How much to pain a 5 bedroom house?

[ujerneyson]

We've a 5 bedroom house which needs painting. All the walls and ceilings are newly plastered and we're looking at using Johnstone's paint, no stripping walls and no making good as walls are now perfect. House is circa 2000 sq feet. Our builder is quoting us £11000 plus VAT which sounds terribly high to me. It will include woodwork but not painting any doors. Before I go back and challenge him I'd like an idea if it's worth even having the discussion or whether my expectations are wide off the mark.

DH is a decorator and tbh it's impossble to give even a ball park figure without physically seeing the rooms that need doing. He would need to see the state of the woodwork and the plaster (was seems perfect to you isn't always the case and the paint will highlight any flaws).
Approach a few other decorators for estimates and see how they compare.

Thanks. It has been plastered literally this week and all woodwork is brand new, it has just been totally renovated. The house is also completely empty. I'll have to get some decorators around when there are no builders there which should be fun. The builder uses a quantity surveyor to do all his quotes and I've already had to challenge them on quite a few things which have been unreasonably expensive.

Sounds about right to me.

I havent had quotes for an empty whole house at one go which should be more economical than full room by room. As the decorators wont need to pack up and set up each day.

Is it approx 9-10 rooms in total? That makes it over £1100 per room. it does seem a lot.

I was quoted last year £750 to do one medium size, regular shaped, room in a modern house. That apparently was 3 days work. I used someone else and paid day rates.

Sounds a lot to me, and I am used to SE prices. We have just paid £3k inc vat for 4 large double bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, landing and stairs. That was from freshly plastered, including woodwork.

It would be about the same area again to have downstairs painted. Whole House is around 3000sq ft.

Sounds very reasonable. It's about £800 a room where I live.

I’m guessing...

5 beds
3 bathroom
1 dining
1 lounge
1 kitchen
1 cloakroom
1 entrance hall
1 hallway upstairs
1 study
Staircase hallways

As I say, sounds about right to me

Feels like a huge amount doesn’t it. I’d ask for a breakdown of how many days’ work/how many people on site. If there’s a lot of different colours that will add time on prepping but £11k is too much surely.

Ask how long it'll take and work out his daily rate. I bet it's not that much tbh plus he had to run his van.

Have you considered doing the undercoat yourself (it's just white emulsion doesn't need to be perfect) & you could even prime the wood work yourself - then get a decorator to come & do the final finish? Will save you ££

Or better still, give painting a go yourself! There's loads of help & advice online. Perhaps practice in a room that will have a lot of furniture.

DH & myself emulsioned a room every night after work, yes it took us nearly a month but saved us a fortune!

If the house is empty, there are decorators who will go in & actually spray the entire house white in 1-2 days. It's waaaay cheaper & you end up with the same finish. They do that on some of the new build sites. Obviously the windows get masked up.

Make sure you get discounts from the local Johnstones decorating centre (or whichever brand you go with). They will calculate how much paint you need per room.

Fresh plaster needs work before it can be painted.

Having said that, it sounds like a ridiculous quote. If you factor in the vat that's like an annual salary for millions of people..

Our strategy has been to use cheap local decorators for things like that. Have a look at notice boards in the local shops and ask around. Assuming 2 days per room, that should take maybe 20 days in total? That's being very generous with the time allocated. So looking at 150-200/day, that would be about 3-4k + probably best part of a grand on the paint.

Fresh plaster only needs a p*ss coat - emulsion & water. It's not hard work

I've just realised it's ELEVEN grand!!! Wtf? I thought it was £1,100. Fucking hell,that's a bit bonkers. Get some more quotes in.

fuck ..I'd buy a sprayer and do it myself

we had bedroom sprayed ..was so quick

Is employing other people to do ones decorating even a ‘thing’?! . I honestly didn’t realise that people do this.

I always assumed everyone paints their own rooms, like I do. And I’m by no means a DIY fan. But when we bought a do-er upper we always just thought we’d be doing it ourselves, and that’s what I’ve been doing, bit-by-bit, whilst the kids are in bed and/or whilst the toddler naps. It’s not hard!

Paint sprayer and DIY and go on holiday with that you've saved

Even if you did half the rooms yourself,or just the kids rooms it would reduce it. That's a ridiculous price unless you live in Buckingham palace.

That is a crazy crazy price.

In my experience builders often don't like decorating, hence the price.

7 years ago we were quoted £8k for a 5 bed 3300sq ft house. Your walls will all need mist coating, primed, sanded etc, depending on where you live tradesmen charge £200 a day.

Not much appreciation here for how much work can still be involved in decorating a new property. For starters I would use a professional decorator and not a builder. Even brand new woodwork and plastered walls need prep. Still need filling, rubbing down etc and three coats on each. Not even taking into account extras such as coving.

it seems so many people these days would get a priessiobal in to do joinery or building work but think they can do the decorating themselves. The finish you get will depend massively on the person that finishes it! Please Do get some other quotes from professional decorators.

From an old school apprentice trained Decorator!s daughter.

Thanks everyone. I'll be taking to the builder tomorrow and seeing if we can come to some kind of arrangement as I do feel it's rather excessive. Doing it ourselves is not an option so it's a matter of either agreeing a reduction or finding someone else to do it. The builder wants to keep control of the whole build so it's on his interests to make sure he's competitive or I have no qualms about bringing someone else in to do it.

hotel we have spent an absolute fortune of a total renovation and extension of our forever house so I agree with you, I don't want to skimp on the decorating, it does need to be done properly and to a really good finish

If you practise and work hard at it you can achieve a really good finish. People always comment on my house and ask who I hired to do our dining room, and I explain that I did it myself through trial-and-error, hard-work, long hours, late nights and determination.

It’s definitely always an option, for anyone who, like me, doesn’t have the funds to pay someone else to do it. With a bit of practise it’s almost fool-proof. I’d recommend Homebase House of Colour durable paints, Dulux One Coat SatinWood for woodwork, and good-quality fleecy rollers. For stairwells and ceilings, a telescopic pole is great.

The key thing is all in the prep. Sand, sugar-soap and fill holes. This can take a while but is worth doing well as it gives a great result. There’s no great art/mystery to it. Just do it yourself and save the 11k!!!

Recently had 2 bedroom out of 5 painted and the rest of the house ie hallway, downstairs and upstairs, kitchen, lounge and dining room. Lots of making good with min 2 coats plus all doors upstairs painted. Cost was £1750 inc materials.. 2 long walls were papered and had to be stripped and then walls lined before being papered.

We are in wales but in fairness it is an expensive area. Got 4 quotes and they were all similar. Biggest problem was getting one to commit to a date.

Thanks again, I'm seeing the builder in a minute but I'm definitely not doing it myself, I did our first 2 houses myself but my decorating days are long gone.