External house painting quote

Albermarle

Just received the above - Not far short of £5K. Seems a lot !

Semi detached house, gable ended roof - a little larger than a standard 3 bed semi. 12/15 years since most of it was last painted .

First floor, including the gable end, is white ( dirty) render in good condition. Two coats for this. Concrete sills also painted.Soffit and fascias all wood - sanded down, filled where necessary - primer - 2 coats undercoat + one topcoat. Metal gutters to be painted. Windows all PVC, but porch is wood and needs stripping/sanding - primer/undercoat/topcoat. Wooden front door with glass- quite fiddly.

Scaffolding not needed but will have to construct platforms at the rear, due to partly glass roof. Otherwise will use double and triple ladders and tower.

No time scale but maybe 3 people for 5 days ? Maybe a bit less.

Painter known locally and reliable apparently. Probably can not afford to do a bad job. Maybe can knock him down a bit.

South East of England.

daveyjp

15 days work at £200 a day minimum is £3k. Add in platform costs, materials, VAT and £5k doesn't look excessive.

srioss85

I was recently quoted 1.5k to paint my 3 bedroom semi detached. Located in Bexley. This is strictly just painting of the house though as guttering & fascia was all replaced by the same company for just over 1k.

subjecttocontract

Might it be worth getting all of your facias, soffits and guttering replaced in uPVC ? One off cost, never need painting again, always looks good. Will result in smaller quote for whatever is left outside.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81898961#Comment_81898961

I have thought of that, especially as I was involved with the manufacturers of these PVC foamed boards when I was working.

One issue is that they would all need to be black, which pushes the UPVC price up as special additives are needed to stop it looking faded after a few years. Also the adjoining semi still has the original wood/metal.

subjecttocontract

My experience with exterior painting is that whoever does it and whatever they charge, it's likely to look absolutely fantastic when it's finished. BUT, wether you have had a good job done or not won't show for a year, maybe two. That's because it depends on how good the preparation was, wether they applied the right paints etc. If your exterior timber hasn't been maintained for 12-15 years chances are some of it may be past the point of needing redecorating and the timber may need replacing instead.....they won't know until they get up close to it. Unless you use someone with a solid reputation, that you know won't cut corners then you'll be taking a chance that your £5K has been spent wisely. Good luck.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81899114#Comment_81899114

You are right, but I have some confidence as this small band of three have painted a few houses nearby, and all look OK. Also as they are active in the area ( mentioned many times on local Whatsapp group) it would not really be in their interest to do a bad job. They assure it will not need doing again for at least 10 years

Plus the estimate details exactly how many coats,and which paint they will use ( Dulux weathershield) .

If I can get the quote down by say £500, I would feel happier though ( I am on the MSE forum!)

plumb1_2

10% off. For cash is £500. As long as you get a invoice.

Instead of getting a fixed date to start, ask them to do it when they have a spare week to fit it in. But wouldn’t allow them to do the odd day hear and there. And obviously the correct weather for external painting.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81933094#Comment_81933094

I got exactly £500 off - cash payment not requested.

They will start sometime when the weather gets more consistently better and do it from start to finish in one go. We are flexible on timing.

Grumpy_chap

If the company are established and three (or more) staff members, then they probably won't be doing deals for cash. That does not mean there won't be any negotiations possible.

£5k is really £4,170 plus VAT.

3 people for 5 days, so 15 person-days. 10 hour days. 150 person-hours.

NMW (from April) is £12.71 so that's a minimum labour cost of £1.9k plus the on-costs (employer's NI, auto-enrolment pension). PLUS, you don't really want the job done by inexperienced people at NMW; you want the job done by experienced tradespeople who will cost more. Plus the actual company needs to cover OHP (overhead and profit).

Definitely in the range of £3k or more for the labour costs.

Plus tools, access, equipment, materials. Have you seen the price of paint these days?!

The £5k is probably not that far out.

For negotiation, either get a comparative price or simply approach the company with a "really want to use you but it was a bit more than I was expecting / can afford" line. For a comparison, I recently had a quote for some electrical works which came in at £5k. It was the company I wanted to use (used them before) but the price was more than I expected so I had a chat about some of the costs being high compared to previous work 2 years back. Agreed the work at £4.3k. I think it helped that I had some reference point to refer to for my challenge. Plus, the company seemed to have immediate availability so better to have work than not. Anyhow, your target of negotiating £500 from £5k does not seem unrealistic.

How busy are the company you wish to use?