How long?! - UPDATE post 21

AsknAnswer2

I've had someone round to do an estimate for decorating a room. The room is 6 metres length by 2 metre wide. The bloke wouldn't give me an estimate there and then and said he'd need to work out the cost and get back to me.

I asked if he can tell me how long it will take and he said about a week, maybe two. This is to strip, line and paint walls.

Surely it shouldn't take a week to two weeks for a professional to prepare and decorate the walls of one room of this size?

Is he trying to drag the job out to maximise profit?

Gra76

2 weeks is ludicrous.

1 week sounds closer to the mark.

Are the walls in halfway decent condition? Will he have to spend a lot of time filling and sanding to get them to a decent condition? The preparation can take a while if the walls are in poor condition and if the walls are to be lined they could do with being in decent condition or every bump and dent will show up.

Even with a day of filling and sanding walls I'd say it shouldn't take any more than 3-4 days.

If he supplies the materials I'd expect a quote not much more than £600-£700 incl VAT (if he's VAT registered) if it's a pretty straighforward job.

Innys

He's having a laff. Get other quotes and discount this chancer.

Fed_Up_Tradesman

2 weeks is a joke. He clearly either doesn't know what he's talking about or does and is trying to con you.

As for this post. Equally ludicrous.

Gra76 wrote: »

2 weeks is ludicrous.

1 week sounds closer to the mark.

Are the walls in halfway decent condition? Will he have to spend a lot of time filling and sanding to get them to a decent condition? The preparation can take a while if the walls are in poor condition and if the walls are to be lined they could do with being in decent condition or every bump and dent will show up.

Even with a day of filling and sanding walls I'd say it shouldn't take any more than 3-4 days.

If he supplies the materials I'd expect a quote not much more than £600-£700 incl VAT (if he's VAT registered) if it's a pretty straighforward job.

OK £700 including VAT = £583 Nett of VAT

£583 less 20% Tax & 10% NI = £408 Nett wages.

Even at £102 per day that's about 4 days labour where I live, without any fuel / travelling costs.

And the poster suggests that £700 should include VAT and materials.

Has he bought any paint lately ?

Have I entered a parallel universe ?

Is the room furnished? carpeted?

Setup, sheeting, furniture move (if poss with 1 man) & stripping all walls and washing down could take 1 man a day easily, possibly more.

Prepping skirtings, walls, celiing wash ? on top of that.

Even if you're not cross lining with only one layer of lining paper you still need to let it dry properly before painting.

I'd use a thinned emulsion on it first then 2 coats to finish.

Undercoat & finish coat to skirtings and ceilings including drying times. I'd allow 4 to 5 days work no more.

Labour prices depends hugely on where you are.

Gra76

Fed_Up_Tradesman wrote: »

As for this post. Equally ludicrous.

It is when I realised I'd said inclusive of VAT. It would be plus VAT.

As for the price, it's put together from a set of rates provided to us by a large well known insurer. We use it to price the work on and we make enough on those rates. We have in-house decorators who are not self employed so I don't have to worry about knocking off the tax etc. The rates are inclusive of mileage and travelling costs.

There's no mention of painting the ceiling. No mention of glossing the woodwork. The OP said walls only.

We get the customer to clear the room if they're able bodied, which I assume the OP is. Saves having to mess about with furniture and any potential "You got paint on my sofa" issues afterwards.

As for paint, I've been buying it for 12 years. I have a reasonable idea what it costs.

Obviously a firm employing 10+ decorators is going to price differently to a 1-man outfit.

AsknAnswer2

Thank you all very much for your responses. The estimate came through today. £1450 - no way. They haven't even broken it down or said what work the estimate covers. Giving this one a miss. Got another man coming next Friday, see what he offers.

Fed_Up_Tradesman

AsknAnswer2 wrote: »

Thank you all very much for your responses. The estimate came through today. £1450 - no way. They haven't even broken it down or said what work the estimate covers. Giving this one a miss. Got another man coming next Friday, see what he offers.

Whereabouts are you as labour rates vary greatly.

Why don't you specify exactly what it is you want doing on here and I'll break it all down for you on what you should expect to budget for.

Alternatively, why don't you post a job on getapainter.co.uk / mybuilder / myhammer / ratedpeople / findatrade etc?

Ms_Chocaholic

Yeah if you post where you there may be people on here who can recommend someone. I have a very good decorator who lives near me but no good giving you the details if he's 300 miles away.

Also please be wary if the decorator you find can say they can start straight away, always dodgy in my book.

AsknAnswer2

I appreciate that you are trying to help, really I do but I don't give out my location on public forums. I'll pm it to you though if that is ok.

All I want is the walls stripped then lined and painted with plain white/cream emulsion. The £1450 does not include VAT. I mentioned the quote to a neighbour today, she thought the cost was ludicrous and told me that the man that did hers last year charged £1000 all in for three rooms. Her house is lovely decorated, so I asked for his number but as my luck would have it, he's no longer in the area.

john.h

All you have to post is North-East, London etc not your street name
In the North-East you will easily get a decorator for £100 a day or less.

John..

Fed_Up_Tradesman

AsknAnswer2 wrote: »

I appreciate that you are trying to help, really I do but I don't give out my location on public forums. I'll pm it to you though if that is ok.

All I want is the walls stripped then lined and painted with plain white/cream emulsion. The £1450 does not include VAT. I mentioned the quote to a neighbour today, she thought the cost was ludicrous and told me that the man that did hers last year charged £1000 all in for three rooms. Her house is lovely decorated, so I asked for his number but as my luck would have it, he's no longer in the area.

Ah the old plain white / cream emulsion combo rears its soft vinyl head once again.

That might be your problem here.

To the artisan, such a combination of shades detracts from the many long hours spent learning the intricacies of the colour palette and so causes great innner turmoil if you will and detracts from their own sense of right and wrong.

The dilemna is whether to turn down such ghastly, unsophisticated color schemes and risk upsetting the customer or to press ahead and just endure the silent internal screams from the artists finely honed senses.

He's probably loaded the price to include payment for the many long hours of counselling required to overcome the problems such a schema would provoke and before he could even think about attempting his next job.

You'll probably find your neighbour's ex-painter in similar dire straits, wondering around the old back streets of Florence, wearing his beret and a smock, touting the obligatory bottle whilst singing ye olde white / cream painter's lament ...

Painters have feelings too you know ...

I'll do it for 1300 quid ... and I'll wear a smock and beret ...just to get the ambience right ...