Painting quote.. is this reasonable???

[newoldhome]

I have moved into a small house. I had someone come round to do a quote to paint the living room, stairs, landing, one double bedroom and one small box room.

The rooms are small. The living room is fairly small. The whole house is 600sqft

The guy has quoted me £2,000 (not including materials) and said it will take him 12 days to do.
12 days??? I thought it would be 5 days MAX.

I said I didn't anticipate that length of time. So he said if I want he will just do the living room so it's done before Christmas which will take him 4 days and will be £720.

I feel absolutely baffled by this. I'm new to this so just wanted to check if this seems right. I'm in the northwest.

Price wise if you break it down to an hourly/daily rate it doesn't sound to expensive.

Most trades people have a set hourly/daily rate but based on the fact the hourly/daily rate offered differs from what they'd charge for 12 days as to what the 4 day rate charge would be I get a few more quotes.

Maybe they work on a job rate and pluck a figure out of the air.

I'd also enquire when asking what their 'day' is, as in is it an 8 hour day or a 4 hours, pop off Pete, day.

You need to get more quotes. Sounds expensive to me.

Doesn’t sound to bad to me, but I am in the east of England. As to the number of days, they have to prep, so that may take a day each room depending on what needs doing, then two coats of paint, woodwork takes ages to do m

but get some more quotes and ask for references from those he has done jobs for

It's a lot, but painting is expensive these days. We need a whole annexe doing and I have decided just to do it myself. So far only done skirting boards, door frames and one wall and it's taken ages!!!! So yes, 12 days might be realistic if two coats of paint....

That doesn't sound too bad to me. They will be doing a proper job probably, with undercoats etc. (not the slapdash attempt that I would do). That's 2 and a half weeks work, for a self employed person it sounds okay. I would always get more than one quote though to be sure.

I am in the North West and had a smilar amount of work done for £1000 and he was done within a week. Definitely get more quotes.

I always get 3 quotes. at the very least !

Are you just asking for walls or woodwork too? The rooms will need prepping before painting and 12 days sounds about right for that many rooms.

Five days and five rooms (Inc stairs)?

If you have a proper tradesman, they'll need to strip back/wash down, prep, do a first coat, and then a final. That's a good fortnight at least right there.

The hourly rate is ok but it does not take five days to paint a living-room, even doing the woodwork.

I think that is reasonable considering he is supplying the material. He sound like our decorator who does thorough prep work. You will regret it if you do not get the basics right. Thorough preparation takes ages.

12 days to do all of that sounds totally reasonable.

Daily rate of £166 is cheap, usually £250 here in East Mids.

Get more quotes @newoldhome that is easily DOUBLE what it should be. They're trying to fleece you.

Are you a woman alone? I'm not saying women are daft - but some tradesmen like this will assume women know fuck all about anything, and will ramp up the costs.

I got 2 such men around in the summer to get a price to supply and fit 2 fence panels, and 3 fence posts. £900 - and £800. I was like

Got a third one in - local lad. Did it for £285. Where the fuck did the other 2 get their prices from?!

I'm married btw, but was presenting as alone - as it was just me ringing and seeing the men when they came.

What state are the walls in? If they need filled, sanded, cleaned down etc then that takes time and effort, and if you are getting skirting boards etc done as well then that quote starts to not look too bad. Getting a good finish compared to just slapping paint on takes more effort than you would perhaps think.

Get another couple of quote though, for sure.

A good painter is expensive.

that is easily DOUBLE what it should be. They're trying to fleece you
Of course it isn’t. £1000.00 for 12 days would be less than minimum wage.

OP, might depends where in the country you are, but that sounds reasonable for here. And the 12 days also sounds about right for that many rooms - done properly obviously - running down, prepping, undercoating, painting. Are you clear on exactly what they plan to do? IE not just slap another coat on top etc. Even so, good practice to always get more than one quote and don’t just go for the cheapest either. Any local references for them?

That's a decent daily rate but quite a lot of dates. I think it depends what you want. If yiu just want a single coat of rollered on paint in each room, its expensive. But if they are doing walls, ceilings and gloss with under coats etc, the time all adds up.

Learn to do yourself maybe?

We had our hall stairs and landing done in the summer and paid around £1K for that, including the gloss paint, but not including the stupidly expensive Ball & Farrow wall paint. It took 4 days.

I presume the quote includes doing the woodwork and ceilings? If so, it sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Does it include woodwork, pipes, ceilings and prep work? If so it's eminently reasonable and the materials wouldn't be included as it depends on what you want (I guess you know that though). Bearing in mind in winter there is more damp in the air so it takes longer for coats to fully dry - he sounds professional and responsible to me.

4 days for a living room is about right although it’s hard to tell as there’s so many variables. Shape/complexity of room, condition of woodwork and walls, lighter colours on top of dark ones etc.

day 1- mask up and protection of surfaces, sanding prep, perhaps 1st ceiling coat
day 2- undercoat woodwork/doors/frames, second ceiling coat
days 3- cut in walls, start woodwork topcoat, first wall coat
day 4- second wall cut and coat, finish woodwork and doors.

You can do it quicker than that if you’re not too bothered about getting it done really well, but if was asked to do a room to a good standard; roughly speaking that’s how Id spend the 4 days and it is about right.

I think the cost and time sound about right.

Sounds about right. We've just paid around £3.5k for kitchen diner, HSL, two bedrooms. Filling and sanding, two coats of paint, woodwork etc. It took two painters 9 days and I was here, they were meticulous and not slacking.

It depends what prep needs doing to the walls etc. Do they need sanding down to remove old paint marks? Any gloss or wood need priming? Is there coving/skirting to do too? Are there hairline cracks in the wall to be filled? The prep can take a day on its own.

I want to get my hallways, skirting boards etc done - it's a fairly large house with a loft conversion so three floors to do. I've been doing some research and it seems it'll be over £2000, maybe even up to £3000. So to me, your quote sounds about right.