How much per day for painter in London?

[Toloveandtowork]

A friend is available to do some painting for me, and when I mentioned payment, he told me to get two other quotes and he would beat them.

I found that annoying because it gives me more work to do and I'm in the process of moving so not at my leisure to show random handymen around in a place where I'm not yet living.

Wondering if anyone can give me a ballpark rate for a basic handyman type person to paint three medium sized rooms and a hallway. I imagine it will take 3-4 days? One coat of paint, no ceilings. Rooms around 12ft x 14ft. Hall around 10ft x 5ft.

In London

Sorry, I know this is boring.

But is he a professional painter? This sounds like a recipe for disaster to be honest.

I just had a quote for a bedroom of the same size £1800

Quotes are all over the place at the moment. I had a quote for a tiny utility room of £700 (said would take 3 days) and a second of £175 (1 day).

I would bank on that being 5 days work - in my experience it always takes longer than you think! Especially the preparation of the surfaces, dealing with problems etc, and I would expect at least two coats of paint. Plus things like skirting boards, bannisters, other fiddly bits etc etc. In addition (obviously) is the cost of paint - I have found that this varies slightly with some painters happy to provide the satin/ gloss for skirting boards within the quotes, with the main colours purchased separately.

Here in Hampshire I would be expecting for pay £200 a day for a competent professional painter/ handyman - invoiced, not cash in hand.

As for using a friend unless they are a qualified decorator/ have lots of experience I would expect to pay much less and for them take longer so I would be offerinbg more in the region £150 a day but agree a total before starting so that it doesnt drag on

3 to 4 days?

A minimum of 2 days prep then at least a day per room. And one coat of paint?
Really?

Tell him to quote you properly in writing. Agree it before he starts. Otherwise this can go very badly.

Not many paints cover perfectly in 1 coat. Ex property developers daughter worked on houses for 20 years with the family.

Walls will need a minimum of two coats, sometimes three…depending on colour/brand of paint and what colour you’re painting on top of.
From memory our painter (south East) was charging about £150 a day (pre Covid). Guessing it’s going to be closer to £200 now. So maybe £250/275 in London (excluding paint).

Closer to £200 a day nowadays. Excluding materials. Agree that 1 coat doesn’t give sufficient coverage, unless you’re literally just refreshing the walls with the same original colour underneath.

Variations in quotes will often be more about surface prep than anything else. In which case cheap can mean 'stacks up trouble for the future'. Doing a job properly means at the very least sanding the woodwork inc. doors, filling and priming as needed, undercoating, and for walls, making good cracks and knocks, all of this before any actual painting starts- and all done with the right materials. Amateurs tend not do all of this, which leads to problems later on. Someone I was talking to last week was telling me he's having his whole house stripped right back- woodwork and walls and ceilings, and then all properly prepared and painted- it's taking the decorator two weeks working full time just to do all the surface prep, because the house has had decades' worth of poor jobs over poorer jobs, and my friend wants it all done properly.
Bear in mind that a pro will work much faster, so hourly rates are not at all a good comparison. I'm not a pro decorator, but I was a pro scene painter, so I'm somewhere in between......😏not as fast as a pro, but faster than an amateur- I also prepare properly, and don't leave drips on glosswork.😇

What about ceiling, skirting, windowsills, architraves and doors?
If you just do the walls it might look worse than it does now as the rest of the rooms will look dingy.

There's very few painters who would quote for one coat only - what sort of paint are you looking at?

And depending on colour and state of the walls, which will need to be "made good" first of all, this and other prep work would usually need to be included in a quote.

Have you seen his work?
My gut says do not use him because he sounds like a chancer and wants to waste the time of 2 other tradesmen.

1 day to prep the walls of all 3 rooms.
1 day to first coat all 3 rooms
1 day 2nd coat all 3 rooms
1 day to possible 3rd coat all 3 rooms
2 days contingency.

£200 per day or £300 if they are really good.

However it’s really important that you see their previous work (recommendations through friends) or have references.