Typical Hourly Rate for Painter/Decorator in Plymouth/Devon

Snubber

Snubber

Snubber

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Location
Plymouth, UK
Simple question...title says it all!

Was thinking somewhere in the region of £20/hr for an averagely skilled painter/decorator.

Cheers,
 
You a decorator or looking for one ?

Unless the areas make a massive difference I would never pay anything like that much
 
Nowhere near your area (or country) but would NEVER pay £20 a hour for a painter and decorator.

Twice I've used someone was a room cost for the overall job and a guy who was £8 a hour and did a superb job as it was a hobby for him as he was retired.
 
booyaka said:
Nowhere near your area (or country) but would NEVER pay £20 a hour for a painter and decorator.

Twice I've used someone was a room cost for the overall job and a guy who was £8 a hour and did a superb job as it was a hobby for him as he was retired.
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And to be fair to the OP, this is a bit of an bad comparison.

If you need a decent painter/decorator/builder I can give you the name of one. He is certainly not the cheapest, but does the job right first time.

As for pay rates, I have no idea sorry :-(
 
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i would never pay £160 a day for a bloody painter and decorator. for that money i would do it myself and save some cash. its not like painting and decorating requires much skill really. anyone with a steady hand can use a roller or cut in.

we had the lounge in our old house done on the quick last year as the mrs was rushed in for an emergency c-section 7 weeks early. so i didnt have time to do it myself. the guy did no better job that i would have done myself. same with the kitchen fitters at new house. due to baby i didnt have the time to do it myself but i resent paying someone stupid money for a job that really isnt hard to do yourself (i did my kitchen in the last house and to a better standard IMO)

in fact very few professionals i have seen do a better job that most DIYers. obviously some trades are more trickey than others. i cannot plaster well enough for my liking but no way i would pay so much for someone to slop some paint on.

some stuff is worth paying for. we had a chippy in to fit new oak doors, oak skirting and oak architraves in the new house and i didnt want to do it myself as oak isnt very forgiving, unlike say MDF etc.
 
£12 an hour here in Suffolk. Wouldn't agree with everything realbabelfish had to say about it not being a skilled profession, probably why you get so many people thinking they can do it as a profession.

I hate painting but don't mind having to do it in my own house. Had to help at work once and ended up getting the job for 6 weeks as I was good at it. Contemplated putting the car in a ditch on the way to work some mornings. :o
 
We have just had our house refurbished - complete rewire and new central heating (lots of chasing out - solid block walls), new bathroom, kitchen, removal of load bearing wall/installation of new steel beam, new ceilings, lots of new plastering of new ceilings and walls due to chasing out etc etc.

Employed a decorator to paint all rooms (large 3 bed semi - total of 11 rooms). Quoted lump sum of £1950 after a walk around surevy pre-works. They are now asking for more money as they claim that they had to do far more preparation work than originally envisaged....they are claiming that new plastering in a number of rooms was poor so had to spend more time filling/sanding.

They are sending an itemised schedule listing the extra hours they believe they have had to spend 'above and beyond' what would be 'normal'.

Haven't seen the schedule yet, nor have they confirmed their hourly rate. Just wanted to get a handle of typical rates before I sit down and reach an equitable deal.
 
Usel said:
£12 an hour here in Suffolk. Wouldn't agree with everything realbabelfish had to say about it not being a skilled profession, probably why you get so many people thinking they can do it as a profession.

I hate painting but don't mind having to do it in my own house. Had to help at work once and ended up getting the job for 6 weeks as I was good at it. Contemplated putting the car in a ditch on the way to work some mornings. :o
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standard painting and decorating isnt a skilled job. not compared to say electrics or gas plumbing. i did most of the basic plumbing in my old house like fitting a new bathroom suite, fitting radiators, fitting in a new shower, plumbing it in etc and plumbing in a new kitchen in my old house. i had no experience but it really isnt hard

if someone can do it without any training and do as good a job as a pro, how hard can that job really be? the fact a lot of tradies think they should be on 1k a week really amazes me sometimes. if i had known how much some tradesmen make i would have never gone to uni. before the recession some floor layers we used were making £350 a day. that is just ridiculous.

btw - i work in construction (the management side) so i do get to see plenty of tradesmen at work and i would only count a handful of activities as really skilled work. home DIY especially can really be done by anyone. even if you are crap at cutting in, just use frog tape.
 
Snubber said:
We have just had our house refurbished - complete rewire and new central heating (lots of chasing out - solid block walls), new bathroom, kitchen, removal of load bearing wall/installation of new steel beam, new ceilings, lots of new plastering of new ceilings and walls due to chasing out etc etc.

Employed a decorator to paint all rooms (large 3 bed semi - total of 11 rooms). Quoted lump sum of £1950 after a walk around surevy pre-works. They are now asking for more money as they claim that they had to do far more preparation work than originally envisaged....they are claiming that new plastering in a number of rooms was poor so had to spend more time filling/sanding.

They are sending an itemised schedule listing the extra hours they believe they have had to spend 'above and beyond' what would be 'normal'.

Haven't seen the schedule yet, nor have they confirmed their hourly rate. Just wanted to get a handle of typical rates before I sit down and reach an equitable deal.
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how many men doing the work?
how long (how many full days) were they there?
did you supply all materials?
 
I'd wait until you saw their itemised breakdown but also ask them to submit it with substantiation for the extra hours and additional materials required. That would be a good start as you could then see what their hourly rate is as well as whether or not their material costs are silly high. Essentially they have to prove that the additional work took place, were they at your house longer than they should have been? Because they didn't make you aware of additional costs prior to invoicing you I'd almost be inclined to tell them to swivel.
 
Would that not be the fault of the plasterer? Get them both in for a chat, the plasterer will have a very different opinion on his finish than they do. Any costs to you should be got back through who ever was responsible for the additional work.
 
£70.00 per day ono, to those that say it isnt really a skilled job. This isnt truly accurate. Off course anyone who takes there time and prepares the surfaces properly. Will be able to achieve a pretty good finish. The difference with a proffesional is that he will be able to do both prep work and finishing work in a lot less time, and be able to advise the client on the particular materials required. Ive lost count of the amount of times ive had to go and repair jobs that someone has taken on without fully knowing what theyre doing.

Once you move from standard domestic work into decorative art such as graining, marbling etc. This is a very highly skilled part of the job, people that carry out this sort of work can make some serious money.
 
I can get a Lithuanian new build splash it on white / white / white decorator for £80 per day, they work hard but no little about prep, probably a 5m paint job and I can get £250 per day decorators that can get us out of trouble in an occupied building and you'd never know they were there, and where they had decorated.
 
I am definitely going to have to get a job working for maccapacca after seeing the rates he pays in several threads :p
 
I suppose they are London rates and mostly construction but I can't see how anyone can live on 80 a day in London without sleeping in shared accommodation. Not really a great work life balance.

They are not dave down the road who never pays income tax or ni rates and only works for cash.
 
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