A typical residential painting quote in Melbourne breaks down to roughly 60–70% labour, 25–30% materials (paint, primer and consumables), and 5–10% overhead, insurance and admin, with some trade sources citing an even sharper split of around 76% labour to 24% materials. This matters because, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria, a quote should set out what it covers, and once you can see the labour-to-materials split, you can read a quote for genuine value rather than just price.
We’ve been painting Melbourne homes for more than three decades and written thousands of quotes. This guide explains where the money actually goes in a painting quote, why labour dominates, and how to use that split to tell a quality quote from one that has quietly cut corners.
How does a painting quote split between labour and materials?
A typical residential painting quote is roughly 60–70% labour, 25–30% materials, and 5–10% overhead, insurance and admin.
When homeowners imagine the cost of painting, they tend to picture tins of paint. In reality, the paint is the smaller part of the bill. The dominant cost is the skilled hours a crew spends on your home. Here is how a typical Melbourne residential quote divides up:
| Cost component | Share of a typical quote | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Labour | 60–70% (some trades cite ~76%) | Preparation, masking, cutting-in, application, clean-up, the skilled hours on site |
| Materials | 25–30% (some trades cite ~24%) | Paint, primer, fillers, caulk, sandpaper, tape, drop sheets, rollers and brushes |
| Overhead | 5–10% | Public liability insurance, vehicle and travel, quoting time, administration, warranty backing |
The exact figures move with the job. A heavily damaged, old weatherboard interior leans further toward labour because it needs far more prep. A clean, modern repaint of sound walls shifts slightly toward materials. But across almost every residential job, labour is the majority of the cost.
Key takeaway: In a typical Melbourne painting quote, labour is roughly 60–70% of the total and materials 25–30%, so the labour figure, not the paint, decides most of the price.
Why does labour dominate a painting quote?
Labour dominates because preparation and cutting-in are the slow, skilled parts of the job, the painting itself is fast.
This is the single most important thing to understand about painting quotes. People assume the cost is in “painting”, but rolling paint onto a prepared wall is quick. The hours, and therefore the money, go into everything that happens before and around the rolling:
- Washing walls and surfaces so paint will bond
- Sanding glossy or flaking areas for adhesion
- Filling holes, dents and cracks, then sanding them flush
- Caulking gaps along skirting, architraves and cornices
- Masking floors, windows, fittings and edges
- Priming patched, bare or stained areas
- Cutting-in, the slow, freehand brushwork along ceilings, edges and trim that no roller can do
A skilled painter can spend more than half the job on preparation before a single finish coat goes on. That prep is invisible once the room is finished, which is exactly why it’s the first thing a cheap quote cuts. The finish you see and the finish that lasts both come from the hours you can’t see.
“Customers pay for the paint they can see, but they’re really paying for the prep they can’t. The sanding, filling and caulking is where a good job is won or lost, and it’s almost all labour.”, Modernize Solutions, painting Melbourne homes since 1987
What are Melbourne painter labour rates in 2026?
Melbourne painter labour runs roughly $79–$87 per hour for insured crews, with solo operators in the broader $45–$75 per hour range.
Hourly rates vary with experience, insurance and overheads. A solo operator working uninsured from a ute sits at the lower end, roughly $45–$75 per hour in general AUD terms. An established, fully insured Melbourne crew with public liability cover, warranty backing and proper systems runs higher, around $79–$87 per hour in 2026.
That rate gap is not arbitrary. The higher rate pays for the things that protect you: $20 million public liability cover, a written warranty, trained painters, and the time to do proper prep rather than rushing to the next job. When a quote is dramatically cheaper, the saving usually comes out of one of those, most often the prep hours.
Key takeaway: A cheaper hourly rate often means a painter has stripped out insurance, warranty or prep time, the protections that make the labour worth paying for in the first place.
How much does the paint itself actually cost?
Materials are typically only 25–30% of a quote because premium paint goes a long way and costs every painter roughly the same.
Premium Dulux paint covers approximately 10 square metres per litre per coat. That coverage means even a whole-house interior uses a surprisingly modest volume of paint relative to the total bill. The materials line in a quote also has to cover the unglamorous consumables, primer, filler, caulk, sandpaper, masking tape, drop sheets, rollers and brushes, but together these still land at roughly a quarter to a third of the job.
Crucially, paint costs are fairly fixed across the trade. A litre of premium Dulux costs your $5,000 quote and your $3,000 quote roughly the same amount. So when two quotes for the same job differ by thousands, that difference almost never comes from materials. It comes from labour, meaning prep and coats. The labour-versus-materials split sits inside a bigger total. Our Melbourne house painting cost guide walks through the room-by-room price ranges those dollar figures come from.
Why is a much cheaper quote a warning sign?
Because labour is the majority of the cost, a dramatically cheaper quote has almost always cut prep or coats, not found cheaper paint.
This is the practical pay-off of understanding the split. Imagine three quotes for the same interior: $6,000, $5,500 and $3,200. The first two are in a normal band. The third is not cheaper because that painter is generous or has a magic paint supplier, it’s cheaper because the labour has been cut.
Where does that cut land? Almost always in the invisible parts:
- Less prep, skipping sanding, filling or caulking, so the finish looks fine for a year then fails
- Fewer coats, one coat instead of two, so colour and coverage are patchy and won’t last
- No priming of bare or stained areas, so stains bleed through and patches flash
- Rushed cutting-in, leaving wobbly lines along ceilings and trim
Because paint costs the same to everyone, the only way to slash a quote by a third is to slash the hours. A genuinely cheaper quote for identical scope is, in almost every case, a quote for less work.
