Cost and Time for Painting a Bedroom
When looking at any decorating job around the house you should consider the material costs, the time it would take to do the work and the complexity of the work involved. You can then balance this against the typical charges that a painter and decorator would charge you for doing the same work.
Here is an example of painting a bedroom size 3.6 x 4.2m. The work consists of:
- scraping off the existing wallpaper and hanging new vinyl-surfaced paper costing £7.00 per roll
- wash down painted softwood or metal surfaces and rub down to receive new paint
- apply one undercoat and one coat gloss to metal and wood surfaces
- two coats emulsion paint to the ceiling.
PAINTING TASK |
Units |
Time (hrs:min) |
Material Cost (£) |
Complexity Level (1-10) |
Painter Charges (£) |
Scrape off existing Wallpaper |
30m2 |
5:00 |
- |
1 |
60.00 |
Hang vinyl-surfaced wallpaper (£7.00) |
30m2 |
7:30 |
54.00 |
6 |
174.00 |
Wash down existing paintwork and rub down on general surfaces prior to painting |
4m2 |
&0:40 |
- |
1 |
8.00 |
Wash down existing paintwork and rub down on frames and rails prior to painting |
22m |
1:50 |
- |
1 |
22.00 |
One coat undercoat paint and one coat gloss to general surfaces |
4m2 |
1:04 |
2.00 |
5 |
18.00 |
One coat undercoat and one coat gloss to skirtings |
15m |
0:45 |
2.25 |
5 |
19.00 |
One coat undercoat and one coat gloss paint to frames |
7m |
0:28 |
0.98 |
5 |
6.30 |
Two coats emulsion paint to ceilings |
15m2 |
4:15 |
2 |
5 |
79.5 |
TOTAL |
21:32 |
61.23 |
386.8 |
This example shows that it should take just over 21 hours to redecorate a bedroom and the materials cost is £61.23. On the other hand, the cost of employing a painter would be just under £400, so a saving could be made of over £300 by doing the work yourself.
"You haven't allowed for making good any defects, sugar soaping the walls to remove old paste, applying a coat to seal the wall before hanging. This estimate has clearly been submitted by somebody who doesn't work in the trade, or an incompetent tradesman."
Steve George