly costs CHF 150 to 250. Outside cities, flat kilometre rates apply.
• Cleaning: handover cleaning and final cleaning are work. If you do them for free, say so — if not, they go in the quote.

Flat Rate, Hourly Rate or Price per m²: the Right Billing Model

Painters have three common billing models — none is the best across the board.

With an hourly rate, as a painter you move in the range of CHF 60 to 90 per hour. The rate must cover your total costs: wages, AHV (Swiss old-age insurance) contributions, vehicle, tools, insurance, administration and your income as a business owner — and calculated against the hours you can actually bill, not your time on site. A rate of CHF 70 sounds good until you work out that of 2,000 annual hours often only 1,400 are directly billable.

The price per m² for wall painting lies between CHF 25 and 45 — where the definition makes the difference: does the price include only the painting on prepared walls, or are preparation work, primer and multiple coats included? A per-m² price «including everything» at CHF 28 is a loss-maker on an old building; a painting price of CHF 28 on a perfectly prepared surface is solid. Write the definition verbatim into the quote — otherwise the competition that includes less sounds cheaper.

For facades the per-m² prices are higher — CHF 35 to 70, plus scaffolding — because working height, weather and substrate pre-treatment drive up the effort. How tradespeople from construction and roofing solve the same billing questions is shown in the carpenter invoice guide — the logic of line items instead of blended prices is the same everywhere.

Surcharges, VAT and Payment Terms in the Painter Quote

These points belong in every painter quote — not as fine print but as a visible block.

Weekend and night surcharges. Commercial customers sometimes require work outside normal hours — night work in hotels, weekend work in office buildings so operations resume Monday. Industry practice is surcharges of 25 to 50% on the hourly rate; set them in the quote while nobody is under pressure.

VAT. Painting work is subject to the standard rate of 8.1% — the current rates are listed by the FTA (ESTV, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration). Whether you show VAT depends on your registration: as an Einzelfirma (sole proprietorship) you become liable for VAT from CHF 100,000 in taxable annual turnover; below that, registration is voluntary — usually worthwhile early for most painting businesses because of input VAT deduction on paint, tools and vehicles. The basics are explained in the guide to VAT for freelancers; check your registration in the Zefix commercial register. On the quote you show VAT as soon as you are registered — on the later invoice the mandatory details under Art. 26 of the VAT Ordinance apply, including VAT number and description of services.

The non-binding quote. The standard is a non-binding quote valid for 30 days — paint and material prices change, and nobody wants to be presented with a quote that is six months old. «Non-binding» here means: you are not obliged to work under these conditions if the customer only signs after expiry. That gives you a line of retreat against material price increases. Once the numbers are accepted by the customer, a contract for work and services within the meaning of the Swiss Code of Obligations (OR) Art. 469 comes into being — and the quote then applies as the agreed basis for execution and the later invoice. A transition from the non-binding quote to the final invoice should therefore match in content: same items, same amounts. How to move cleanly from quote to payment with a QR-bill and deposit is shown in the guide to the invoice template for Switzerland.

Payment terms. Three building blocks have proven themselves:

1. Deposit on large jobs: 30% to 50% upon contract award, calculated on the quoted total. This covers the pre-ordered material and the reservation of the slot. For multi-week facade projects you add interim invoices at milestones — scaffold up, primer done, first coat finished — and the final invoice reconciles everything.
2. 30 days net as the standard payment period. For new customers or one-off private jobs, payment on completion of the work or within 14 days is also agreeable — it is your quote, you set the conditions.
3. Early payment discount as an incentive: 2% for payment within 10 days. On an invoice of CHF 7,000 that costs around CHF 140 and gets you the money weeks earlier on average.

Ready-to-Copy Quote Template for Painters

Here is a quote template you can adopt directly as a sample quote. The numbers are placeholders; the structure — measurements, preparation and painting work separated, materials with markup, payment and execution terms — is practical. If you prefer to start with Word, Excel or PDF, you will find more in the quote template for Switzerland.

NON-BINDING QUOTE

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

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

To:
[Customer name]
[Street, postal code, city]

Property: 4.5-room apartment, Musterstrasse 12, 8004 Zurich
Site visit of September 12, 2026 including measurements

MEASUREMENTS
- Walls total: 168 m² (openings counted at half)
- Ceilings total: 62 m²
- Doors: 6 units, skirting boards: 84 linear metres

PREPARATION WORK
- Fill and sand walls, 168 m²                    CHF 1,260.00
- Masking, covering (film, tape, fleece)          CHF 240.00

PAINTING
- Primer, 168 m² at CHF 4.50                     CHF 756.00
- Top coat dispersion white, 2 coats,
  168 m² at CHF 21.00                            CHF 3,528.00
- Paint doors and trim, 6 doors + 84 lm          CHF 1,440.00

MATERIALS
- Dispersion paint, 45 l at CHF 15.20
  (incl. 20% procurement markup)                  CHF 684.00

INCIDENTAL COSTS
- Travel, disposal, final cleaning               CHF 180.00

Subtotal net:                                    CHF 8,088.00
VAT 8.1%:                                        CHF 655.15
Total:                                           CHF 8,743.15

PAYMENT TERMS
- 30% deposit upon contract award (CHF 2,622.95)
- 30 days net, 2% discount within 10 days
- Payment method: QR-bill

EXECUTION
- Expected weeks 41-42, 5 working days
- Additional coats due to significantly differing
  substrates will be billed by time spent
  (hourly rate CHF 75.00)

This quote is non-binding and valid for 30 days.

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 — a non-registered sole proprietorship may not charge VAT. The mandatory details that must appear on the later invoice are governed by Art. 26 of the VAT Ordinance.
• The substrate reservation is your safety net — the honest consequence of a site visit: you saw what you were able to see.
• The hourly rate for additional work belongs in flat-rate quotes too — when discoveries are made on site, all that remains is a multiplication instead of a negotiation under time pressure.

The template covers the classic case — apartment, interior, dispersion paint. For facades you add the scaffolding item as its own line; for pure hourly projects you cut it down to the measurement minimum and the hourly block.

Frequently Asked Questions About Painter Quotes in Switzerland