Key takeaway: Two honest quotes for the same job differ mostly in business overhead, not by thousands. A quote that is dramatically lower has cut labour, usually prep or coats, not paint.
How do you use the split to compare quotes?
Compare the labour figures and the scope behind them, not just the bottom-line totals.
Once you know labour is 60–70% of a job, you read quotes differently. Two totals that look similar can hide very different jobs, and two totals that look far apart can describe nearly the same work at different overhead levels. To compare like for like:
- Ask each painter to separate labour and materials on the quote.
- Check the materials are similar, if everyone’s specifying premium Dulux, materials should be in a comparable range.
- Focus on the labour figure and what it buys, coats, prep tasks, surfaces named.
- Treat a labour figure far below the others as a red flag, not a bargain.
Master Painters Australia represents qualified professional painters whose quotes reflect proper preparation and application standards. A quote built to those standards will show its labour honestly, because that labour is what you’re really buying.
Why should a quote show labour and materials separately?
A transparent quote lists labour and materials as separate line items so you can see exactly where the money goes.
A single lump-sum figure, “$5,500 to paint the upstairs”, tells you nothing about how the painter arrived at it. You can’t see whether prep has been properly costed, how many coats are included, or whether the materials are premium or budget. Consumer Affairs Victoria advises that a quote should set out what it covers, which means itemising inclusions rather than hiding them in one number.
When labour and materials are split out, you can sanity-check the whole quote. If materials are listed at a tiny figure, the painter may be skimping on paint or coats. If labour looks too low for the scope, the prep is probably being skipped. The split is the homeowner’s most useful diagnostic, and a painter confident in their work has no reason to hide it.
“We itemise labour and materials on every quote because we want homeowners to see that most of what they’re paying for is the prep that makes a job last.”, Modernize Solutions
Does the labour share change by job type?
Yes, older or damaged surfaces push labour higher, while clean modern repaints sit nearer the lower end of the range.
The 60–70% labour band is an average, not a fixed law. The proportion shifts with how much preparation a home needs:
- High-prep jobs (old weatherboard, flaking paint, water damage, heavy filling) can push labour toward 75% or more, because every extra hour of sanding and filling is labour.
- Low-prep jobs (recently built or well-maintained walls in sound condition) sit nearer 60% labour, with materials a slightly larger share.
- Exterior work often carries higher labour again because of access, weather windows, scaffolding and the larger areas to prepare.
This is why a painter must inspect your home before quoting. The labour share, and therefore the price, depends on the condition of your surfaces, which can’t be guessed over the phone.
Where does the overhead 5–10% go?
Overhead covers the costs of running a legitimate, insured painting business, insurance, travel, quoting time, admin and warranty backing.
The smallest slice of the quote is also the one cut-price operators avoid entirely. The overhead portion pays for $20 million public liability insurance that protects your home if something goes wrong, the unpaid hours spent quoting, vehicle and travel costs, business administration, and the financial backing behind a written warranty.
An uninsured painter working cash-in-hand carries almost none of this overhead, which is part of why they can quote low. But that low price means you, the homeowner, carry the risk if there’s damage or the work fails. The overhead in a proper quote is the cost of that risk being carried by the painter instead of you.
How do you book a quote with Modernize Solutions?
Call 0433 803 841 for an on-site assessment and a detailed written quote that shows labour and materials separately, from a family-owned team with more than three decades’ experience.
Understanding the labour-versus-materials split puts you in control of comparing quotes properly. You’re no longer choosing on the bottom line alone, you’re checking that the labour, and the prep behind it, has been honestly costed.
Modernize Solutions has painted Melbourne homes since 1987, completing over 1,000 residential projects. We carry $20 million public liability insurance, use Dulux premium paint systems exclusively, back our work with a workmanship guarantee, any issue with our work is fixed at no cost, and hold a 5.0-star Google rating, with the owner personally conducting every quote. Every quote we provide lists labour and materials separately, so you can see exactly where your money goes before we put brush to wall. Call us on 0433 803 841 or request a written painting quote online.
Key takeaway: Because labour is roughly two-thirds of a painting quote, the labour figure, and the prep it buys, is the number that determines both the price and the quality you’ll receive.
“A quote isn’t a price tag, it’s a plan. When most of that plan is labour, the honest painter shows you the labour. The one hiding it in a lump sum is usually hiding what they’ve left out.”, Modernize Solutions, painting Melbourne homes since 1987
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of a painting quote is labour vs materials?
In a typical Melbourne residential painting quote, labour makes up roughly 60–70% of the total, materials (paint, primer, consumables) around 25–30%, and overhead, insurance and admin the remaining 5–10%. Some trade sources cite a sharper split of about 76% labour to 24% materials. Labour dominates because preparation is the slow, skilled part of the job.
Why is labour the biggest part of a painting quote?
Labour dominates because preparation, washing, sanding, filling, caulking, masking, priming, and cutting-in are the most time-consuming parts of a quality paint job. The rolling itself is fast; the hours go into the prep that makes the finish last. That is why a much cheaper quote has almost always cut labour, not materials.
Should a painting quote show labour and materials separately?
Yes. A transparent quote lists labour and materials as separate line items so you can see the split. Consumer Affairs Victoria advises homeowners to insist on itemised quotes. If a quote is a single lump sum, ask the painter to break it down, the labour-to-materials ratio tells you whether prep has been properly costed.
How can the labour split help me spot a quote that has cut corners?
Because labour is the majority of the cost, a quote that is dramatically cheaper has almost always reduced labour, less prep or fewer coats, not found cheaper paint. Premium Dulux paint costs roughly the same to every painter, so the saving has to come from hours. Compare the labour figures, not just the totals.
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