Cost of painting

We were planning to have the parquet floor sanded and repealed and quotes were £2000+. But thankfully after all the furniture has been taken away along with rugs we can see the floor is actually in pristine condition except a couple of patches which we can almost certainly sort out ourselves.

Our decorator is due to start first week of July - two rooms - one painted walls, the other wallpaper. Plus all other paintwork.

We are providing the (very expensive) wallpaper. Everything else including lining paper, paint colour of our choice etc is provided by the decorator.

She is charging roughly just over £1000 per room. We live in the South East.

In case anyone hasn’t thought of it; if the paintwork has previously been painted in oil paint. That is the paint that needs a brush cleaner like Turps to clean brushes. In this case you shouldn’t paint over the top with water based paint (brushes for this are washed with water). This is because water based paint does not adhere to oil paint unless it is sanded down or has a really good primer which you can get for this purpose. If this is overlooked it can be painted over oil pant but is likely to gradually lift peel off. However, oil paint can be painted over water based with no worries. I watched a decorator painting my friend’s house and when I mentioned this to him. He said it would be fine . Well it was for awhile but she said the other day it would need doing again as she had lots of peeling. My dh also got paint out to paint the woodwork in the hall. He had started when I asked him about the paint he was painting over. It was oil paint but he sailed gaily on trying to reassure me that the water based paint was a good one. However, it wasn’t alright and started to peel after a few weeks. I understand it can be confusing but my long term hobby has been painting so understand how paint can work in this respect. So oil over acrylic (water based) but not water based over oil.

Last September I paid a decorator just over a thousand pounds to paint my large living room (two coats on the walls and ceiling, plus coving, skirtings and doors), and my bedroom which is also a large room (two coats on the walls and ceiling plus coving, skirtings and 2 doors, four fitted wardrobe doors). The cost included all preparation. It also included the paint which I chose and he bought at cost. It was a very fair price for a meticulous job but I had to wait months before he could start.

Guess unfortunately it probably depends where you live and a case of supply and demand

Last time this job was done I used a neighbour who is a painter and decorator. He worked from 9 to 1, when he went home to watch the racing results. He started in winter when my windows were swollen from the rain and wouldn’t open.
He was cheap but took nearly 3 weeks and I can’t bear living in a muddle that long.
That’s why I’m looking at prices and want a reputable firm.

win

jeanie99

Perhaps you should ask for daily rates.Last time I had any decorating done was 2 years ago it was £150 a day. I live in Lincolnshire.
My daughter who lives in the Cotswolds couldn’t find any one to do her home they were all busy. She is having to do the painting herself a hall stairs and landing.Thats a job I most definitely wouldn’t do myself.
Best of luck with your search.

The norm down here now is between 200-250 per day that is without the paint of course, if you want a proper painter, if you want a handyman you may get cheaper, however not many qualified tradesmen work for less than £25 per hour these days.

When the minimum wage is £12.21 for an untrained unualified person, Twice that amount, c£25.00 for a ualified experienced decorator seems uite reasonable. Remember a self-employed person has a whole raft of professional costs from running a van, to all kinds of extra insurances, basic euipment etc etc. A dayrate of £250- £300 seems uite reasonable.

Last Autumn we commissioned a firm of specialist builders to do work on our house. Their hourly rate was £72 for a general labourer and £93 for a specialist tradesman. Mind you their work rate was excellent and they did a full days hard work at that hourly rate.

Our large apartment (3 double bed, sitting/dining and kitchen, office, utility, 2 baths) was £6,000 last year, including some skim plastering.

jeanie99

Perhaps you should ask for daily rates.Last time I had any decorating done was 2 years ago it was £150 a day. I live in Lincolnshire.
My daughter who lives in the Cotswolds couldn’t find any one to do her home they were all busy. She is having to do the painting herself a hall stairs and landing.Thats a job I most definitely wouldn’t do myself.
Best of luck with your search.

The norm down here now is between 200-250 per day that is without the paint of course, if you want a proper painter, if you want a handyman you may get cheaper, however not many qualified tradesmen work for less than £25 per hour these days.

Blinkin heck up to eight grand 😩for a two bed.
I would say between 4 & 6 hundred per room. I would want it prepped & two coats for that price. Shop round.
You could ring your local decorating centre & get a recommendation.
Local handyman.
‘Next door’ recommendations.
We are in the north but our tradesmen want London wages 😩

Perhaps you should ask for daily rates.Last time I had any decorating done was 2 years ago it was £150 a day. I live in Lincolnshire.
My daughter who lives in the Cotswolds couldn’t find any one to do her home they were all busy. She is having to do the painting herself a hall stairs and landing.Thats a job I most definitely wouldn’t do myself.
Best of luck with your search.

