Decorating - what to pay

Our decorator is just at the end of decorating our hall stairs and landing, three floors: 8 of the doors needed completely sanding/stripping to be painted white and there was a section of wall to be replastered after a pipe leak. Our decorator is VERY thorough in his preparation, which we like. He quotes for the job and it has worked out at around £125 per day. We live in West Essex, expensive area.

The £120 per day is a useful guideline. DH does all ours but recently we had to have our kitchen ceiling done as it was so uneven. We were quoted £120 which seemed a lot but he arrived about 9:30 and worked until 6:30 with just half an hour for lunch. There was lots of rubbing down, three coats of paint and the result was very good. He supplied the paint and the plastic sheets to protect the kitchen units; we supplied the tea and biscuits. It seemed a very fair payment for a day’s work.

Very reasonable, I was paying more than that 25 years ago.

I would certainly get at least one other quote, as it’s difficult to compare prices otherwise. I haven’t needed to use the service yet, but www.trustmark.org.uk/find-a-tradesman might be of use (other gransnetters may well know). Personal recommendation is preferable of course.

No-one could possibly (or realistically) give you an idea of price as it depends on the sq footage of walls, whether undercoat would be applied, whether windows/doors/skirtings are to be painted, her preparation and whether furniture would need moving and the area in which you live will dictate the hourly or day rate.

Why has she 'quoted' for one room but' estimated' for the other .? Costs from an estimate can escalate as work progresses so you end up paying more
It is recommended you obtain three quotations to give you the chance to compare prices.

I wouldn’t go by price but by recommendation, within reason. Our ceilings are quite high and I would expect to be charged at least £11 to 1200 , walls, ceiling and woodwork, also in the south east.

We are very lucky, we have a retired person who is self employed and does our decorating when we arent at home, we have a summer home in the UK we dont live in the UK, this man is so good, he buys everything, does all the work, tidies after he has finished, the place is spotless when we come to the house, and he doesnt charge anything like the prices some of you have quoted, he charges for the work he has done, not the time or days, because we arent home he can work without interruptions which is an advantage for him, I can say we have found a gem, lets hope he works for a few more years!

Good grief! The costs on here are really scary! Never had a decorater in always done it ourselves, so quite nifty at it by now. We have always avoided wallpaper like the plague (even though DH used to design it) It’s so much easier to cover marks and scuffs with emulsion and keep things looking good. At these prices l will be decorating for a long time to come l think!

We had a quote for Hall , stairs and landing which included 9 doors. Over £1000. We did it ourselves in the end.

We have just had our living room, hall stairs and landing with about 18 doors and bathroom done. It took two men two weeks just painting it white and they charged 2500 pounds. I thought this was very expensive but have no regrets as they were master craftsmen and the result is outstanding. I will definitely use them again. I suppose you get what you pay for!

Get your own materials end of story. £100 a day tops. Get a written price from everyone NOT a quote as they can change this to suit themselves.

We paid £900 for papering 1 wall in living room & painting the other 3 & ceiling, and for painting hall & stairs ( 9 doors)
We only provided the wallpaper.

This Trusted Traders site might help as it gives an idea of what painters and decorators charge.

trustedtraders.which.co.uk/articles/cost-guide-painters-and-decorators/

I’m in Hertfordshire pretty expensive area I’m guessing. I have similar rooms to you I was quoted £500 for 2 coats of paint, no paintwork being done and that was me buying the paint and me moving furniture.

What you need to bear in mind is that if the decorator is legitimately employed (or self employed) then there are a lot of costs to be met before he/she sees a bean.

Van/Car costs plus fuel
Employers or Class 1 National insurance
Liability insurance
Workplace Pension (by law these days)
Overalls, work-shoes etc.
Paint brushes, ladders and other tools

Taking all of the above into consideration, £120 per day seems very cheap.

I do all my own decorating( and most of the family's too) as it's one of the things I'm actually quite good at.

I would NEVER get any job done until I have compared several quotes from tradesman.
There are also websites that you can use to get a quote on charges in your area which will give you a guideline figure of what you would expect to pay for a local tradesman.
I'm not recommending any sites in particular but a quick google has just brought up a site called whatprice but there are many similar comparison sites.

Some of the quotes mentioned on here that other G'netters have paid are extortionate.

The U3A in my area keeps a list for members, of members' recommended tradespeople.

Nanny41 I had a decorator similar to yours, went on holiday and left him to it. Came home to everything returned in place. Curtains put back. I supplied paper he got paint etc. left any over with me in case touching up needed.

Unfortunately, he is now poorly, and I need a decorator it is 2004 since I had my lounge done. He charged around £400 then.

Our decorator charged £150 per day plus paint. Sounds like there is a lot of work to be done and furniture to be moved on top of that. preparation work takes quite a while before actual painting starts .

I do all the decorating here. Wonder how much I'm saving DH?!!

Fifteen to twenty pound per hour is about the going rate these days.Don't forget people have to pay tax and insurance too .Peoples time costs money.