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

That's why I painted all the rooms in my house myself after getting ridiculous quotes.

Especially because I could do it while the house was still empty/before I moved in all the furniture.

I think some trades are just pricing themselves out of business.

Yes I understand the supplies and costs might have gone up but potential customers are also having to deal with the cost of living going up so quotes have to be reasonable too.

150/200 a day for a trade is normal now.

It's only £25 an hour and they need to pay tax and petrol possible other equipment unless you're supplying literally everything. I earn 12.60 and hour standing around at a museum so I'd say they are more skilled.

Tho tbh I'm a really good painter so I've often dabbled with the idea of doing this but I hate prep so much it puts me off.

It's probably just that they need a minimum size job to be worth doing. Two people for two days is not an unreasonable limit.

This could be a tactic to put you off because really they don't want to do it. Whether you say yes or no, they win. They prefer big jobs rather than 1 room.

I say this because we had a quote to paint every room in our house - smallish to medium sized 3 bed house with small kitchen, small living room and small dining room etc, for £10, 000! This is with NO doors being painted.

Our second quote was just over £2,000.

We live in around the midlands area, not London.

They are getting ridiculous, because they can.

I recently did my hall, stairs and landing on a 3 floor five bed house.

Never again.

Took me bout 2 weeks and I couldn't move by the end of it.

If it's literally a case of putting a coat of paint on to freshen it up, then a local handyman might do it cheaper. Alternatively, do you have a good friend you could pay to do it or know someone who might like a few hours evenings/weekend?

Have to say it doesn't surprise me. Two separate friends paid £800 approx 15 years ago to have their halls painted (appreciate that's a harder job, but inflation will have massively increased that price).

It is supply and demand. They are in demand because they are either very good or there is a shortage of decorators in your area so they can charge higher prices. If everyone thought their prices were ridiculous then they wouldn't get any work.

But 2 to 3 days to paint a newly plastered room does sound about right. You mention in a previous post it would only need one coat of white and in another post that wouldn't take more than 48 hours. If you only apply one coat the plaster will show through and you can't paint directly onto plaster, it will first need one possibly two coats of watered down paint followed by one or two coats on top. So two days for painting, allowing time to dry between each coat, then another day for skirting boards.

Having had a well reputed Painter and Decorator do some work in my house, I now honestly think it isn't worth using them. I do a better job myself frankly. And I'm not particularly skilled.

So for me, it isn't the cost as much as it is poor value for money.

I would post on Nxt Door and just see what your budget is and see who wants to do it for that budget. I did this for a cleaner and got a really good rate and the person came two hours later

You can't pay a good painter/decorator to come out and do a mediocre job. You say it's all prepped, but it won't be prepped to their standards, and therefore the end product won't be to their standards.

£850 is reasonable for a proper start to finish job on a room that size. If you just want someone to slap one coat of paint on the walls, look for someone who calls themselves a handyman or similar.

So it's a room with no lights or doors?

I used to do all my own decorating apart from wallpapering as I've never had the confidence but always did a good job. Thorough prep is the secret! I am old now and just cannot face it and most of my house needs doing. I have begun the early stages of getting recommendations and working out a budget. I hate the whole process, getting the quotes, having trades people in the house which always makes me really anxious and the general upheaval. I live alone and only have myself to rely on and while that has its advantages sometimes having to sort everything myself really gets me down

Basement cell?

*insurance
*Fund for new van/service/repairs
*National insurance
*Actual hourly rate
*Their holiday pay
*Clothing

Heaven forbid they earn any more than the equivalent of minimum wage

@sciaticafanatica you don't like the cost so do it yourself. I'd happily pay to have most of our house done, especially the rooms with vaulted ceilings, the hard to match wallpaper and the double height stairs/ landing.
They will do a better job than me. And I don't have to clear up after myself either .

Tiny kitchen, 1 living room, 1bathroom, 3bedrooms, 2 loos, tiny utility room - $11,500.00 Australia (~£5500.00gbp)
it’s the labour hours that cost.

A painter did my living room, hall and stairs, one bedroom and loft hatch 1.5 years ago for £300. He did a great job and took less than a day. YANBU. Some of the comments on here are wild. Must be in the trades themselves 🙃

It’s about 1k per room where I live, it doesn’t seem to make a difference what size a room is. I do think it’s worth it as the finish is so good.

I had a similar crazy quote last year by someone who I think was trying it on. Also the quote was open-ended in that 'it might take longer than 2 days' - red flag time, I could end up paying £1000 at that rate! Ended up with a single painter chap who did the lot for £392. Fantastic job. So I'd say go with finding someone else!

We paid about 900 ish recently although we had one side of a door done and two doors had a varnish coat applied plus an archway painted. It took one person a couple of days would have been quicker but they needed to wait for the paint to dry in fact it was more like two half days he was very quick. Our walls and ceiling had been freshly plastered and prepped beforehand. We paid for the wall paint and they supplied the gloss and varnish. I agree it was expensive but at least he did a good job and it would have taken us ages to do ourselves and wouldn't look so professional.

Hire a paint sprayer. It'll take about 29 minutes.

Got a quote to install air con the other day, trunking is already in place, holes already in the wall, power is already run to an isolating switch. Only thing to be done is remove the refrigerant from the old unit, remove those units, and put the new units in, connect, test and commission.

got told it was a 3-day job (bit of a stretch but not outrageous), and quoted £7,500 including supply). Unit is £3k inc VAT. They wanted 4.5k for 3 days work. 🤯

That’s mental I hope you laughed him out of the house

Did you ask for the cash-in-hand price ?

Just had second quote of £375. One person 1.5days max