We are both 83 this year and for the first time we have decided not to do the decorating ourselves. We are starting with the hall, stairs and landing and will see how that goes, I wouldn’t fancy giving the job of the whole house to one person without being confident they will do a good job. Our son and daughter in law have recently had some painting done in their house and have recommended the man they used so we will give the job to him, he will be retiring in a couple of years and does get booked up with work so we need to get our skates on. They paid £500 for the hall, no stairs as they live in a bungalow but there are five doors, he did the job in two days but he is an older man who turns up early and works until around 4:30 pm.

Sounds a lot to meI just had outer hall,inner hall,upstairs hall high staircase, all the ceilings,doors and radiators painted and that was including emulsioning over the paper. Took him 3 days 2 coats. He provided the white paint for all doors,skirtings, hall staircase,radiators and ceilings. £685. Get more quotes seens a lot to me.

I forgot the kitchen which he is doing too

I have just had a quote to have my 3 bedroom house done. He is not doing one bedroom nor the lounge, but all the rest including a huge staircase and 3 halls, conservatory, dining room 2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms the quote I had was 3,500.00 which I have accepted. My son had the whole pub done for that price by the same man, but bigger and less rooms of course.. I am in the south West

It depends how much work needs doing. We usually do our own painting and decorating but were rushing for time and got a quote to paint one room.

It was for two coats of paint on the ceiling and two coats on the walls. No prepping or anything else. We had already bought the paint. We were quoted £600 and told it would take three days. I was flabbergasted. We are in the North of England.

We ended up doing it ourselves and it took two half days. One half day for each coat.

Having come from a home where my mum and dad did all of their own DIY, I cannot comprehend the prices for this type of work. Maybe I am out of touch.

£3k seems reasonable considering you'll have a staircase and hall, £8k is ridiculous I had a kitchen/diner done 2 years ago following flood damage and it was £1,100. Sitting room £800 and £600 fir bedroom and ensuite. A lot of repairing seams was needed and he designed feature walls in all rooms. I an hoping to have hall and stairway done later this year and I know will be expensive as loads of doors but may explore changing to wooden doors rather than having painted. Make sure you get another couple of quotes.

That does sound quite a lot watermeadow but maybe your part of the southwest is expensive for tradesmen? We paid £8000 to have the outside of our house decorated (just windows and doors) in 2019, but it was a five storey house so needed scafolding and was a lot of work. They did a lovely job - we've moved now but I think that the paintwork is still as good as new.
Perhaps your friends and neighbours could suggest a decorator who would be less expensive but still reliable?

DS repainted my hall stairs and landing - did a fantastic job not a professional but a perfectionist. The job took six full days of work (sanding, washing, preparation) then painting so would be about £1000 labour plus materials. Good swap for me going through his work clothes (mending, washing and pressing) for him to start a new job.

We had the same type of discrepancy as M0nica has described when painting our victorian kitchen - lots of details with enormous sash windows - did we want them taking back to wood or sanding and overpainting?

The one we employed was still very good - we couldn't justify the prices of the most expensive man.
We had four quotes. One was SO much less than the two genuine "sand and paint" guys I expect he was a spare-time odd-jobver.

I don't doubt that the expensive quote would have been the most masterly work. He had worked on lots of heritage properties and expected the one room to be over a week.
If money was no object I would have chosen him.

We now need hall stairs and landing doing.... (eeek). This is three stories and will need a lot of scaffolding.

The last clown who painted my bedroom painted around the furniture. I went to have a look at the so called finished result, luckily checked it and told him to get out and stay out.

My house was built in 1988. I am 82 and don't feel safe to be on a small ladder so I would need help. But my house is in good condition, so I hope will "see me out".

£8,000 my goodness, mine needs doing too, but it ll stay undone if that’s the kind of prices

I would not commit to have the whole house decorated by someone I hadn't used before.

Allow £1,000 for labour for one room but check their per diem rate. Ask if you can speak to previous customers if you have any doubts.

Let them do one room to see the quality of their work and how they work. Obvously, if they are charging per day you want eight hours work and not to have them yakking on their phone for much of it - which so many tradespeople are apt to do nowadays.

However much the quotation is do make sure you get a fixed price in writing before the work starts.

I’ve never employed a decorator (and indeed, haven’t painted my house in over 30 years) but I’d guess the £8000 quote doesn’t want the job.