Quoted £7k to redecorate 3 rooms!

[goteam]

Seems pretty high. That doesn't include replastering several walls with blown plaster which they will quote separately for. 3 medium sized rooms. Stripping off wallpaper, smoothing walls and painting alongside painting radiators, door frames etc. I honestly expected it to cost a third that price. Any experiences? North London so I knew it would be pricey but not 7k....

How many quotes have you had? We just had our garden renovated and got 3 quotes - £6,250, £5,000 and £2,500

The cheapest one was the one I felt most comfortable with and definitely seemed most experienced. They also completed the job in 3 days working flat out rather than the 8-10 days quoted by the other builders. I’d definitely recommend shopping around a bit

Always, always get at least 3 quotes, written and itemised. Never go with the first.

Definitely get another quote. We’ve just had a £20k quote difference for our planned extension.

Thanks all, yes we have a few other decorators coming next week to quote. Apparently they can't tell us how many walls need replastering until they take the wallpaper off but I don't like this unknown element. We are guessing around half the walls need replastering too. We are in a Victorian conversion and you can tell with a few walls that the plaster is crumbling behind the wallpaper. Hoping the decorators that come next week can be more specific and quote for the whole job. Thanks.

Our old house was a Victorian terrace in a nice town. We had a good sized main bathroom in which the wall paper needed stripping, lining paper put up and fully painted. The walls were a mess behind the paper. It cost us £1k, so yes I can believe that quote.

Old houses with wallpaper needing stripped are sooooo much more expensive than getting decent walls just painted.

They don't want the job. That is ridiculous if its purely for decorating. I appreciate its not as straightforward as painting on new walls but even so..

@Northernsoullover yeah, maybe they don't want the job

Last year we paid about £5.5k in south London for three bedrooms: stripping wallpaper, replastering all walls, painting, and new coving. This also included ceilings - removing textured paper, plastering, putting in recessed lighting. We got a few quotes and they were roughly this much.

Thanks @sarahb083 my only worry is that this quote doesnt include the replastering which makes it a bit of an unknown quantity. If it was 7k all in, no surprises fine. A lot more than we expected but fine. Problem is they say they can only quote for the plastering once the wallpaper comes off. I do think 7k is too high though anyway.

We have done this several times in old houses and costs were roughly- stripping wallpaper- £110 but only to picture rail. Mostly did it ourselves. Maybe £300 for a full room? Plastering a large room including boarding & skimming ceiling- around £650 but smaller rooms around £400 mark. Painting inc ceiling white and gloss for woodwork (we supplied wall colour paint)- £250 - £450 depending on room size. So a large room stripped, ceiling boarded & skimmed, walls skimmed and painted would be up to £1400.

I have always used separate plasterers and decorators though, to my mind they are different trades.

I am up north so you will obviously pay more in London, but even if you doubled our costs it would be nowhere near £7k. For that price I’d definitely expect the plastering included too. If it’s a one stop shop they might have put a mark up on for project managing but redecorating is a simple project to manage.

Last quote for decorating was £5.5k for the whole internal of a 5 bed house , that included rubbing down new plaster and all coats on all walls & ceiling and woodwork , that was 2 years ago ( southeast ) me supplying paint

I usually get a number of quotes and always give the same spec , also vet them as to who I think might do a decent job

I would be tempted to strip the wallpaper off and then get them to quote. If not you leave yourself open to costs mounting up, once they are halfway through the job it will be far harder to negotiate on hidden problems, so you may be stuck with a far heftier bill.

The thing is @Authenticcelestialmusic we just don't have any DIY skills and have come to accept that! We are happy to pay the going rate but want to pay 'all in' for plastering and re-decorating and have as little upheaval as possible as we will still be living here. We can afford to pay whatever it costs but just don't like being ripped off. If that's what it costs then so be it, we will pay up but it just seems steep.

I live in North London in a Victorian house and when we stripped off the wallpaper all of the plaster came off (lath and plaster). The wallpaper was the only thing holding it up. It does make a complete mess. It was a much bigger job than we had envisaged (the joy of old houses) so I don't think the quote is that high, especially given that the demand for decorators is high in the area. I would have expected them to put up new plasterboard and skim for that price though. Get a few quotes in to compare.

Oh my god that's insane! I know you said your in London but that still sounds barbaric. I had my hallway and landing painted, all doors, ceilings, bannister, skirting and wallpaper on a very steep wall up the stairs done for a few hundred. I would laugh in their face if they gave me a quote like that.

£150 a day i have paid

I had 3 rooms done, woodwork, doors etc no plastering - 4 days.!
that was late last year

£150 a day i have paid

I had 3 rooms done, woodwork, doors etc no plastering - 4 days.!
that was late last year

So I've just had similar work done (living/dining /sun room).
Except all rooms were fully plastered (including ceiling) at a cost of £1800 (this included stripping out of all the old Woodwork /cupboards).
All carpentry including new kick boards, insulating under a floor and building two new cupboards was £1500.
Decorating all 3 rooms £500.
Removing 3 radiators and putting two new radiators in in different spots £400.
I think you need to get some more quotes.

It should take 5 days absolute max and a good decorator should cost £200 a day max. So £1000 top price.
However I'm in the South West. Double that for London and that's 2K...