Painters in the Boston area charge $65 to $90 per hour, or $3.25 to $6.75 per square foot for interior work. But the hourly rate tells you almost nothing useful, because labor is 70–95% of a painting bill and the difference between a good job and a bad one is entirely in how those hours get spent. US ProPaint & Renovation has been painting South Shore homes from Derby Street in Hingham since 2004.
By JR Reis, Owner & President · Last updated October 2026
Three pricing models, and most contractors use all of them depending on the job.
| Basis | Boston-area rate, 2026 | When it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly (loaded) | $65 – $90 per hour | Small jobs, repairs, hard-to-scope work |
| Interior, per sq ft | $3.25 – $6.75 | Whole-house and full-room bids |
| Exterior, per sq ft | $2.25 – $4.75 | Siding and trim repaints |
| Trim, per linear ft | $1 – $4 | Baseboard, casing, crown |
| Interior door, each | $40 – $150 | Priced separately on most bids |
Massachusetts skilled construction labor averages around $72 an hour against roughly $52 nationally, and painting rates follow. Expect to pay about 20% more here than a national cost guide will tell you.
“Loaded” matters. That $65–$90 covers wage plus insurance, workers’ comp, equipment, overhead, and margin. A quote built on a $25/hour number is a quote from someone carrying none of that — which is a liability question before it’s a quality one.
Paint is not where the money is. Interior paint runs roughly $13 a gallon for basic flat to $35 and up for premium low-VOC formulations. Across a whole 2,000 square foot house that’s a difference of a few hundred dollars on a five-figure job. It is almost never the right place to economize, and a contractor proposing cheaper paint to hit a number is telling you something.
Interior painting in Massachusetts runs $2 to $6 per square foot for walls alone, or about $4.70 to $6.75 once trim, doors, and ceilings are included. Most South Shore interior projects land between $2,000 and $7,500.
Room by room — market ranges, not quotes:
| Space | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Closet | $100 – $315 |
| Bathroom | $200 – $670 |
| Hall or stairwell | $450 – $900 |
| Bedroom | $650 – $1,200 |
| Dining room | $600 – $1,200 |
| Kitchen, walls only | $850 – $1,500 |
| Living or family room | $1,200 – $1,700 |
| Whole interior, ~2,000 sq ft | $5,000 – $10,000 |
Three things move these numbers more than square footage does:
Whole-house projects price better per room than booking rooms one at a time, because masking, mobilization, and setup get amortized across the job. If you’re planning to do four rooms over two years, doing them together usually costs less than the sum of the parts.
Every painter will tell you they do good prep. Here’s how to find out.
On the lowest bid. Painting is labor, and labor is 70–95% of the price. A bid that’s 40% under the others didn’t find a cheaper way to paint — it removed hours, and the hours it removed were prep, because prep is invisible until it fails. The job will look identical on day one and different in year two.
Paint is a coating. It performs exactly as well as what’s underneath it.
Older Hingham houses add plaster to this list. Plaster over lath moves, cracks seasonally, and doesn’t take filler the way drywall does. Cracks that get skimmed and feathered properly stay closed; cracks that get caulked and painted reopen by the next heating season. If you’re in an antique house and a painter hasn’t mentioned your plaster, they haven’t looked at it.
Water stains are a diagnosis before they’re a prep step. Painting over an active leak buys one season.
Most of our interior work happens in houses people are living in, which changes the job.
Low-VOC paint is available on request. It isn’t our default product on every job — standard formulations perform well and cost less — but if you have young children, someone with respiratory sensitivity, or you simply can’t vacate, ask for it at the estimate and we’ll spec it. The premium is a few hundred dollars across a typical house.
Scheduling around the house. We work room by room where it suits you, so the whole house isn’t out of commission at once. Bedrooms get finished early enough in the day to be sleepable that night.
Containment and cleanup. Dust from sanding is the complaint we hear about other contractors more than any other. Surfaces get protected, work areas get isolated, and the site gets cleaned daily rather than at the end.
Lead-safe practices on pre-1978 homes aren’t optional and they aren’t an upsell. They’re required by law, and in a house with children they’re the whole point.
Interior — walls, ceilings, trim, doors, stairwells, and full-house repaints. This is the core of what we do.
Exterior — siding, trim, and full exterior repaints. Exterior work is usually a repair question before it’s a paint question, because coating over rot or trapped moisture fails in the same place within a season. We cover that decision in detail in siding: repair, repaint, or replace — including the Hingham historic district certificate that exterior painting requires even though it needs no building permit.
Cabinets and built-ins — sprayed off site in a controlled environment with a durable cabinet coating, not brushed with wall paint. The full process, costs, and the refinish-versus-replace decision are in kitchen cabinets: refinish, reface, or replace.
Carpentry alongside painting. Rot, trim, and surface repair are handled by the same crew, so repair-then-blend is one scope rather than a handoff.
Where we work: Hingham, Cohasset, Scituate, Weymouth, Hull, and the South Shore.
Service details are on our interior painting and exterior painting pages. Finished work is in the gallery.
How much do painters charge in Hingham?
Boston-area painters charge $65 to $90 per hour loaded, or $3.25 to $6.75 per square foot for interior work and $2.25 to $4.75 for exterior. Most South Shore interior projects run $2,000 to $7,500, and a whole 2,000 square foot interior runs $5,000 to $10,000. Massachusetts rates sit roughly 20% above national averages because skilled construction labor here averages about $72 an hour.
Do you do both interior and exterior painting?
Yes, plus cabinets, trim, and the carpentry that often needs to happen first. Exterior work usually starts as a repair question — coating over rot or trapped moisture fails within a season — so we assess the siding before quoting the paint.
How do you prepare surfaces before painting?
Patching and sanding flat, caulking gaps at trim and casing, spot-priming patches so they don’t flash through, and stain-blocking where needed. On older Hingham homes with plaster over lath, cracks get skimmed and feathered rather than caulked, because caulked plaster cracks reopen with the next heating season. Everything gets protected and masked before any paint is opened.
Do you use low-odour or low-VOC paints in occupied homes?
Low-VOC paint is available on request. It isn’t our standard product on every job, but if you have young children, someone with respiratory sensitivity, or you can’t vacate during the work, ask at the estimate and we’ll spec it. The added cost is a few hundred dollars across a typical house.
Do you guarantee your workmanship?
Yes — we provide a written workmanship guarantee. duration and coverage.
Why is one painting quote so much cheaper than the others?
Labor is 70 to 95% of a painting bill, so a bid well under the others has removed hours rather than found efficiencies — and the hours removed are almost always prep. The work looks the same on day one. The difference shows up in year two, when patches flash, caulk lines open, and the finish starts failing at the trim.
How long should I expect my interior paint to last?
Properly prepped and painted interior walls hold up eight to ten years in normal living areas, less in kitchens, bathrooms, and high-traffic hallways where washable finishes matter more. Prep quality affects lifespan more than paint brand does.
US ProPaint & Renovation
Adress:175 Derby St STE 4 Hingham, MA 02043
Phone: +1 (617) 922-6305
Toll Free: +1 (800) 964-0717
Email: office@uspropaint.com Massachusetts Contractor
License 186517 ·
Lead-Safe Certified
Serving Hingham, Cohasset, Norwell, Scituate, Weymouth, Hull, and the South Shore.
