How much would you expect to pay for a decorator?

[ShamefulPlaceMarker]

We have just had our lounge painted, quoted £18 per hr. The guy did 12hrs - 1 full day & 1 half day but he has invoiced for 23hrs plus added material cost on top, which I thought was included in the quote price.
Is he having me on?

There is another very similar thread running today, and I'm not quite sure if you posted twice (with slightly different information) or you're a separate OP - but you may find the information on the other thread useful! FWIW, i would not usually expect an hourly quote to include materials.

I've just been quoted £26 per hour to include his consumables (stuff like sandpaper and so on) but not the paint I've provided. He's also considering a day to be 8 hours. Obviously if 2 people you pay twice the rate.

I wouldn't expect to pay more than £150 for a lounge painted (dependant on size and location though obviously).

OP the circumstances outlined in this thread are different from your other thread.

Hourly quote is always just for labour - you always supply materials separately. Were you there during the whole time the decoration was happening? I would expect that there were actually two of them working for most of the 12 hours hence 23 hours invoiced. If you get an hourly quote it's very important to ask for an estimate for how many hours you will be billed for.

My husband is a decorator in S Yorks and he charges a fixed price for the job regardless of how long it takes, materials are always included in the price. It depends on what needs doing, wallpapering is more as it is very timeconsuming as is glossing intricate woodwork. It also depends on the quality of the walls as the finsh is only as good as the preparation.

Ohboolocks that sounds very cheap to me, they have to earn a living and remeber1/3 of the cost has tio be set aside for tax/Ni.

Don't get an hourly quote. Get a quote for the entire job broken down into materials and labour. If he won't do it, don't use him.

Amazed anyone agrees to an open hourly rate I always agree an upfront fee for the job.

£26 an hour for painting?

i guess it depends where you are in the UK.!! I wish DH could earn that

redhat I wrote this post last night and had no replies, so started again in chat for more traffic.
I text him this morning and he explained that the charges are for 2 people, which is why I mention 2 people in my other thread and not in this one. As the time of writing this one I thought he was charging me for more hrs than he did, but he was just doubling the hrs to include his workmate

My fault. I reintroduced your old thread by going to Unanswered Messages, thinking I was being helpful. Naughty Steptoe is not going to Unanswered Messages any more.

I have one I use for all my rental properties and my home his just finished painting the nursery and it was £170 for the room took him about 1and 1/2 days but he is fab! He always charges per room, it does change on the size of the room.
Before he was recommended to me I had some god awful decorators

That's okay mrsteptoe
I got more replies in chat in 5mins than I have on this thread in total!

Yep, £26 per hour for painting! If I wasn't pregnant and with DH stuck overseas I'd be doing it myself.
It's aberdeen and sadly prices don't seem to be falling in line with the oil price crash just yet. On the other hand he comes highly recommended and frankly I having seen the god awful mess and delays a friends cheaper decorator caused I'm paying for low stress (I hope!).

£140 per day seems to the rate here (south east)

I'm having mine done at the moment.
I've not had the bill yet but I expect it to come in at quite a bit more than the £150 Ohb0llock mentions, as it has taken him a lot longer than 10 hours.
Like all these things, it's going to depend on what you've had done - how much prep, how much woodwork, how many fiddly bits etc. My decorators also do stuff like take down the shelves and put them back up for me afterwards, put pictures up if I want, fit a new blind for me, etc. etc. The actual "just" painting the walls is only a proportion of it.
I would obviously expect to pay for materials over and above a labour charge though.

We had our lounge/dining area painted and papered and ceiling and woodwork done for £270 this week but it is a very big room and it needed lining paper under the wallpaper.

Not at all place marking as I look around a house that's been freshly plastered and I'm supposed to be painting...😁

My handy man charges £120 a day for decorating (south east) but he hates doing day rates, he's just completed our living room, and kitchen/diner/family room, it took him five days and he quoted a fixed price of £500. Materials not included.