Can you make a living as a domestic painter and decorator?

[ShimmiedIntoLife]

I have lost my corporate job. I dread the thought of job hunting to end up in the same soul destroying reality. It paid well though but made me and by extension DH miserable. I love painting, walls, ceilings, fences, outdoor furniture, it has been my weekend escape for years. I will need to upskill on woodwork. I appreciate loss of pension contributions, no sick pay, etc, so maybe I live in a fantasy world thinking I can make a living. I would be curious to hear from those who know. Thank you.

I have just paid £200 a day for a female decorator. She was amazing and I happily left her in my house whilst I went to work. My daughter is paying £300 a day in London.

If you get on the commercial gravy train you can do even better than that, a lot better - my personal best is £250 from the NHS for 16 minutes of my time 😀

It was a taxing job, a sister had reported the lights in a stairway kept randomly going off, but no one had touched the switch, a brief inspection showed that there was a switch at the top of the stairs as well 😂someone upstairs was turning them off 😂

My colleague had a patient with a morphine pump driver. It stopped working and a whole team came out, as it was classed an emergency. The cleaner had accidentally turned the plug off, at the wall.

Yes, people do. Are you confident about all the trickier bits though-IK like painting, but not the high ceilings/more awkward bits. If you are, go for it, round my area people are always asking for someone reliable who is avilable quickly.

I think you absolutely can, I’ve just booked a highly recommended local painter and decorator to paint a kitchen, downstairs toilet, living room, hall stairs and landing and agreed on £1200, I think she said it would take 5/6 days.

I'd always choose a woman trades over s man especially as I work from home alone. It's a no brainer for me really, advertise your lservice local community centres, temples, mosques & refuges. Many communities and women would prefer to hire a female trades person.

Do you think the many thousands of people working as painter decorators are not making a living? What a patronising weird op.

Yeah same here, DH and FIL are painter and decorators, DH has arthritic knees and a horrendous shoulder and neck issue which no one can fix, he's been this way since he was about 35. FIL has had arthritis everywhere since he was about 40.

Yes absolutely decent painters and decorators are like gold dust round here id absolutely hire you

You can if you can find people to pay you! The trick is finding customers and then doing a good enough job they don't sue you.

having said that, I think trades are starting to suffer a bit where I live with more tradesmen now qualified after the last decade of realising what a rather awesome job it was in terms of finances vs time spent qualifying, plus often with little school qualifications. I contacted 3 plumbers for quotes for a small job last Sunday night, one of them came out to do it Monday morning. (Not an emergency so he clearly had nothing else booked in). Ten years ago, they had so many customers, they could charge what they liked. I don’t think that’s the case any more, certainly not where I live.

A woman who lives near me did exactly what you’re thinking. 20+ years in the corporate world, got made redundant when her company got taken over. Decent pay off. Set herself up as a “Lady Decorator”. High end, good quality. Very popular and in demand. I think she’s earning pretty well.