Get clear estimates on how long an interior house painter needs for condos, mid-sized houses and big homes, plus tips to keep your project running smoothly.
You’ve decided to refresh your home’s interior, and now you need to know how long the project will actually take. This isn’t just about scheduling—it affects your budget, your daily routine, and how much disruption your household will face. When you hire an interior house painter, the timeline depends on several factors, but the biggest one is simple: the size of your home.
Most interior painting jobs take one to five days when you work with a professional interior house painter. But that range shifts based on square footage, room count, and the condition of your walls. Let’s break down what you can expect for different home sizes and what influences those timelines.
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Factors That Affect Painting Timelines
Before we get into specific timeframes, you need to understand what slows down or speeds up a painting project.
Wall condition matters more than most homeowners realize. If your walls have cracks, holes, or peeling paint, your interior house painter needs extra time for repairs. The age of the house, wall type, and previous paint colour are also factors. Dark colours or glossy finishes often require primer, which adds another coat and drying time to the schedule.
Scope of work changes everything. Painting just walls is faster than painting walls, ceilings, trim, and doors. Each additional element adds hours or days. And if you’re including cabinets or intricate woodwork, expect the timeline to stretch further.
Surface preparation takes time but makes the difference between a mediocre job and a professional finish. An interior house painter moves or covers furniture, lays drop cloths, cleans walls, patches holes and cracks, sands rough spots, primes where needed, and tapes off trim and ceilings. All this prep takes time, but it’s what makes the final coat look professional.
Drying time between coats is non-negotiable. Latex paint generally dries faster, which means it can be recoated quicker. But professionals still plan for proper drying time between coats—usually 24 hours or more. Cold or humid conditions slow drying even further.
Timelines for Different Home Sizes
Now let’s get specific. Here’s what you can expect for three common home sizes.
Two-Bed, Two-Bath Condo
A typical two-bedroom, two-bath condo runs around 1,100 square feet. For a professional crew, this translates to roughly 10 to 16 hours of actual work time, spread across two to three days when you account for drying time between coats.
Condos often come with their own quirks. Building regulations might restrict work hours or elevator access. Your interior house painter needs to coordinate with property management and protect common areas. But the smaller square footage means less disruption overall.
A small bedroom typically takes five to six hours, and bathrooms usually require four to six hours. With proper planning, your condo can be completely refreshed in under three days, compared to weeks if you tackle it yourself on evenings and weekends.
Three-Bed, Four-Bath Home
A moderately sized home with three bedrooms and four bathrooms usually falls in the 2,000 to 3,000 square foot range. For this size, expect three to five days of work from a professional crew.
More rooms mean more prep work. Hallways, stairwells, and multiple bathrooms add complexity. Each bathroom needs careful taping around fixtures, and stairwells often require ladders and scaffolding for safe access to high walls.
This is where coordinating with your family schedule becomes important. You might want bedrooms painted first so kids can sleep in their own rooms, or you might prefer to have common areas done while everyone is at work and school. Clear communication with your interior house painter helps minimize disruption.
Larger projects spanning multiple rooms might take three to five days, but a professional crew can complete in days what might take you weeks.
Five or More Bedroom Home
Large homes with five or more bedrooms and multiple bathrooms present logistical challenges that require experience and planning. A 4,000 square foot house can take 10 to 12 days with a crew of four painters when you’re painting ceilings, walls, trim, cabinets, and closets.
These projects often require multiple painters working simultaneously in different areas. An experienced company stages the work to keep things moving—one crew might be prepping upstairs while another paints downstairs.
High ceilings, vaulted spaces, and intricate trim work all add time. But the right team handles these challenges efficiently. At Harding’s Painting, we’ve completed over 10,000 homes across Canada, so we know how to manage large-scale residential projects without cutting corners.
Why Working With an Interior House Painter Saves Time
Time is your most valuable resource. A professional interior house painter saves you countless hours of prep work, painting, and cleanup.
Professional painters generally paint twice as quickly as a homeowner with some experience. An inexperienced painter using a small brush will take a lot longer than a professional using a roller. We arrive fully equipped with professional-grade materials, so you don’t make trips to the hardware store wondering if you bought the right primer or paint finish.
Our systematic approach allows us to work quickly without cutting corners. Each team member knows their role, and we coordinate seamlessly to minimize disruption to your daily routine. With 25+ years of experience and a presence in Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, and Hamilton, we’ve refined our process to deliver quality results on realistic timelines.
Professional painters can complete a standard room in under three days versus weeks for a DIY job. That speed makes us ideal for larger projects or when you need your home back to normal quickly.
How to Keep Your Project on Schedule
You can help your painting crew work efficiently and stay on timeline.
Before we arrive, remove small items, artwork, and wall hangings from the rooms being painted. Store fragile décor away from work areas. Move furniture away from walls or into another room entirely. If you have large pieces that can’t be moved, group them in the centre so we can cover them. Giving us space to work speeds up the process.
Take down curtains, blinds, and drapes. Roll up or remove rugs. If you label your furniture and boxes, then take before-photos of each room, this simple step speeds up post-paint reassembly.
Clean the areas being painted, especially in kitchens and bathrooms where grease and moisture can affect paint adhesion. Starting with clean walls helps us work more efficiently.
Communication keeps everything on track. Coordinate schedules and expectations with your interior house painter before we arrive. Discuss any special requirements, timeline preferences, or access considerations for your home. Set up regular check-ins so you know how the project is progressing and what happens if delays occur.
Transform Your Space with Confidence
Understanding realistic timelines helps you plan better and avoid frustration. A two-bedroom condo takes two to three days. A three-bedroom home needs three to five days. A large home with five or more bedrooms requires a week and a half or more, depending on scope.
When you work with an experienced interior house painter, you get professional results without the weeks of DIY struggle. At Harding’s Painting, we help homeowners avoid DIY disasters daily, bringing over 25 years of experience to every project.
Ready to refresh your space? Contact us for a free quote and let our team handle the prep, painting, and cleanup on a clear, realistic schedule. We serve Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, and Hamilton, and we’re ready to transform your home in days, not weeks.
