By Absolut Painting · Published October 27, 2026 · No prices in the guides
The sequence of a job
Every interior job follows the same order, because the order is what protects the finish. First the room is cleared or the furniture is moved to the centre and covered, and the floors are papered or sheeted. Then the preparation: holes filled, cracks caulked, everything sanded, repairs spot-primed. Ceilings go first, then walls, then trim, so each stage covers the drips of the one before it.
Two full coats go on the walls, each cut in by hand at the ceiling, the trim and the corners before it is rolled. Tape comes off while the last coat is still soft. The room is cleaned, the furniture goes back, and you walk the job with the crew before they leave.
Where the hours actually go
People picture painting as rolling, and rolling is the fastest part. On a typical room the split is roughly a third preparation and protection, a third cutting and rolling, and a third waiting for paint to dry between coats. A room with damaged walls shifts that balance further towards preparation. A room with lots of trim shifts it towards brush work.
- Protection: moving and covering furniture, masking floors and fixtures.
- Preparation: filling, caulking, sanding, spot-priming, and any full priming.
- Ceilings: cut and rolled, dry before the walls are cut against them.
- Walls: two coats, cut by hand, with a recoat window between them.
- Trim and doors: brushed or sprayed, with longer drying between coats.
- Clean-up and walk-through.
Drying and recoat windows
Most quality latex wall paints are dry to the touch within an hour or two and ready for a second coat within a few hours, so two coats on a wall fit in one working day. Trim and cabinet enamels are slower. Benjamin Moore Advance in particular wants most of a day between coats, which is why doors and trim often finish a day after the walls.
Humidity and cold stretch all of these. A damp basement in spring or a room with the heat off in winter dries more slowly, and a painter who rushes the recoat gets a soft finish that marks. Fans and open windows help, and the crew will say if a room needs an extra day.
Painting an occupied home
An empty house is painted in whatever order is fastest. A lived-in house is painted in whatever order keeps you living in it. Absolut works room by room or floor by floor, so there is always a bedroom to sleep in and a kitchen to cook in. Bedrooms are usually done early in the day so they are dry by night. The crew cleans up at the end of each day, and the ladders and drop sheets are stacked out of the way.
This adds time, and it should. The quote and the schedule assume an occupied home when that is what you have.
What a typical schedule looks like
As a guide, and with John's own figures to be confirmed: a single bedroom or living room in sound condition takes [n] days. A main floor with ceilings, walls and trim takes [n] days. A whole three-bedroom house takes [n] days. Add a day for each room that needs plaster repair or a strong colour change, and a day or two if all the doors are being sprayed.
The schedule is written into the quote, with the start date and the rooms in order. If the walkthrough turns up more preparation than expected, you hear about it before the crew starts, not after.