Quote to redecorate bedroom

Soldato
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Asked for a quote from a builder we used before to redecorate our bedroom.

Currently it's wallpaper over render which is now quite tatty, asked him to quote for removing the wallpaper, reskim the walls and ceiling and paint walls and skirting board. He's come back with £2000 + vat which seems like its taking the mick a bit, am I right? He said he's quite busy now as lockdown is lifted, I'm a bit worried everyone might get booked up and prices are going to spike.

In Surrey as I know prices vary regionally.
 
Soldato
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Seems extremely excessive.

Chances are he's not hurting for work so he's just tossing out ridiculous estimates. I'd call around and get a few more quotes, shy of that you could do most of the work yourself surely? You'd only really need to get someone in to reskim your ceiling.
 
Tea Drinker
Don
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Day to strip wallpaper
Two days to skim
Four days to prepare and decorate

Seven days at £180 cost £1,260
Plus materials say £150
Total £1,410 plus overhead and profit at 30% = £1,833 without any risk money for Unknowns

2k sounds about right
 
Soldato
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I'd say its way too much but I'm in the North East. £370 to skim a large room here and normally in 1 day.

Also you'd be lucky to find any plaster in stock currently.
 
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Jez

Jez

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I'd say its way too much but I'm in the North East. £370 to skim a large room here and normally in 1 day.
Same in Oxfordshire, i get an awful lot of plastering done and that is the ballpark for that aspect. Obviously that doesnt include the wallpaper stripping, painting, etc, though.

Although to be honest my first thought is that if you care about a couple of grand then you are not the type of person who should be quite _this_ lazy as to not be bothered to redecorate a room yourself :p
 
Soldato
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I'd say its way too much but I'm in the North East. £370 to skim a large room here and normally in 1 day.

Same.

I'd never in a million years pay someone over a grand (let alone two) for that sort of work. Unless your bedroom is the size of a football field I can't fathom how it could take a full week to do the sort of job the OP is looking at, and I've professional painters and decorators in my family.
 
Soldato
OP
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Same in Oxfordshire, i get an awful lot of plastering done and that is the ballpark for that aspect. Obviously that doesnt include the wallpaper stripping, painting, etc, though.

Although to be honest my first thought is that if you care about a couple of grand then you are not the type of person who should be quite _this_ lazy as to not be bothered to redecorate a room yourself :p

Thanks for the comments guys.

I'm more than happy to paint it, it's the skimming that I obviously want nothing to do with!

I guess a plasterer will want radiator off the wall and the room almost empty, can I leave skirtings on? I can remove the cornicing that's there, it's quite battered too and I don't mind doing without it.

It's a bit of a ballache whichever way we do it because we only have a 2 bed and our 2 year old sleeps in the other one!

Also on the point of not doing it myself being a bit lazy for the sake of 2k, good for you if you don't care about it but it's still a chunk of cash in my opinion and surely 99.5% of people don't do their own plastering?
 
Soldato
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Some plasters will take the rad off but most won't. I always get my plumber friend to disconnect them, same with skirting boards.
 
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Jez

Jez

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Also on the point of not doing it myself being a bit lazy for the sake of 2k, good for you if you don't care about it but it's still a chunk of cash in my opinion and surely 99.5% of people don't do their own plastering?

that’s my point mate :) it’s a ton of cash for work that is so easy (but I agree hassle of course) to do yourself.

what I meant by the above was really; yep I think unfortunately it probably does cost this much for the hassle of this job, you’d have to be at the point where 2k is absolutely nothing to you to consider this :)
 
Soldato
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Seems extremely excessive.

Chances are he's not hurting for work so he's just tossing out ridiculous estimates.

This.

I had a quote to sort my garden out which I thought was a lot. He said to let him know ASAP if I wanted to go ahead. I weight it up for 48 hours then decided to go ahead as it would be much easier to get him to do it then me trying to get it done. As soon as I told him to go ahead he came back saying he was booked up for 3 months.

Yeah right...
 
Soldato
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Somewhere in the middle.
Sounds pricey.

I'd just strip walls and remove radiator myself. That's a day's work saved.

Things do take time though. People always think tradesmen are trying to rip them off and they don't actually understand the costs involved in things.
 
Associate
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Are you able to do any of the work yourself? Stripping wallpaper is pretty easy and you can do it with a bucket of water, washing up liquid, sponge and a scrapper.

That would reduce the low skill work which is time consuming and reduce the cost.
 
Soldato
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seems expensive to me.

I once paid £350 to get a room re-skimmed years ago but the rate probably much higher now in the SE. I took all of the wall paper, dado rails etc myself.

I'd remove the paper and paint yourself, just get someone in to the the plasterin.
 
Associate
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Just paid £365 for a full room to be decorated including materials and sanding prep of woodwork etc. £800 for the replastering (not just a quick skim).

Room for reference is Victorian so very large - 5m wide by 7m long and 3m high.
 
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