£1,000–£1,500 to paint a medium lounge?! Is this normal?

I second the advice to get good quality trade paint. The stuff you buy from DIY shops is not the same quality as trade paint. Get yourself to a Dulux, Crown or Johnstone’s decorating centre. I am lucky, my brother works for Johnstone’s so he gets be great discount

We've just moved. Had our orginal house painted by a professional painter probably 5 years ago, possibly longer than that. I was able (with the help of the kids) to clean all scuff marks from moving. Walls looked great.

The house we've moved into was painted by a member of the house who said she was an interior designer. Scuff marks and dirty walls everywhere. Tried to wash the walls and what I can only describe as dirt circles due to smearing and paint coming off the walls.

We're saving up to get our painter round. Some things are worth spending for. The whole house is quoted at £6000 but he'll do a bit of the house at a time as we can afford it.

However, I would only pay that price for someone who was recommended and trusted. Anyone can charge a huge amount and do a shit job. Have you seen their previous work?

We are having our dining room 4m x 5m approx next month and the decorator says it will take her 2 days. One wall will have to be lining papered first. She will start at 8 am and work straight through till 5 pm, no breaks and she charges £140.00 per day. I am supplying the paint.

We are about to pay that for lounge, kitchen, utility, cloakroom walls and ceiling and doors!! South west…recommended by a friend so we know he does a good job.

Painting only walls and ceilings I painted a 2 bed terrace house in 1 day

It was a small house and I did start at 6am and finished at 4am the following morning.
Had the day off to sleep then did all the skirtings architraves and doors the next day

No drips or lines and used a roller on the end of a brush stail
Depending on the finish you want and if you are only doing one room I would be looking up tips on YouTube.

My thoughts are that these people don’t actually want to do the job and are quoting a high price to put you off hiring them. And if you do hire them they are going to do a terrible job anyway.

I just got my daughters room painted, its the first time its been done since we built the house so some taping needed fixed and nails had popped so some prep on the walls. It needed 3 coats on some of it as the original colour was green! It is about 6 x 5 metres included ceiling and skirtings he asked for £250 cash. He was working on a big job along the road and popped in and out for 3 days doing bits or waiting for stuff to dry but I thought that was an amazing price.

Get yourself on airtasker. I wouldn’t pay more than £500 tops.

It’s a one day job and unless it’s specialised paint it’s a honestly piss taking . Yes I know this will upset the decorators etc and that they will pay tax and insurance etc … I’ve been self employed before I’ve paid all that and I never charged anyone £1500 for a day

Depends on the state and size of the room.
If it is in good nick. It is either a fuck off price or a piss take. Quite a few of the so called painter and decorator tradesman can be less than semi skilled. Just a bunch of chancers really

Plumbers take the biscuit.

I think having to move the furniture yourself is a given these days.

But they should put down the sheets. For health and safety reasons if nothing else. Modern paints these days have come on leaps and bounds from years ago.

Better and quicker coverage. Smoother finishes and quicker drying. One coats, better coverage. Low odour.

Get some other quotes.

You may well find something cheaper.

Good Luck.
🤞☘️

Yep just do it yourself. Watch a few YouTube videos, you can do a decent job if not a professional finish

I live in Hertfordshire too. It cost us about 1300 to paint the entire downstairs. Granted it was all white, but was done wery well. Took several days. I think we paid £400 for our dining room to be painted .

Did you miss a zero at the end of that figure?

£1k would be top end for that.
£1.5k? No chance.

Me too. I do very basic prep of a light sand and wash down and I’ve never had the paint peel off my walls. I even managed to go from silk to Matt in my hallway. I do more heavy sanding on the skirting and doors.

I usually repaint every three years or so, to freshen it up and because I get bored of the colours.

it’s not that difficult to wallpaper either, unless it’s the stairway at the difficult height bit.

If you stick some music on I find it quite therapeutic. Have a go, it’ll be the best £1500 you’ve saved.

Earlier this year I paid £1800 for emulsion and gloss for the lounge -kitchen - dining room - utility - toilet and the hall and stairs. Quoted for 2 men 5 days included paint. We went away and left them to it. When we returned the house was immaculate! Worth every penny and they didn’t change the quote when we asked for the front door to be included. Your quote seems very high for one room. We live in a decent area and any work done seems to get an extra naught on as folk think we must be rolling it which we are not!

Oh you are so wrong there

yes

I paid my decorator £200 to paint three bedroom walls and wallpaper one wall. Plus gloss the skirtings .
Took him a day. Room is yards by 4 yards . ( West Yorkshire) . Plus one bacon butty and 4 cups of tea.

Tryingtokeepgoing I agree. I would love to see the result if someone painted a room in an hour. Fucking hell it would look like a 3 year old did it! 😀

Can't comment on price but last year we had a large lounge decorated through an insurance claim for water ingress. They wanted the room cleared which, frankly, wasn't possible so we negotiated that we moved as much of the furniture out as possible and the remainder was stacked in the middle of the room and covered. They worked round it

Agree, I used to do all my own decorating - when I did a medium size lounge with built in cupboards it too 2-3 days to prepare, 1 day for undercoat and 1 day for top.round here labour is a minimum of £200 a day, so I think the
Price is about right.

With filling holes, sanding, prepping and then painting it can definitely take 3 days. It depends if you want a cowboy or professional job.

@Blueberrymuffin8 I'd ask @Funkyfoxy for a quote as they can do it in half a day.

Price seems OK to me (Herts).
When I had mine done, all furniture was moved into the middle of the room & covered with dust sheets. Books, paintings etc were removed.