Ask three shops what a bucket of paint costs in Lagos and you will get three answers, none of which help you budget a job. Part of that is the market. Most of it is that “a bucket of paint” covers products that behave nothing like each other.
Below are our own current prices, what sits behind the gaps, and the one calculation that tells you whether a bucket is expensive or not.
What a bucket costs
These are the current prices for 20 litre packs across our range, cheapest first.
| Product | Finish | Spread rate | 20 litres |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acrylic Emulsion | Matt | 6 to 8 sqm per litre | ₦20,500 |
| Repello Economy Matt | Matt | 6 to 8 sqm per litre | ₦58,985 |
| Ruby Matt | Matt | 10 to 12 sqm per litre | ₦61,200 |
| Repello Primer | Semi-gloss | Varies by surface | ₦69,875 |
| Quality Acrylic Satin | Glossy | 12 to 14 sqm per litre | ₦76,500 |
| Ruby Satin | Gloss or semi-gloss | 14 to 16 sqm per litre | ₦91,800 |
| Repello Ruby Matt | Matt | 10 to 12 sqm per litre | ₦99,500 |
| Maxshield | Matt | 16 to 18 sqm per litre | ₦127,500 |
| Sungard | Semi matt | 18 to 20 sqm per litre | ₦132,600 |
| Weather King Satin | Glossy or matt | 16 to 18 sqm per litre | ₦142,800 |
Same volume, same bucket, and the top of the list costs about seven times the bottom. That gap is not margin. It is what is inside.
Why one 20 litre bucket costs seven times another
Paint is pigment and binder carried in water or solvent. The binder is what holds the film together once the water leaves, and it is the most expensive ingredient by a wide margin. A cheap emulsion carries less binder and more extender, which is why it goes on thin, needs more coats, and chalks off an exterior wall after a couple of rainy seasons.
Look at the spread rate column again. Acrylic Emulsion covers 6 to 8 square metres per litre. Sungard covers 18 to 20. That is not a marketing number, it is a consequence of how much solid material is left on the wall after the water evaporates. Higher solids means better hiding, fewer coats, and a film thick enough to survive weather.
Exterior products carry a further cost. They need UV stability so the colour does not fade, and they need to stay flexible enough to move with a wall that expands in the afternoon heat and contracts overnight. That chemistry is not cheap.
The number that actually matters
Comparing bucket prices is close to useless. What you want is cost per square metre, which is the bucket price divided by the area it covers. Using the conservative end of each spread rate, one coat:
| Product | Covers (1 coat) | Cost per sqm |
|---|---|---|
| Acrylic Emulsion | 120 sqm | about ₦171 |
| Ruby Matt | 200 sqm | about ₦306 |
| Quality Acrylic Satin | 240 sqm | about ₦319 |
| Ruby Satin | 280 sqm | about ₦328 |
| Sungard | 360 sqm | about ₦368 |
| Maxshield | 320 sqm | about ₦398 |
| Weather King Satin | 320 sqm | about ₦446 |
The ranking changes. Sungard has a higher sticker price than Maxshield but works out cheaper per square metre, because it stretches further. If you were choosing between those two on price alone you would pick wrong.
The gap also narrows dramatically. On the bucket, the spread between cheapest and dearest is seven times. Per square metre it is under three times. Most of what looks like a huge price difference is just a difference in how far the tin goes.
A real job, costed
Take a three bedroom flat with roughly 320 square metres of internal wall, which is a fair average once you have subtracted doors and windows. Two coats, so 640 square metres of coverage needed.
With Acrylic Emulsion at 6 square metres per litre you need about 107 litres, so six 20 litre buckets. That is ₦123,000.
With Ruby Matt at 10 square metres per litre you need 64 litres, so four buckets ordered, though three and a bit gets used. Four buckets is ₦244,800.
So the cheaper paint really is cheaper here, by a wide margin, and for interior walls that stay dry it is a sensible choice. The picture inverts outside, where a cheap emulsion will not survive and you end up paying for labour twice.
That last point is the one most budgets miss. Paint is usually the smaller half of a painting job. If a cheap exterior coat means repainting in three years, the paint you saved on is dwarfed by the scaffolding, labour and disruption you pay for again.
Does buying the big bucket save money?
Not with us, and this surprises people. Our 4 litre and 20 litre packs are priced at the same rate per litre on almost everything.
Acrylic Emulsion is ₦4,100 for 4 litres and ₦20,500 for 20. Both come to ₦1,025 a litre. Maxshield is ₦25,500 and ₦127,500, both ₦6,375 a litre. Weather King is ₦7,137 a litre either way.
The one exception runs the other way. Quality Acrylic Satin is ₦3,750 a litre in the 4 litre pack and ₦3,825 in the 20, so the small tin is marginally better value.
Buy the size that matches the job. A 20 litre bucket opened for a single bedroom will skin over before you get back to it, and paint has a 12 month shelf life once it leaves us.
What to check before you pay
Ask for the spread rate in writing. Any manufacturer who will not tell you how far a litre goes is asking you to buy blind, and the number is the only way to compare two prices honestly.
Check that the product is registered. Ours carry SON registration, which matters if the paint is going on a project that will be inspected.
Ask what the price includes. Tinting to a specific shade is standard with us and does not change the price, so a quoted figure should be the figure you pay. We tint from a library of over 2,400 notations, and you can browse the full colour library before you order.
Finally, get the litres right before you get the price. Buying two buckets too many is a bigger mistake than paying slightly over the odds per litre, and it is the most common one we see.
If you tell us the wall area and the surface, we will tell you the product, the number of litres and the cost. Request a quote or message us on WhatsApp and we will work it out with you.