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

Not only the practical side of the job is included but also the cost of
Van and associated costs
Up keeping of equipment
National insurance
Tax
Public liability insurance
Probably a insurance to cover any sickness

The price isn't just about slapping on a coat of paint. They have to pay their own bills too and earn a wage to support themselves.

I had a similar quote for my living room 4 years ago, which I thought was outrageous back then. Ended up paying a cash in hand guy £600 plus materials. The work took 3 days, so your quote sounds about right now.

Have you requested a Farrow and Ball paint maybe? If so that could have pushed the price up. It has a bad reputation with trades people. I discovered why when I used it myself in our house and had to do 5 coats!

I agree.

Decorators daughter here, dad started at 14 on an apprenticeship and retired at 65. This post nails it 💯

There is often an assumption that decorating is an easy trade and anyone can do it. There is also a world of difference between the walls in an old house and those in a newer house that have only ever been emulsioned.

As for expecting the decorator to clear the room? That’s ridiculous, my dad used to go to some people’s houses and they would still have their curtains up!

and lets not even get into some people buying their own materials which are often poor quality and not trade standard to save a few quid.

They are offering a service that you need.
They will charge you the maximum they can get away with / that someone is prepared to pay.
As a sole trader their want to maximise their earnings.
They are hit by the cost of living crisis too.
That’s just how it is.

Lots of people believe tradespeople should do their work for a pittance.

If it’s a simple job and I don’t want to pay that I would do it myself.

Our lounge is large, 6.5m x 4m, and we’ve been quoted £450 (by a reliable local decorator that comes recommended by many), which includes prep, paints for walls, ceiling, and woodwork (door, skirting board, window sills). Can leave the big stuff in the room as long as it’s off the wall and they’ll cover and work round it. We have asked for 2 other rooms doing at the same time (£400 each), so whether that’s brought the overall price down a touch I’m not sure) but I found it a very reasonable quote.

I’ve been quoted £250/day rate in South East - he’s so busy he hasn’t had time to come and give me an actual quote yet, so plenty of people are willing to pay for his work.
I am one of them - I’m 65 and fairly fit, but the effort of getting on and off a step-ladder, getting on the floor to do skirting, reaching up with a roller etc is more than I want to do.
I also don’t want to spend a week with everything upside down while I do a wall a day, and I know I won’t get a flawless result.

Having used professional decorators in the past, the difference in finish from what I could achieve is amazing.

But surely the point here is that you’ve had several quotes and they’re all in the same range - that is the going rate! Pay it/don’t pay it and do it yourself, your choice but you’re not going to find a professional locally who is cheaper.

It sounds perfectly reasonable. Do you expect them to live off fresh air. A business needs to run and make profit. You can always pick up a paintbrush yourself? Are you living in the noughties where minimum wage was about £4?

Do as other poster suggested and DIY using YouTube. Day 1 get some filler and fill in any little holes in walls. Leave to dry. Sand with fine paper until smooth. Tape off top of walls. Paint ceiling first with long roller. Two coats allowing drying time in between. Day 2 sand skirtings. Fill in any gaps between skirting and wall with decorators caulk. Run your finger along to give a smooth finish. P Leave to dry. Prime and paint 2 coats. Paint doors and around door frames. Day 3 If you already have painted walls paint over with roller. Decide upon matt or silk emulsion. You can buy a special roller to go down behind radiators. This should be dry in a couple of hours. Then paint on second coat. It really is not difficult wall papering is also not hard especially if you don't have a pattern to match. You would find you spend about £100 -£120.

Hmmm. I've just read your updates, OP. Is it a new build? You said the walls are in good condition, no holes or cracks to fill, and you don't want the ceiling or woodwork painted, just the walls? That seems like a very small job to me and you might as well just do it yourself.

We have got a decorator in because we want it done thoroughly and properly, and the existing condition of the walls and woodwork means that a lot of prep is needed.

I suspect a professional decorator will not want to do the job if they can't do it properly, and that's probably why the quote is high.

Oh and of course we clear the room beforehand, that is not the decorator's job!

That’s quite expensive. I have a large open living room long wide hall way and I recently got both painted and glossed including doors and my bathroom glossed for £320 and it was done mostly one day they came back next morning to finish off. I moved my sofas but they covered everything. X

My decorator is very good, does a thorough and professional job. Has been doing our bedrooms one at a time and taking a week to do each room, as there has been a lot of prep to do - lots of woodwork to prep (sanding varnish off and treating wood first to stop colour coming through, before doing primer and top coat) as well as fresh plaster to mist coat (we got artex ceilings skimmed over, and got some electric work done which meant some new plaster on walls too). Charges £150/day for labour so a week is £750 which I think is reasonable for the amount of work involved. (And the pricing is competitive compared to other quotes we got.) We are in an expensive area btw, not London but one of the most expensive cities outside it.

Materials are obviously extra. The cost of paint depends on which paint you choose, we get low VOC paint and have used some Earthborn (which is expensive) but have also used Valspar Premium which is good value, it's good quality paint for the price, and they colour match too.

We had four quotes for painting a small 2 bed bungalow in Oxfordshire. £4,500, £2,100, £2,000 and £1,100.

That's so cheap for a plasterer!!

I was going to say £1k may be ok, but having read that this does not include skirtings or ceilings this is honestly ridiculous (and I’m used to London prices) Painting the walls alone with decent paint will probably only take you a day/day and a half at most.

For about 150 quid you can easily do this yourself.

And that 150 quid may be OTT.

If filling and sanding worry you.... just watch some youtube videos. You can do this OP.

I say this as someone who refurbished my deceased father's house over the summer. Overcome the nerves and it's easy. Just take your time.

I’m about to pay about £3,500 for an entire 2.5 bedroomed bungalow. That includes the paint.

My walls are in excellent co edition no holes to fill just a quick light sand, when i first started painting my place i didnt even do a light sand. Your prep work is dependent on the quality of your walls. Some of us are lucky to have them in very good condition. Also they stay that way and have done for the 14yrs ive lived in the house. What sre you doing to your wall that you have lots of filling in to do..punching them? Banging things into them.

But the poster I quoted and responded to referenced 2 people for 5.5 days for £1k. I wasn’t commenting on your quote :)

Does that include paint?
I had a local man decorate my medium sized bedroom recently for £520 cash.
We bought the paint separately which was a couple of hundred quid extra.

so that’s £720 for cash in hand. Woodwork was colour drenched so less cutting in, etc. he said it would have been more if I had different colour woodwork.

250na day is the going rate so lower end sound reet

I need my house exterior painted (not every bit just parts), google was saying £8k (no way can I afford that!). What kind of tradesman was it?

I agree.
A living room in an hour lol!

We paid about £700 for a bedroom which needed wall paper stripping and walls smoothing down. So I can see how a living room could be that much