I would paint the ceilings the trim color but in a flat. It should be no more expensive to do. In fact, I would think your painter would prefer it as it would be much harder and more precise to cut in a color on the ceilings than painting it the flat version of the trim. That would be my argument and I would stick to it!!!

I don't think it's reasonable to dispute this. It's very common for builders to do all one color, including ceilings. When they say the walls are the same color throughout, that includes the wall above your head. :)

It's also common to charge more to make the ceiling a different color.

Thanks for the opinions! I guess I just assumed the ceilings would be white & since the contract only said walls- I thought I might have a leg to stand on...
I will try and talk to them on Monday and see what they say.

Thats a little steep but I guess it depends on your part of the country and the price range of your house. Our builder paints all the walls and ceilings same color unless you pay an upgrade of $750 which covers the whole house.

New construction is painted with spray equipment. All surfaces are painted at the same time, but only one color can be applied at a time. To do another color means another paint job. The second color has to be masked off or cut into the first color. That is more labor intensive than just spraying again.

"New construction is painted with spray equipment. All surfaces are painted at the same time, but only one color can be applied at a time. To do another color means another paint job. The second color has to be masked off or cut into the first color. That is more labor intensive than just spraying again."

Not in every circumstance. My husband is a painter. Primer and first coat is usually sprayed. He always rolls the third coat.

"One color" is one color, and that means walls and ceilings. If you want something different, pay the fee now, or paint it whatever you want after the build is complete and before you move in.

I agree with most of the posts, one color means on every "wall" surface even ceilings. Most around here use the power sprayer and to change colors means the equipment needs to be cleaned and set up for the tape off of the areas not to be painted. Or they would have to roll and cut in which is also labor intensive and cost more $$$.

If you want the ceilings a different color see if you can get some family and friends to come one weekend and help paint. Get some rocking music playing and order pizza for the crew, make it a paint party! :) Or higher some college kids home for the summer and pay them to help you. That would certainly be a lot cheaper than the upcharge.
Best of luck!

I actually ASKED for the ceilings to be painted the same color as the walls and it turned out brilliantly! Love the look!

$2000 seems like a pretty steep upcharge unless your house is quite large. We paid about $7K for the labor to have our entire interior of our 3500 sq ft house painted (ceilings included) with an unlimited number of colors. I think they used a sprayer to apply the primer (except on walls that we were painting a dark color that required a dark gray primer). All of the paint (six different colors) was applied by brush and roller.

Be aware tho that painting ceilings is a major PITA. I was a military brat and we moved frequently...often into houses that hadn't seen a fresh paint job in 20 years or more. My mother often negotiated a month or two of free rent in exchange for us repainting...plus it let her get the colors SHE liked. So, in my younger days, I helped repaint a number of houses and frankly, I'd rather paint a dozen walls any day than a single ceiling!

Without the proper tools painting a ceiling is VERY VERY hard on the back. Even with the proper tools, your back and neck will get a work out! It takes some skill to hold a long handled roller brush in place against the ceiling and move it so that it rolls without skipping or slipping. And, if the roller handle is too long, you lose control so, if your ceilings are higher than 8 to 9 ft, your legs will probably get a workout too from climbing up/down a ladder to get close enough to the ceiling to be able to control the roller brush sufficiently.

Plus amateurs (and I count myself among them) have a tendency to wind up dripping paint onto the walls when painting a ceiling... which means they often have to go back and repaint the walls! Painting a ceiling AFTER the walls have already been painted is certainly not a job that I would hire a bunch of college kids to do.

Perhaps if your builder is using a nice white primer, you could talk him into priming everything (walls and ceilings) but just painting the walls and leaving the ceilings with just the primer. Since ceilings don't get touched (at least not normally), if you like the look of the white primer, you can get by without putting a coat of finish paint on your ceilings.

Your builder might still want to charge you something extra because he would still have to mask off the ceilings before spray painting the walls but it ought to be a lot less less than $2000. Just a thought.

I'm having the same dilemma. At first I thought it would be okay to have the walls and ceilings throughout my entire house all the same color, then I saw a photo on Pinterest of a beautiful effect in a crossbeam ceiling, where the beams were white, and the squares in between were a beautiful, rich tan color and I want to do that in my living room (12 ft. crossbeam ceilings)..Then it got me to thinking that I probably want all of my 11 ft. ceilings in my new house light and bright...white or off white anyways. So now I'm trying to figure out if I should just change to an off-white color to have sprayed on all walls/ceilings, then paint the walls whatever colors I want or keep the fawn color I originally chose and go ahead and let them spray that, then paint the walls/ceilings on the rooms I want changed. I almost think it would be less labor intensive and therefore more cost effective to just have them spray the white over everything and paint the walls I want painted. thoughts? I need to decide quickly. They're about to drywall in another week or so!

My parents house had primed ceilings in white. I assumed they were painted white. 17 years later they still look great. Maybe prime only on ceilings. Have a paint color for walls?
Jen

Our contract and builder are the same. I am going to choose a different ceiling and wall color for $450. Beyond that I may choose to paint different accent walls but I will either do that myself or just wait. I did a bunch of colors in my old house and I didn't really like it after awhile. I think I am going to try a single deeper more rich neutral and see how it works out. White-ish ceiling though.

Wow! That sounds like a major upcharge. My builders standard contract is one ceiling/trim color and 3 wall colors. Any additional color is 100.00 per color. Standard for my builder is flat wall paint. However, cost of labor may be substantial different in my area. I am getting all interior painting for 5000 sf for 13,500.

I think the idea of using the primer for ceiling color sounds like a good idea.

Good luck!

New construction is painted with spray equipment. All surfaces are painted at the same time, but only one color can be applied at a time. To do another color means another paint job. The second color has to be masked off or cut into the first color. That is more labor intensive than just spraying again.

The final coat should always be rolled on. If not, you will be repainting sooner rather than later.

I think opening up this old thread has caused some confusion donnareeh.

I prefer bright white ceilings because they really make the room brighter.

As far as what is easier there is a lot less ceiling area than wall area. You could ask them to just prime the ceiling and paint the walls if they won't do it all at a price you can afford.

Same color to walls and ceiling look confusing to me. Its your house why dont you simply select the color of walls and ceiling of your own choice ? I will prefer white color as it make your place brighter.

An upcharge for color changes is perfectly reasonable. We can all understand that the painter has to change the paint in his equipment, etc., etc., etc.

What's not reasonable is failing to make it clear in the contract that the ceiling is considered a wall. I'm sure this isn't the first time the contractor has done this, but it may well be the homeowner's first time. The contractor should've been more clear.

My builder wants to upcharge an additional $2,100 to spray a flat paint color and bright white on the ceilings and trim. I do like the color choice, but not the flat finish. Otherwise, they spray everything “Frosty White”, including the ceilings, at no charge. I would then have to pay a painter to repaint the ceilings and trim the bright white color. My question, is it easier to just pay the $2,100 to have the ceilings and trim painted the right color and then just pay another painter afterwards to redo the walls in an eggshell finish after I allow the house to settle.

$2100 in this context is pretty cheap.