Painting Costs

[jellybean777]

How much do you roughly estimate would be the cost to paint a 3 BR house interiors (includes 1 lounge-diner, kitchen, tiny utility, study, conservatory, 3 rooms & 1 bathroom)...1021 sq. feet house...floor plan attached.

If it matters, I plan to use a Dulux Light + Space Absolute White through out ...there are 5 wall mounted TVs which the previous owners will take away, leaving holes that will need patching up...one wall on the kitchen is wall-papered which need to be taken off.

Could you give please help me with a rough figure for budgeting purposes?

It depends whether you are talking 'just' painting the walls, or whether you're including all the woodwork too (skirting boards, doors), whether you're including the ceilings, what state your walls are in generally (not just where the TVs have been but whether they will need quite a lot of preparation). I would have said even for just basic painting of the walls & ceiling (so not the woodwork) and assuming relatively good walls, you're looking at perhaps 3-4 weeks? Am sure others will have a better idea. We've just had someone who charged £120 a day (which is a good rate for the NW) so maybe £600 a week, maybe £1800-£2400?? Maybe you could get a deal for about £2k if you bargain hard (obviously with all the paint costs on top of that)? If you want the woodwork doing, maybe add on another week's costs?

Yes, by painting, I meant the walls, ceiling & door frames too. The walls (other than the mounted TV and a tiny crack in a corner of one of the bedrooms) seems in decent condition. The windows are double glazed so have a metal frame that doesn't need painting.

It could take 3-4 weeks??!!! OMG! Oops, I was expecting 1 week for professionals. I have seen £120-£150 as daily rate so 3-4 weeks is scary!

I know! We had newly plastered walls for hall stairs and landing (similar sized house to yours) and we had 2 or 3 quotes, all just for walls and ceiling (no woodwork / bannister / skirting boards / door frames etc) and they all said 3 days just for that discreet bit, with no prep required for the walls! That's based on an under / soak coat (required for newly plastered walls) and 2 coats of paint. We've had quotes previously on a room by room basis and they've said about £400 per room depending on how big the room is.

Between 500-1000 per room.

Try the Which? Website. You can get average costs for loads of building work and search for people through their database.

never ever heard of 500-1000 per room. we were quoted 120 for hall stairs and landing.

If you're just painting in white could you save costs by painting the walls yourselves and getting the professionals in to do woodwork and ceilings?

To do a room properly is going to take a couple of days. Here (East Midlands) it would be about £130 a day labour plus paint costs.

warmmeup not in the NW by any chance are you? Your decorator sounds v v cheap, wouldnt mind his details if you're close by?

I had a small 3 bed semi painted professionally. It was empty so they may have worked longer days than if the house was occupied. Also there was no furniture to move which they said helps massively. It took 3 days for a 2 person team (friends doing it as a homer, great workmanship). I got everything done- walls, woodwork, ceilings... That included a wooden banister and spindles. They had to fill holes in walls and cover an old leak on a ceiling.
I think they quoted up to 10 man days for the job. I chose only 2 wall colours and 2 woodwork colors which probably helped too.

We recently paid £380 for our living room, kitchen and hall/stairs/landing to be painted. That included ceilings, skirtings and sills too and involved two paint colours in the kitchen and living room. He provided the paint, prepared the room and cleaned up afterwards. If I were getting three bedrooms and a bathroom done as well, I'd imagine I'd have been looking at £800 or thereabouts.
I'm in NI though so I expect tradesmen are less expensive here.

Is there a walk-in wardrobe in bedroom 2? It looks like a very nice house.

£380! We have been robbed by our decorator!

Marnie, I know. When we got the quote I vowed to never again lift a paintbrush. I'd always assumed it would be much more expensive but it's well worth it to save the hassle of painting. We've been in this house seven years and I'm still sanding rogue splashes off woodwork from the hash job we did when we moved in.

@Marnierose, thats the most expensive quote I have ever heard, unless you stay in Central London?

@atticusclaw, I have a baby and my hubby cannot take leave so even if I tried a hand at doing it myself, it would take very very long...we would not want to overlap our rent and mortgage for over 2 weeks(max). Painting is only 1 of the tasks...

@SheriffCallie, that rate would be a dream in SE...At that rate, I should consider flying one in from NI! :D

@mipmop, Thank you we are blessed to have got the house. My situation is very similar...I am painting before moving in so house is empty...i would prefer 2 pros just get it done in 3-4 days...the time factor is one of the main reason why I am going professional in the first place. BR2 has a full wall with fitted wardrobes. How I wish they had gone on to do that in the Master too. Would've saved me a lot of money. :D

I managed to get a rough total quote of £1100 (excluding paint), to finish the whole painting in 3 days.

That's great news, it must be a relief to have that sorted out, and at a great price.

That's great news, it must be a relief to have that sorted out, and at a great price.

mipmop, that is the only quote I got plus it might change on actual viewing. I am a bit doubtful about the time frame they gave coz every other painter I called it would take about a week. Since we don't have the keys yet, I can't give the painters an exact date to start work or even show them around the house. So most painters refuse to even give an estimate....thinking of getting remaining quotes after getting the keys.

Wow, great deal! Am jealous!

It turns out that painter changed the quote to 2200 quid on visiting the property ...so got another decorater to view who has quoted 1800 including paint but he will be doing the job himself so its going to take around 8 days. It will take longer than we hoped for but at least this one is within our budget. :) Work to start next week, so fingers crossed now!