	Article Directory		Article Submission Service		Article Marketing Blog		Publishers		Member Log In

Article Directory :: Home & Family Articles

How to Know How Much Paint you'll need for Your House

By Matt Helphrey

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 20Dec2009
Word count: 485
Viewed: 207 time(s)

Get Free Content For Your Site

Painting the house yourself instead of hiring someone to do it for you is a great idea considering it will save you bundles of money. The paint job itself though will take time to complete and the most important thing you'll want to consider first is the amount of paint to use. Buying too much means you will waste money on something you will not be able to use again. Buying too little and you may have just a portion of the house painted.

There is somewhat of a formula to use when trying to estimate just how much paint you are going to use. Figure out roughly how much area needs to be painted. Area = length times width. So when measuring the walls in each room, you just need take the width of all the walls combined and multiply it by the height of the ceiling. For example, if your walls are 48 feet in total length, and your ceilings are 8 feet high, your total area for that room would be 48x8= 384 square feet. Keep that number in mind.

Besides just the actual areas of the walls, you'll also want to add in ceilings and non-rectangular areas as well. So if you are planning on using the same color on the ceilings this would apply, if not you need to add this in but just as a different color.

When including the total area you must also subtract the doorways and windows as well. Simply use the same formula, add up the areas for all your doors and windows, and then subtract that amount from the total.

Some walls in houses have either trim on the floor or crown molding near the ceilings that don't need to be painted. In this case you will have to add the areas of these as well and subtract that from the total as well.

Once you have the number down on paper, you will then be able to gauge about how much paint you are going to need. When you buy paint you will notice that right on the can there is a label that prints out just how much square feet each gallon of paint will cover. So if 1 gallon of paint will cover 50 square feet, and you need 500 square feet to be covered, you will roughly need 10 gallons of paint.

The last thing you need to factor in is the actual surface that you are painting on. If you are painting concrete, wood, or other porous areas, it's going to take more paint to get the job done.

It's always best to leave a little bit left over just in case you may need some touch ups or fall a bit short. If you have the calculations and are just not sure, just ask someone at the paint shop. They are usually very friendly and are there to help you out.

Matt specializes on many topics and enjoys writing about many things. He owns many product review sites about certain products. Visit his Mens Digital Watches website and read a review of the new Citizen Mens Watch.

EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here