Quote to paint a semi-detached house

Gazelle1985

Hi,

I've had two quotes for painting the masonry and woodwork of my 1930s 4 bedroom semi-detached house, and they came in at £4,500 and £4,650 for exterior only, which I can't get my head around.

When I got the first quote of £4,500 I thought the decorator had given me a ridiculous price because he didn't really want the work (he does a lot of commercial property), but then I got the second quote of £4,650 and I'm now wondering if this is the going rate.

I am based in the outskirts of south-east London, and it's (admittedly) quite a large semi detached house, but I can't believe it's as much as this. I had put £2k in the budget thinking I wouldn't need it all.

Do they sound reasonable?

Thanks

phill99

Well evidently, if both prices are similar then you need to adjust your expectations.

Furts

How long is a piece of string, and are you being reasonable in your requirements? If there are windows to be painted on a typical 1930s house this adds a huge amount of work. If the finish needs burning off, taking back, priming, rot being filled - you get the idea then this adds enormous amounts of work. If the render needs cleaning down, repairing, and various coats again enormous variables in work.

Forum folks do not know what your work entails nor what specification you have drawn up. But on face value to say the work should cost £1500 and quotes come in at three times this suggests there are flaws with your approach to this task.

But there is also the elephant in the room with countless consumers wanting external painting done. It is pretty much illegal to work of ladders so what have you factored in, and costed, in terms of safe working practice?

katejo

Gazelle1985 wrote: »

Hi,

I've had two quotes for painting the masonry and woodwork of my 1930s 4 bedroom semi-detached house, and they came in at £4,500 and £4,650 for exterior only, which I can't get my head around.

When I got the first quote of £4,500 I thought the decorator had given me a ridiculous price because he didn't really want the work (he does a lot of commercial property), but then I got the second quote of £4,650 and I'm now wondering if this is the going rate.

I am based in the outskirts of south-east London, and it's (admittedly) quite a large semi detached house, but I can't believe it's as much as this. I had put £2k in the budget thinking I wouldn't need it all.

Do they sound reasonable?

Thanks

2K sounds too low to me. i have a small terraced house. 4 years ago I had re-pointing of large sections of brickwork done followed by masonry painting of the back of the house. The front wasn't involved at all. That cost me £2.5K. I am in East London.

roger-w5

just finished painting my semi,masonry & wood work.
Scaffold £960
paint (best quality not diy shed stuff) £590
sundries £ 200
insurance £180
It all adds up,free labour thou !

maisie_cat

I've just spend the last 3-4 weeks doing the outside of my detached 1930's the preparation and access are the big time killers. We have a single scaffold tower that can moved around, but it still involves going up and down all day, scraping off old "plastic" paint and repairing the lime render before even starting to paint. The windows weren't bad as they were originally sprayed with microporous when installed but I did need to touch up.While you are up there you might as well clean the soffits and check the gutters, it's all time!
A neighbour had her semi done by a team of 2 guys with scaffolding and it still took a month.
Ensure that whoever does it uses the correct paint for the render, non breathable paint on lime render will lead to damp.
In conclusion, it is a long job if it's done right, go cheap and you'll be dong it again in 2 years.
Can you not do it yourself? I'm a middle aged women and it is very doable with access.

Gazelle1985

Thanks for all the advice - seems that we completely underestimated the job! We have decided to leave it for now and just do the woodwork ourselves.

malky39

I have just had a quote to coat our 3 bed semi and the garage in what they call andura tex-guard of £3500 that included cleaning, sorting any stone work,masking off all windows, applying the coating. Comes with a 15 year guarantee and considering I was getting qoute of £800-1000 to just paint it which normally needs done every 4-5 years, my house is white, I was happy with that.

longwalks1

My painter (based in Essex) charges £100 a day, and can do 2 rooms in 3 days. He's done my last 2 properties.

phill99

britishboy wrote: »

My painter (based in Essex) charges £100 a day, and can do 2 rooms in 3 days. He's done my last 2 properties.

Quality work then.

longwalks1

phill99 wrote: »

Quality work then.

Got no complaints, which is why he's done my last 2 properties