Just had a quote to paint my living room

[sciaticafanatica]

It’s a big standard terrace living room.
no doors to paint.
4 walls a ceiling and skirts
all white.
it took me a day and a half to paint 3 years a go.
just been told it’s a 2 man job over 2 possibly 3 days and £850.
i honestly couldn’t stop laughing.
Trades are getting ridiculous

I wanted 6 window frames painted - outside only - and was quoted £1200!

2 days. £400.

I was quoted £400 to repaint ONE SIDE of my timber front door. I declined.

@slightlydistracive been having back problems for a few months so thought I would get the professional in. If tomorrow’s quotes are as stupid then I will be doing it myself

@SecretNameforMNthink we had the same guy quoting 😂

We've renovated or done up a lot of houses
Decorating we do ourselves and house is empty, no carpets or things to move.

Last 2 weekends partner has been doing our kitchen. He commented what an absolute faff and how much extra work it is doing an inhabitated room. Extra care re sanding, taping etc.
He worked out costings in his head and was astounded if he had to pay.
Basic room you're looking at £400

Has it already been sanded and mist coated? If not and it's freshly plastered there's an absolutely massive amount of prep required and the quote is very reasonable.

@Survivingnotthriving24it has… I literally just need a coat of white emulsion on the walls & ceiling and a coat of eggshell on the skirt

We were quoted 6k to have 2 internal doors, living room + kitchen walls, the walls in the hall + upstairs hall. Then we found someone else who did the downstairs and the hall for 2k and we painted the doors and upstairs bedrooms ourselves. We didn't find the task difficult at all - and we have never done it before. So actually it's a great business that you can charge so much for something that doesn't require much skill or knowledge or time (we just watched a youtube video).

My foster son knows them. They all play for the same disability cricket team. The painters and decorators have just completed their first year at college. They told me they are saving up to buy a van. One of them has passed his driving test but no vehicle the other is having driving lessons. In September they go back for their second year. I'm sure most colleges would have similar.

I’ve always done it better myself, and I’m horribly fussy. Expensive paint, fitch brushes and baby rollers do the trick.

A lot of good emulsion nowadays doesn’t need washed walls or sanding. Gloss still does, and door frames are a ballache, but you can always spray paint doors in 20 min. If you take them outside.

Ah yes, that makes total sense then. Hopefully you will be able to find someone who comes up with a better quote.

Seems reasonable
£200 each person per day
they need to pay their tax and other overheads from that as well.

You’ve got a living room with no doors, light switches or fittings?!? That’s…unusual. 🤔

My experience of decorators is they charge a lot and I’ve frequently thought their finish isn’t noticeably better than mine. I was quoted 6k to decorate our 4 bed house (not particularly big IMO). I laughed and got the paint brushes out.

@MyLovnot really unusual to have a room re plastered, new lights to go in, new skirts and to not put the doors back on till the new flooring is fitted after the painting 🙄

How did you find the students? Excellent news to hear.

No one coat is nonsense, no decorator is going to only apply one coat.

Do it yourself then. The painting is the easy bit if you've done all the preparation.

@spoonbillstretfordi would if I wasn’t suffering back problems.
what I won’t do is pay someone who is clearly a overpriced chancer

They massively take the piss OP. Everyone is so money grabbing nowadays. I renovate my own homes a lot, outside of work. I often think I'm in the wrong job with these prices. If I'd have paid myself for the work I'd done in the past month, I'd have earned probably £8-10k. Ridiculous

Remember the students won't be insured if there are any issues or damage that arises at the property.

Maybe they didn't want the work particularly unless they were well paid for it? They don't have to work for you. Perhaps they didn't really want to.

I'm paying 950 for my hallway to be done, but that does include 7 door frames, the bannister, painting and wallpaper including lining the walls.

He's providing the paint for the woodwork and lining paper and I'm sorting the rest. He's a one man band and it's taking 5 days.

I think that is a ridiculous amount. I got my hall, stairs and landing done which included banister and 11 doors for £800. One man, did it in a week. This was last year. He did a cracking job.
I bought all the paint, can’t remember how much it was but it wouldn’t have been more than £200.