Decorating charges -what's reasonable?

Murlyboo

Hi all,

Not my first time posting here but its been so long my previous ID doesn't work

I'm back for advice, this time on decorating. I used to do the decorating myself but due to health problems I'm not able to at the moment. I'm looking to employ somebody to decorate my living room - which is a small room, very simple and straight-forward, no alcoves or anything fiddly like that.

One of my neighbours has a medical condition too and he's a whizz on finding reputable people to do the job well at a reasonable price (whatever the job happens to be). I got chatting to him and he recommended I contact social services to see what they can suggest in terms of 'discounted services' for those who are elderly/disabled/on a low budget etc. I rang, and there's no such thing apparently, but they can suggest local decorators who have been 'approved' but charge full rates.

I was going to ring round for some quotes this next week, and my neighbour came round today, half fuming, half laughing, saying he's got a quote for £589 to do his hall and living room - and that was an 'approved' decorator recommended to him by social services.

Am I missing something here? I don't mind paying a decent price for a decent job but just under £600 can't be right can it?

Can anybody give me any pointers, please?

debbie42

I recently had a quote to decorate a bedroom (around 13' square). Excluding paper costs, which I've to buy, it was £300.