How fast should a painter and decorator work?

Sausage11

Thanks everyone. House will be HMO. No reception rooms apart from the kitchen / diner.

Owain, what are the differences in cost / time for spray painting? It's too late this time but may be worth considering for the next.

Owain_Moneysaver

It's pretty fast, the time is in masking edges first, which is why it works well in empty houses where everything is one colour.

McKneff

OP you have just no bloody idea

My husband was a decorator and many a time people came on the phone and said to him]
Can you give me a quote for xxx it will only take you a couple of hours......how the blody hell
can someone who has never had a paintbrush in their hands say how long it would take to decorate a room..... A couple of hours..... in your dreams

dermonte

We just renovated most of our house except bedrooms. All fresh plaster. I was told painter charge was £200 a day. I said thats fine. He came first day, painted only the ceiling in kitchen, second day first coat on walls in kitchen and third day another coat in the kitchen. I said I will do the rest myself lol

glasgowdan

Always get fixed price quotes. That way it doesn't matter a hoot how long it takes.

Mr.Generous

the shape of the rooms makes a difference too, lots of alcoves and chimney breasts means loads more cutting in.

Twopints

McKneff wrote: »

OP you have just no bloody idea

Correct - that's why they asked the question. As for the rest of your post, how helpful that was.

Sausage11

McKneff, calm down! Something in this thread has clearly touched a nerve! I don't know how long it takes so wanted to sample the collective wisdom of the board to boost my knowledge. I may have phrased my original question badly with "how many rooms / day" but I've certainly not said that you should be able to paint vast areas in only a few hours!

Phill99 - thank you. Two rooms / 3 days is what we've been told is the capacity of the painter so that reassures me.

Glasgowdan - it does seem like a fixed price would be the best way. My only concern would be whether people are tempted to compromise on quality in order to get it done more quickly.

Mr. Generous - most of the rooms are simple box shapes but two are more complex.

But thank you all - I think that you've provided me with a much better idea of what is realistic.

Furts

Sausage11 wrote: »

McKneff, calm down! Something in this thread has clearly touched a nerve! I don't know how long it takes so wanted to sample the collective wisdom of the board to boost my knowledge. I may have phrased my original question badly with "how many rooms / day" but I've certainly not said that you should be able to paint vast areas in only a few hours!

Phill99 - thank you. Two rooms / 3 days is what we've been told is the capacity of the painter so that reassures me.

Glasgowdan - it does seem like a fixed price would be the best way. My only concern would be whether people are tempted to compromise on quality in order to get it done more quickly.

Mr. Generous - most of the rooms are simple box shapes but two are more complex.

But thank you all - I think that you've provided me with a much better idea of what is realistic.

I will chip in, but it may be too late for this. When I was running volume house building sites, a modern 4 bed house of reasonable to large modern size was set at two weeks for one man to decorate. This was no painting of ceilings, (this was an extra - customer choice) but ordinary magnolia to walls, and 2 undercoat and 1 gloss to woodwork. In reality the 2 undercoats probably were sporadic, and staining was done - Sadolin or Sikkens, - to speed up where possible.

missbiggles1

Sausage11 wrote: »

Yes, rooms are empty. No woodwork in the rooms yet. Property is being prepared for rental.

No doors to do. Windows will be replaced so nothing required there.

Wouldn't you be better to decorate after replacing the windows?