How much a decorator charges for your interior or exterior decorating project will depend on a number of factors: your location, material choice and size of the space, to name but a few.
But how much can you expect a decorator to charge? Here we take a look at the average charges, prices and ways of calculating the cost of your decorating project depending on your personal requirements – and there’s a lot to learn about how much a decorator should charge!
How much do decorators charge for: Interior decorating
How much does it cost to wallpaper a room?
You’ll often find that painters and decorators charge wallpapering by the roll, rather than by the hour. This cost usually includes hanging each roll, plus preparation of your walls.
However, most decorators do not include the supply of wallpaper in this price – so you’ll need to factor in the cost of the wallpaper, plus the charges added by the decorating company into your budget.
Depending on the condition of your walls and the type of wallpaper you choose, the walls may also need to be cross lined – which means hanging lining paper horizontally to ensure a smooth and easy application of the finishing wallpaper.
Decorators often charge for cross lining per roll. However, it is always cheaper than hanging decorative wallpaper because there is no pattern matching involved.
It’s best to discuss with your painter and decorator if cross lining will be necessary in your space, and to factor this additional cost into your budget.
Will I be charged depending on the wallpaper I choose?
As mentioned before, most decorators charge for wallpapering by the roll, rather than the time it takes to hang the wallpaper, which means any additional costs are usually associated with the wallpaper brand, type and the pattern you choose.
When choosing a wallpaper, it’s important to take note of ‘pattern matching’. Pattern matching refers to hanging each wallpaper roll according to a pattern that may form horizontally or vertically along the wall.
If you opt for a wallpaper with a random or no pattern match, then this is the most cost effective choice, as there’s very little wastage of paper. These wallpapers tend to have a texture or lines that match from top to bottom of each roll.
However, if you choose a wallpaper with a large pattern match, this can work out to be quite pricey. This is because the pattern needs to be matched vertically, which means there will be wastage at either the top or bottom of each roll – meaning you’ll be bearing the expense of all the wallpaper that goes unused.
Contact the Hamill Decorating team for a personalised wallpapering quote
How much does it cost to paint a room?
You decorator will usually use one of two ways to price and charge your decorating project:
By linear and square meterage
This costing method takes into account the size of the space that needs decorating. How much your decorator charges will depend on the total square meterage, the preparation needed and any woodwork that needs prepping and painting.
By item
At Hamill Decorating, we charge our customers by item. Included in every quote is a clearly itemised list of all the jobs – big and small – that need doing for full cost transparency.
How much decorators charge varies dramatically between suppliers, and some will try to charge you an hourly rate.
We advise to stay away from decorators who charge by the hour, as it’s often guaranteed they will take longer to do a job to increase the total billable hours.
Some decorators will charge by the day, but on average, decorators should be charging between £25-30 an hour, plus the cost of materials and VAT.
Contact the Hamill Decorating team for a personalised painting and decorating quote.
Choose your paint carefully
How much it costs to paint a room also depends on the type of paint you use.
Not only does the price of the paint you use vary dramatically by brand and quality, but the finish and application of your paint may mean more coats – and, therefore, additional costs charged by your decorator.
It’s common that decorators will charge for two coats of paint as standard when pricing up a job. But if your paint choice requires more than two coats, you’ll likely end up paying for the time it takes to apply additional coats to reach the desired finish.
You can take a look at our range of high-quality paints.
How much do decorators charge for: Exterior decorating
When it comes to charging for exterior decorating projects, you’ll find that most decorators will charge the same way as interior decorating jobs – either by linear and square meterage, or by item.
Will I be charged additional preparation costs?
Just like interior painting and decorating jobs, decorators tend to include any necessary preparation costs in their pricing.
Although preparation can oftentimes take longer than the actual painting part, your decorator should be factoring in this time into the pricing of the job and not charging an additional fee on top for this time and service.
How do decorators charge for commercial projects?
At Hamill Decorating, we price all our commercial work by the metre. This is because jobs like these are usually done on a schedule of rates and it can be difficult to predict the exact jobs that need doing before starting the project.
Get in touch if you’re looking for a decorator for a commercial project
We hope our article has helped you make sense of how much your decorator should be charging you for your decorating project.
For a personalised and fair painting and decorating quote, please contact Hamill Decorating on 0131 665 9923 today.