How much would you expect to pay to have this room decorated?

[Reastie]

We are going to have the spare room redecorated. It's about 11 foot by 10 foot and height from floor to ceiling is around 8 foot. We live in West Kent.

We need wallpaper stripped off and then one wall wallpapered and the other walls painted (2 coats) and woodwork redone.

I ask as we are going to pay FIL to do it. DH wants to pay him by the hour, which is what FIL wants and thinks I'm odd for not wanting to pay him this way. It's a very low fee per hour (think minimum wage) but he is a slow worker and will also take alot longer to a decorator as he isn't used to doing it. It has the advantages in that we trust him and know him and he will do the best job he can, but I'm concerned paying him by the hour we might actually end out paying the same as a decorator would charge or even more as he will take that much longer (so may as well get one in to do it! The whole point of wanting him to do it is as he doesn't work and is keen to get some money and we are keen to save money where we can. Tbh I'd decorate it myself with DH in new year but DH wants to give FIL some work).

So, I'm wondering what a reasonable fee would be to offer him to do it. I realise I might end out paying him more than working it out per hour but I'd rest easier having a flat fee rather than not knowing how long he will take and knowing we are paying him by the hour and he's dordling around taking his time. WHat do you think would be fair/what would a decorator charge?

I have been a decorator for about seven years now, from the description you have given me I would say one day to strip the old wallpaper and fill and prepare the room for painting, two days to get all the paint work finished, and around half a day to paper the wall. I would probably charge £350-£400. Be prepared for stuff like stripping the paper and finding out that the plaster has blown underneath, if you are paying him minimum wage I cant imagine he will go over a decorators wage to do that room but the standard will be lower to go with the rate of pay.
Hope that helped

Thanks for that. Very useful. I reckon he could easily cost your lower cost or more from how long he would spend so I think paying him for the job would be a good thing if he wants the work.

atleast that way you both know were youll stand and there wont be any shocks at the end.

Agree with liamjay 3-4 days work at £120 - £140 per day.

Fab, and (it's a victorian house) would you expect to paint straight on plasterwork or do lining paper first? If you had to do lining paper before painting would the cost of work for your time go up? How much by? (just so I'm not going to suggest a cost that's too stingy if he has to do it).

No way would FIL do it in 3 days !

It would add time If it needs lining first, is the plastrler is okay underneath then paint straight on once it's filled and sorted, if it's really bad underneath it would look better for being lined first, more of a judgement call, why don't you strip it yourself, a steamer disent cost much and it's not a difficult job, will save you money and you will find out for yourself then

lia I've tried to do this but DH doesn't want us to do it, he wants FIL to strip it . Also, FIL won't use a stripper, he wants to do it by hand as he says he used a stripper in one of his old victorian houses to redecorate and all the plaster came down with it and they had to have it replastered and he's worried that will happen here (it's been redecorated with wallpaper at least twice that I've known of by decorators (my parents used to live here) who I assume steamed the paper off ).....so if we pay him by the hour he's going to take yonks isn't he

We have a fabulous decorator/odd job man and for the job you describe he would take about four days but we usually have half a dozen odd jobs for him to do or a bit of outside painting to deal with the paint/plaster drying and keeping busy while it does. Four days in inner London cost about £550-£600 but he does a very good job and is round in a flash if we have an emergency like a broken window. The last little job he did was the dc's bedrooms and that was just a repaint (with built in cupboards to gloss) and he did that in three days and it was exactly £450.