Cost of decorating a council house in poor condition

[flowerpot13]

If you moved into a council house in a bad state but it's your responsibility to fix how much did it cost to get a decorator to strip wallpaper, sand and paint the walls, doors, skirting boards in the bathroom, kitchen, hall, bedroom, I just want to get an idea of whether I could afford it and I can't do it myself so would need to hire a decorator.

Depends where in the country you are. Professional decorators day rates outsise london are around £250 a day and that doesnt include paint or any other materials.
If the room needs lots of prep, that could take a day or two. If its good condition then it could just be wiped down, sanded and painted but even then a room would take 2 days minimum.
If you can supervise, the cheapest plan is to give cash to some college students who are off for the summer. You might get away with £100-120 a day if you are lucky but it will be slower and crapper than a professional.
You might manage £450 a room (3 days of cheap student labour plus £150 for paint and brushes and plastic sheeting.
Don't buy cheap paint. It just needs more coats which end up taking longer.

Stripping wallpaper ia definitely something a student/young person can do. Its just elbow grease.

Councils often (or they used to) offer 'decorating vouchers' but I think they'd only help with the cost of materials.

They also sometimes decorate the property themselves, a relative moved into a property that had been newly decorated from top to bottom, however I assume this isn't universal. But if this is something you are unable to do due to age or disability, its worth asking what help the council will provide.

However they might just expect you to live with it and have it done over time if it's just scruffy but otherwise a suitable property to live in.

I'm in my second HA property and both times we were given a voucher to get decorating things (paint, brushes, etc) from a local supplier but we have to decorate it ourselves

Is there community Facebook page in your area? If you put up a post explaining you are unable to do the decorating yourself and need help I’m sure you will get responses

Go on Checkatrade and post a query. They’ll quote you for the job. However I would expect £5k to strip, sand, paint, skirting board the entire house.

I work for a renovation contractor and we quote £400-800 to strip and re wallpaper a room. Plus VAT not including materials. 2 days work.

I got a house in a really good location schools and shops 5 min walk but dam it needed work. I am thankful but years later still working on it.

The hallway needed replastering but they wouldn't until the old wall paper was removed ..So i had to spend ages scraping down walls myself before we had to wait a year.

I also had to remove the wallpaper in the bathroom which revealed it needed replastering

i had to remove the popcorn ceiling off the kitchen ceiling

Took them a year to fix to leaking toilet

i have 90s era kitchen cupboards with are falling off

then theres the floors

i am very thankful but as we started to get up on our feet both working now debts being paid we now have no time to fix it because we are working so hard .good lord i feel like this house never going to look nice .Its really hard but you have to work with what you get

Whatever you do, do NOT use cheap paint. Ask the decorator or buy Dulux.

It does cost about £200 a day for a decorator and I'd say they need either 2 or 3 days to do one room but they will probably quote you for the job rather than the time.

Regarding cheap paint, I ususally go for middle of the road Dulux - so not a cheap one, but not Farrow and Ball prices either. Always been more than happy with Dulux, there's a reason it's popular. Anyway, thats £38 for a 5 litre tin which should do one room.

Unless you're disabled, I'd honestly attempt to do it myself. There's Youtube tutorials for everything now - the only reason I don't DIY is because I physically don't have the strength.

COAT is also a good paint for the price. Between Dulux and F&B.

Can you not do it because of physical limitations or because you’ve never done it before?

I would argue that the reason Dulux is popular is because of marketing. They do numerous grades of paint and their bog standard stuff can be pretty awful.

Been about 5 years since I redecorated, but Wickes Trade Contact Matt is excellent for coverage, albeit somewhat limited in colours choices and maybe not great in terms of non-marking in a busy family home. I suspect it's made for them by Leyland / Johnstone's (PPG).

Your decorator will probably have a preference and you should arguably be guided by them anyway so you've then got some recourse if you're not happy about something.