AIBU to feel this is taking the piss because of my postcode?

[LostGirl123]

I live in a "posh" area of London but in a run-down cheap aparment. Trying to make it nicer to live in, and want to paint the lounge. Have chronic illness so wanted to avoid doing it myself, and called ad on Gumtree who advertise painters, handymen, etc.

Quote for lounge was £120, excluding paint. That sounds high to me?

Aibu? Does this sound about right? Fully prepared to be told I am unreasonable, but it just sounded like quite a lot for one room to me. Then again I have never hired a painter before, always done my own, so what do I know.

Nah , I don't know the size of your room but it seems reasonable to me

Are they preparing the room too ?

I paid £125 excluding paint for my bathroom to be painted last week in the North so I would say £120 in London for a lounge was reasonable.

Pretty reasonable I think.

Always get more than one quote, then you'll have a better idea of the going rate

I'd work it out on hours and say one person might take 2 1/2 hours to do it, say 3 (if they work at a reasonable rate and don't spend half their time drinking coffee/on the phone/nipping out for messages). £120 gives them £40 an hour...that's quite expensive for a semi skilled trade!

Depends on how big the room is, how complicated (mix of woodwork, emulsion and fiddly cornicing?) how much prep is required and how long the job will take. Tbh, sounds reasonable to me but they should have come round to look at the job and discuss it with you rather than quoting over the phone.

I paid about £600 for 5m x 5m room, minimum prep, bit of woodwork, 2 coats of F&B emulsion. Not in London but in a nice area.

I would get more quotes, look at sites like ratemybuilder rated people or myhammer for reviewed tradespeoplein your area. They should come Ito your home and look at the job before quoting. Not normal to quote blind.

Sounds about right for a day's work for a v good decorator

Sorry for typos

Kim, they should also have public liability insurance coming out of that figure too.

I think that's a bargain, and I'm in a small not posh area!

that is cheap.

Bargain!

£120 doesn't sound high to me and I don't live anywhere near London. I also usually do the mental maths on number of hours a person will take to complete a job. Will the person prep the walls, will there be 2 coats of paint and is any woodwork being glossed?

If I had any doubts and the time, for a small job I would get one more quote.

Is that reasonable? I'm in Scotland and got living room, kitchen and hall painted (including paint) for £120. Not small rooms either.

How can it take a day to paint a living room, Knackered? Especially if the OP were to supply quick drying trade quality paint. Its not as if its a hallway or stairwell included.

kim147 Plus time coming out to give you a quote

Coming out to do a quote (and we don't know if this was just a telephone quote or not here) is just a loss leader. You don't charge for going to job interviews, do you?

Good quote. Ask around for other quotes or advertise.

Facebook is a good place to ask too.

I would reckon on £100 for a decorator for a day's work. What does the quote include exactly? Doing a room properly (prep, woodwork, couple of coats of paint) I'd think that was a really good price.
Main thing is to get a few quotes so you're confident though. We usually get people through something like checkatrade so we know they're not cowboys.

Also it may need 2 coats of paint........so double the time taken to do it.

NB not london though south east.

Sounds suspiciously cheap to me. What does it include?