QuoteIron › Painting price book › Remove Wallpaper
The book prices a standard room at 6 hours and $30 of supplies, including washing off adhesive and sealing the residue. That number is the optimistic case: wallpaper is one of the jobs where the first wall tells you whether the room is a day or two.
Price breakdown: labor, parts, markup
Here is remove wallpaper, one room as a contractor would build it at the book’s sample rate of $95 an hour and a 30% parts markup.
| Labor hours | 6 h |
| Labor at $95/hr | $570.00 |
| Parts at your cost | $30.00 |
| Parts markup (30%) | $9.00 |
| Subtotal before rounding | $609.00 |
| Typical flat rate (rounded up to $5) | $610 |
| Effective rate per labor hour | $102/h |
| Markup as a share of the price | 1% |
The range: the same job at three labor rates
Same hours, same parts, three hourly rates. All at a 30% parts markup, rounded up to $5:
| Job | Hours / parts | At $75/hr | At $95/hr | At $125/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remove wallpaper, one room | 6h / $30 | $490 | $610 | $790 |
What the flat rate covers
- Remove wallpaper, one room. Strip wallpaper, wash off the adhesive, and seal any remaining residue with an adhesive-blocking primer (such as Gardz) before finish coats in a standard room.
What moves the price
- Surface underneath. Paper put up on unprimed drywall pulls the paper face off the wall with it. If the drywall tears, you are into skim-coat territory.
- Layers. Two or three layers, or vinyl-coated paper, change the time. Test a corner before you commit.
- Homes built before 1978. Lead-safe work practices and testing have their own book rows; do not price an older house like a new one.
Add-ons to put on the quote
These are separate rows in the same book, priced at the $95 sample rate. Put the ones that apply on the quote so they are lines, not arguments.
| Add-on | Hours / parts | Price at $95/hr |
|---|---|---|
| Patch & prime wall repairs before paint | 2h / $20 | $220 |
| Skim-coat & smooth one wall | 3h / $30 | $325 |
| Seal water, smoke & tannin stains before painting | 1.5h / $20 | $170 |
| Prime new drywall, one room | 3h / $35 | $335 |
| Lead paint test, home built before 1978 | 0.5h / $15 | $70 |
How to present it: Good, Better, Best
Offer three options on one quote and let the customer choose. Each is a sum of real book rows at the $95 sample rate. Better patches and primes the wall repairs after stripping; Best also skim-coats one wall for a smooth finish.
- Remove wallpaper, one room
- Remove wallpaper, one room
- Patch & prime wall repairs before paint
- Remove wallpaper, one room
- Patch & prime wall repairs before paint
- Skim-coat & smooth one wall
How these numbers are built
QuoteIron’s price book stores structure: typical labor hours and a mid-grade parts cost for each job (book priced 2026-09). Your rates do the pricing: hours × your hourly rate, plus parts at cost with your markup, rounded up to the next $5. The low, typical and high figures use $75, $95 and $125 an hour at the book’s default 30% markup. They are formula outputs, not a survey of what your market pays, so replace them with your own rate and markup before you send anything. Prices checked October 8, 2026.
Related job pages
Hours and parts are typical starting points for a straightforward site; your market, supplier and the specific conditions decide the real number. Licensing, permits and local rules stay yours to handle. General information, not tax or legal advice.