Painting quote.. is this reasonable???

I understand why you question it. I was also shocked by the prices quoted for decorating. However the daily charge in this area is £200 per day, Materials have risen in price substantially too.

Paying for a good workman and good preparation saves you lots of money in the end. Cheaper workmen get the job down in less time by doing a not so thorough job on sanding, making good and the materials they use.

Where Work requires skilled tradesmen people you get what you pay for.

No you didn't give it a thought, just declared it's easy to do. No it's not, not for everyone!

I know I’m quite shocked at how little he’s earning considering the graft. I think because I usually do the painting myself it seemed like a lot of money but it really isn’t.

Took dh 6 years to paint our house and it was hard work with fitting in a full time job. Love it done so quickly. Get three quotes but wouldn't be surprised if they around this price or higher

Sounds expensive to me too, I had a quote to paint my large kitchen-diner, it was £250 including materials, he thought it would be a day's work, maybe run a couple of hours into a second day.

Just had hall, stairs and landing done. Took 4.5 days and was £750 inc all materials. I thought it was a bargain.

Damn, I’ll do that for you in half the time with half cost.

Well, yes. I thought all that went without saying. 🙄

That’s £14 an hour, well under what anyone can realistically find a good decorator for these days.

Really depends on what they are quoting for
architrave skirting, et cetera et cetera take forever if they’ve all got to be rubbed down and there’s lots of filling actually it could be a really good price not loving the price for one room though in comparison, the guy used for my stuff charges 400 a room ish no change of and the walls are in a a really good state medium to smallish rooms in the house

@newoldhome that's a lot for your job. It's far longer than a top decorator would allow too.

There are quite different 'qualities' of 'Decorators' around as well.. You need to decide on what 'level' you're prepared to pay for.

Oreviously I did my own & I'm a perfectionist, fussy fussy fussy. I'm prepared to pay for someone who is highly skilled now that due to accidents (complete shoulder replacement, fucked knees & BPPV (vertigo) make it virtually impossible to do it myself. But I'm struggling to find someone at the moment.

A good friend keeps going on about using her Decorator. She thinks he's great . She's got a lovely house & from a distance the painting looks fine (if she posted pictures it would look great) but closer up it's dreadful. it's hard to tell a friend that's why I won't use him.

yes, he'd be cheaper, but it would annoy me a LOT.

im in the SE, nothing is cheap!

im on 'Next Door' but 'reviews' are often not worth the space they're taking up! Most friends haven't used a Decorator (except the one I mentioned earlier).

How fussy are you? (There's nothing wrong with being like my friend & not like me. In fact her life is much less stressful because she's much more laid back!!)

What condition are your walls in?

Trades build in slippage time to allow for unforseen issues. £720 for almost a week's work, his experience, insurance cover, getting there etc isn't bad

Low quote, high quote, OP either one will have you thinking you've made the wrong choice! Haven't read the whole thread (sorry), but if you're talking prepping each room (sanding, undercoat, topcoat), then it will take more than a day a room. Labour, materials, VAT, £2k doesn't seem stupid at all. Anyone saying that had this kind of work done for a few hundred, sorry, not by professionals you didn't.

It can be, if you're healthy & don't have any issues ( vertigo, knees that no longer do ladders, you can't stand a long time, have had a shoulder replaced, or physically disabled)

NOT to mention any non health related issues such as have babies/toddlers (and no one to mind them), have caring responsibilities taking up all your spare time.

or plain just don't want to.

No, it's really not. Not even with a top quality decorator. Only one taking the piss

It might be reasonable - it depends on how much work they do, how many coats, what condition it's in etc and what is the going rate for that type of work locally.

You could try looking up going rates on consumer websites such as Which? or Checkatrade or similar to get some sense of hourly rates. And get a few quotes and ask them to break down the total figure to what is their hourly or daily rate.

All I can say from experience is that getting painting and decorating done does seem to be expensive. So I wasn't shocked by your figure, though I'm in a different region - south east. Recently a house with stairs, 3 bedrooms, one living room had two painters in for 10 days but I don't know all of what they did. Sometimes they do other work such as putting up curtain rails or blinds.

To save a bit of money, could you paint one or two of the rooms yourself? I did my whole house myself - even the stairwell and landing! It takes longer but it's easy enough to do if the walls are in good condition and you can manage a bit of patience and technique, with a steady hand and a good little brush for cutting in the edges.

We've just had hall stairs and landing done, £1100 and ten days work. I was here the whole time and the decorator hadn't stopped bar 15/20 minutes at lunchtime. He's done an amazing job, the walls are super smooth and it's like looking at a different house, the amount of prep he did was insane.
I usually slap a coat of paint on the walls in other rooms but I couldn't do the hallway because of the height, now I can see what a professional does I won't be doing it myself anymore, it was worth every penny.

We had hall, stairs and landing done, over three floors, and it took one guy three days. That didn’t include banisters though- they’re natural wood. I’d guess that could have doubled it, as they are both fiddly and a lot of surface area.

That's a decent quote. You should ask for a price break down so you see how much that'll actually cost the painter- you'd be shocked!

I would imagine the bedrooms and living rooms will be much quicker, but stairs are awkward and landings have many doors you have to cut in around. 5 days seems too little to do a thorough job on 3 rooms, stairs and landing. 12 days seems excessive. As others say, get more quotes.

@newoldhome have you seen the quality of his workmanship, I would pay good money for good work, you are going to live there & see it everyday.

I’m in SE and got a quote of £2k to paint one bed house inc ceilings and woodwork/doors.

He is going to get it done whilst I am away for two weeks.

I think it sounds reasonable.

I'm in SE England and that's a good price

Depends on how much prep it needs. Can take a day to prep a room properly. And does that include woodwork? Then sounds good price to me! A £166 /day rate is really good.

To do a proper job, the time and money sounds spot on.