Estimates for painting/decorating high.

[ElsieMc]

We need our hall, landing, stairs redecorating. We also asked for an estimate for the living room and kitchen.

It came back as £3,100 for the hall, landing, stairs with decorators to provide paint, but we are to buy wallpaper - around 20 rolls required.
The two rooms were £750, with paint provided.

I am shocked at the quote. This means that with wallpaper I am looking at over £4,200 still leaving us with a fair bit of work to do ourselves in bedrooms etc. I rarely use trade, but we want this job done fairly quickly and we simply do not have the time at present.

We don't live in London but in the NW in a fairly rural area if that helps. I am being old fashioned or is this a going rate?

Hi Elsie.

Does that include all the woodwork as well? There is often a lot of that to do in stairs etc. Is there anyone else that can quote for you to see if that's just the going rate even if you'd rather not use them, at least it could give you a bargaining point if it was cheaper?

Is there any stripping of wallpaper etc to do or just redecorating?

Yes, it includes all woodwork and a small amount of plastering - we are talking about a foot square here.

I honestly thought it would be around £2,500. I don't particularly have a problem with the price for the living room and kitchen, just the hall, landing and stairs which to me is the price of a car!

I will get another estimate.

Hilbil - Yes stripping too.

To compare, we just paid £900 for our hall, stairs and landing incl. paint. Two downstairs rooms were £600. The quotes varied widely though. Small one-man jobs are a lot cheaper than the big companies.
Also in NW.

To give you a comparison....we are getting woodchip stripped from our hall, and two bedrooms, the hall and 3 bedrooms painted, walls made "good", and woodwork painted (a lot of the woodwork is dark so will need 3 coats) and have been quoted 3000 including paint. We are in Scotland, but not a particularly cheap area of scotland when it comes to trades!

What's the day rate ? £150 ?

didireally - One man on two downstairs rooms is £570 for three days.

Two men on hall etc labour is £2,800 for ten days.

I'm currently having my 3 bed terrace redecorated (all ceilings, walls and woodwork painted), to include the living room, dining room, 3 bedrooms and hall/stairs/landing. It'll cost 3K and this includes the paint plus making good of any dodgy bits of wall (holes from picture hooks, chips in woodwork etc). It also includes two guys doing the work not just one.

The house is quite big for a terrace and I'm in Bristol so I would expect it to be expensive here. We're not having any wallpaper, which I would imagine ups the price slightly due to the extra faff, but even so, if I were you I'd get another couple of quotes.

Thats a good price user!

Elsie I think your day rates are the going rate so I think they are ok (but I'm in the SE)

I paid your quote - in Cornwall! No doubt ripped off as an incomer!

Oh no Bojo - I really hope it was a good job! I am going to get a few more quotes. The decorator told me that a large local company (with the monopoly in this area) would have quoted £9,000 for the work although I doubt this somewhat as I don't live in Windsor Castle.

The decorator told me that a large local company (with the monopoly in this area) would have quoted £9,000 for the work

No one spends £9k on painting 2 rooms, a hallway and a landing! That 30 man days at £300 day rate... no way that should take 2 men 15 working days to complete.

Exactly Kiroro.

I've not had a quote but pay my decorator £80 a day. It sounds very expensive to me

Cotton is he a time served decorator? Or just a man with some brushes?

My partner is a painter/decorator. He says it depends on your hallway/stairs layout (i.e. Are there areas that are hard to reach? Lots of woodwork?) but it sounds high. Always get a few independent quotes, and don't tell them what the other quotes are.

The minimum wage is £7.50/hour so if you can guess the time the job requires you can get an idea I guess ????

He was really good and came recommended. Cost me about £500 for outside of house (2 sides) and garage. I was pleasantly surprised . We are in wales

DidI Painters and decorators don't get minimum wage.

My DH charges £125 per day (normally 8 hours but he will work on to get it finished so sometimes up to 12 hours) for decorating unless it's a large job then he will give an overall price.
We are in Scotland.

Anarchykitty - Your DH sounds a lot more reasonable. Decorator appears to be charging around £175 per day for one worker. It looks like its back to the drawing board for me but thanks to everyone for their comments and advice.

jonesy I didn't mean to imply they don't deserve more than minimum wage - sorry if that's what it sounded like. Where we live I don't think it's fair to expect less than £140 a day, more for experience plus materials on top.