Painting and decorating quote - is this reasonable?

[chillipickle]

We have been quoted just over £2K + vat to paint a medium-sized 3-bed house, excluding the bathroom and kitchen. The work to be done includes ceilings, woodwork and radiators (but not window frames or external doors), and the price includes materials. There is no wallpaper to be stripped, and they will not remove radiators but will paint round and behind them.

The painter was highly recommended by friends of ours, who said he wasn't the cheapest but very good and did everything when they said they would.

Asking around other friends who have had similar work done, we expected it to come in more like just under £2K, so this quote seems a little bit high, but not sure if it's worth shopping around for others.

Time is important to us as we are completing early December and then have a couple of weeks to get the work done before we move in (hopefully by Christmas). So it could be worth paying a little bit more for someone who will finish the work when they say they will.

Can anyone advise?

Is that including a hall? If so, I don't think it's too bad if can finish it before xmas and includes paint

I normally pay £120 a day/£240 per room, so assuming you have about 7 rooms inc. hall stairs and landing, two living rooms, 3 beds, study or utility room, £2k is probably slightly on the high side but not massively.

Mine's excluding paint btw - paid £90 for paint for our little snug the other week at £30 a tin.

is there a lot of prep to be done? filling, sanding, etc? all takes time and adds to the price. I would agree with mumblechum around the £120 a day mark seems sensible. Oh and if you do buy the paint ask the painter what paint brand he DOESN"T rate - if you get rubbish B&Q stuff it might not cover therefore will take longer to do.

We had ours done last year (3 storeys, 3 beds, living room, dining room, kitchen, 3 bathrooms, playroom and all hallways) and it came it at £2500. This was not the cheapest quote we got, which was iirc around £1800, but not the most expensive either (£3500). Much depends I think on the quality of the materials used.

I first read that as 25k and I was thinking wtf are they painting it with gold? then went on to read people saying that's a little expensive but sounds right....

Then realised it was 2k which sounds like a bargain in comparison

God - I wish I could get a quite like that - I've been quoted £3k just to do our hallway ( 3 floors inc woodwork) which is why it still looks a chipped mess

Even a quote quite like that would be fine

Thanks all for your replies! I think it confirms what I thought, which is that it's probably slightly high, but not completely off the scale. And possibly worth paying the extra at this point, if only to avoid having a half-finished house and getting stuck in our rented flat until the New Year.

Betterwhen, blimey, £3K for a hallway?!

I know! but everything here seems to cost the earth (London) which is why I've just finished some filling, re-grouting and siliconing in the bathroom rather than pay a 'handyman' £60 an hour to do it. Also decorating does take ages if you do all the preparation properly....

£60/hour in London - are they Phd's in decorating :)
that is ridiculous - it would cost as much as paying a very experienced IT contractor in the city

I can easily get someone in London for £130/day, I had 2 kids rooms done and prep and painting takes time

ask him if you can buy paint and he can paint radiators ;)

painy can be expensive, but is worth getting it right, cheap one would come off

we paid £100/day in London and for an excellent painter. he was in for 5-6 days and did our hallways, a big dining room and ceiling, part of our reception, a small bathroom, and a bunch of newly-built cupboards and fitted wardrobes that needed lots of coats of paint. he also patched up and painted cracks.

your price sounds pretty reasonable depending on how long it takes them.

My MIL just paid £800 (out of London) for a narrow bungalow hallway - madness.