Three quotes for decorating a house can easily come back at £3,000, £5,500 and £9,000. That is not three people guessing. It is usually three different jobs, and the difference is almost entirely in what happens before any paint is opened.
Where the time goes
On a room that has not been touched for fifteen years, the painting is the quick part. What takes the hours is:
- Filling and sanding. Every dent, screw hole, shrinkage crack and previous bad filling job.
- Caulking. The line where the skirting meets the wall, round architraves, along coving. This is the single biggest difference between a job that looks professional and one that does not.
- Sealing and priming. New plaster drinks a mist coat. Old gloss has to be de-glossed or nothing sticks to it.
- Protecting. Floors, furniture, carpets, and putting it all back afterwards.
- Cutting in. Every edge, twice, by hand.
Rolling the walls is maybe a fifth of it. So when a quote is half of everyone else's, the prep is where the difference went — and prep is the part you cannot see until about eighteen months later, when the caulk line opens up and the filled cracks come back through.
What moves the price
- Ceiling height. Anything over standard means steps or a tower, and everything takes longer.
- Colour change. Dark to light is three coats, not two. Sometimes four.
- Woodwork. Old oil-based gloss that has gone yellow and brittle needs proper preparation before water-based satin goes over it, or it will peel.
- Hall, stairs and landing. Always the most expensive room in the house per square metre, because of access. Budget for it being roughly double what a bedroom costs.
- Whether you are living in it. Working around furniture and a family is slower than an empty house, and that is fine — it just has to be in the price honestly.
How to compare quotes properly
Do not compare the totals. Ask all three the same three questions:
- How many coats on walls, ceilings and woodwork?
- What preparation is included — filling, caulking, sanding, sealing?
- What is specifically excluded?
The answers will usually explain the whole gap, and they will tell you which quote is actually the cheapest for the job you want done.
Getting a number without waiting for three builders
You can price a house room by room on our price estimator — search "decorate", add up how many small, medium and large rooms you have plus the hall and stairs, and it will give you a realistic range in a few seconds. It is an estimate, not a quote, but it will tell you which ballpark you are in before you start booking people in to look.
Want it done rather than done yourself?
We cover Chelmsford and all of Essex, and we take the small jobs as well as the big ones. Price it on the estimator, or just ring and ask.