Is this the going rate for painting a room???

[Starseeking]

I've just moved house, into a very nice area, which I absolutely love.

Handyman company came to visit to provide me with a quote to paint my living room, dimensions as attached. Ceilings are approximately 8ft high, it's a 1930's solid semi.

He quoted me £1,250 plus VAT, so £1,500 in total plus the cost of the paint. F&B £94 for 5 litres he said, so most likely another £200 on top. He said it would take 2 days maximum.

I honestly thought painting a room would cost £500-600 for labour, plus materials. Am I out of touch, or is this the going rate? I've now got another few companies coming to quote, as I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Does the quote sound reasonable or completely bonkers? Location is West London suburb, if that makes a difference.

@SkylightSkylight they did an amazing job! It is PERFECT and trust me, I'm a perfectionist too! There is not a edge out of place!

And I am in the south east! Well Oxfordshire

You can buy inserts for roller trays that you can throw away afterwards, or, even cheaper, cover the tray with foil.

How about advertising on a local Facebook page and ask for personal recommendations?

Fair; there are some things that are within my ability that I would far rather pay someone else to do.

I recently discovered the roller scraper - game changer!!

OP, that estimate is taking the piss !

We have a painter, recommended by our next door neighbour. He charges £75 per day. He redecorated our living room, perfectly in five days. We have a 3 bed semi in five days.

We paid for the paint as an extra. No F&B. Give me strength !

I live in the Midlands in a 1930's three bed semi.

Your decorator has massively underpriced his services then. Assuming he does an 8 hour day, he is earning barely over NMW and without any of the pension or sick & holiday pay benefits he'd receive if PAYE. He is earning significantly less per hr than a cleaner.

Just find some one local who wants some extra cash. £200 cash in hand for each room. Supply paint yourself. You save, and they get extra cash for Xmas

Wow you must live in Scotland or somewhere very cheap. I’m in the SouthEast and expect to pay about £700 - £800 for a large room

There are different standards of decorating. I’ve got a bloke who will throw some paint on, does a good job but the room is as it was except fresher. He’s reasonable.

I was in a Victorian house recently where they had 2 blokes filling and sanding all the woodwork, taking ages over it. When it was done the whole place looked brand new. Obviously the cost was way higher per room.

@ChocChipOwl

thank you for your reply!

It's good news/bad news....I'm glad they did a good job for you, but I'm too far away (village near Reading) <sob >

@SkylightSkylight not that far! I'm on the cusp of Berkshire! Not far from didcot

@FlimFlam2 I have one of those & one of the tube things you drag up the roller, they're both good, but not so good I want to clean rollers any more than the absolute minimum!!

Due to my accident, it's no longer an option to do it myself, so I have to find someone & pay. I'm not best pleased about that, but I'm ok with paying if they do a good job, my fear is paying & ending up with job that's not good 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

I’m in outer London - my decorator charges by the job (but roughly £250 a day), and would roughly spend 2-2.5 days on this sort of job /depends on prep needed

Get a quote from personal recco: I would not get a general handyman to do this, you’d get a better finish yourself.

Lastly, modern paints don’t really need good weather to dry so you can get this done whenever - you may get a good price on Jan as people often want their house done for Xmas

Tbf we've just been quoted £970 for a similar sized room in west London so not a million miles off.

I've got my new sofas being delivered in the last week of November, so I'd ideally like the painting completed before then. Plus I am one of those people who wants their house nicely decorated for Christmas as I may be hosting 15 of my extended family!

I've lined up 3 local recommendations coming to quote, plus I've stored the details of one specialist who apologetically said he couldn't fit me in, so didn't want to promise anything. I liked his honesty in being upfront about his commitments. Fingers crossed!

We got a relatively cheap decorator in and the finish wasn’t brilliant to be honest and it took him 10 days to do 3 rooms by which point we just wanted him to bugger off.

Were about to do my daughter’s room as not sure if a decorator is worth it for that one but do feel a bit daunted about fitting in the work. There is part of me that thinks getting the furniture out the room, the faff etc is much harder than the actual painting so willing to give it a go this time.

In London the going rate for a painter is about £200 a day, so he is massively overcharging.

You should do it! Go for it.

This summer we paid £3730 for a large bedroom to be stripped, lined, filled and painted and all the exterior of our house
15 Sash windows, fascias, large wooden porch, cills, headers and plinth and garage doors (2) and windows (2) all prepped and painted. That included scaffolding hire 3 storeys) and dulux trade paint
It was several weeks work but they weren't the fastest. Lovely lads but slow.

That price is normal where I live. I do my own.

Ten litres - just for the walls? Is it a big colour change? I'd have thought you'd get two coats from 5L in a room that size. Unless F&B has poor coverage.

F&B does indeed have terrible coverage...

So I've had my living room painted, and thought I'd come back and update this thread.

The quotes I had were (including paint which cost £200) were:

1. £1,700

1. £1,050

1. £900

1. £650

I almost went with quote 2, as I liked the way that painter worked, and I don't usually go for the cheapest, however quote 4 came highly recommended, and didn't disappoint. The actual painting took 2 days, labour cost was £450. Now waiting for my large mirror to be hung, and my living room is complete!

There are good tradesman out there who charge reasonable prices, you just have to keep hunting for them!

Definitely this.