How Much Do Painters and Decorators Cost?

How Much Do Painters and Decorators Cost? Interior and Exterior Price Guide 2025

Professional painters, along with decorators, bring significant transformation power to residential and commercial building spaces when they are hired. Understanding the current costs of painters and decorators in the UK enables you to effectively budget for projects that involve home painting, wallpapering, decorating walls with paints or property painting for sale or rent.

This comprehensive guide on average painters and decorators’ costs outlines the complete cost structure of painting and exterior decoration projects alongside all relevant cost determinants and specifics about UK region-based rates and established money-saving methods for achieving optimal house painting outcomes.

Average Painter and Decorator Costs in the UK

It is vital for anyone interested in hiring painters and decorators to know their charging method to create a proper budget for their project. The UK market features three main approaches for professionals to charge their services to clients.

• Hourly Rate: Ideal for small jobs or touch-ups. Selecting this method works well for people who need to paint only a single wall, together with touching up wood surfaces and fixing minor problems. The hourly labour rates that decorators provide usually fall between £20 to £50 based on their expertise as well as where they operate.

• Daily Rates: Professional painters often use daily rates to calculate costs when a project requires multiple days of work to finish, such as wall painting or ceiling-and-wall combination tasks. Upper-end decorators who work in London, along with premium decorators, charge between £150 and £300 daily, but standard decorator rates typically vary between these figures.



• Area Rates: The interior painting and decorating per room method or square metre system proves popular because clients need to see clear upfront expenses before beginning work. Using this way of measurement helps potential contractors compare pricing. A room painting project costs between £250 and £700 based on its dimensions, while the paint application needs, as well as the treatment of ceiling regions and decorative elements, determine the final price.

Interior Painting and Decorating Costs

Your interior painting and decorating costs will depend on the surface area dimensions and ceiling height, together with wall surface condition and additional tasks like wallpaper installation. Internal painting combined with decoration expenses follows these standard cost categories:

Painting a Room

The final price for room painting depends solely on three main factors, which include the area dimensions, together with the required number of paint coats and additional painting assignment status.

Small Room (e.g. box room, nursery, or home office)

• Expect to pay between £200 and £300.



• Ideal for compact spaces with minimal prep and quick turnaround.

Medium Room (e.g. average bedroom)

• Budget around £300 to £500.



• The cost includes painting the walls, together with the ceiling and skirting boards.

Large Room (e.g. living room or master bedroom)

• The installation of bigger open spaces usually amounts to a cost between £500 and £700.



• The cost may increase if high ceilings or picture rails, or coving decorative elements exist in the room.

The basic cost includes simple sanding and minor hole filling, yet extensive fixings will necessitate a higher cost.

Wallpapering

Wallpaper offers an attractive decorative option than painting, yet it needs better control and added work effort.

• Yard rates for wallpaper installation on feature walls fall between £80 to £120, and these figures depend on the paper selection as well as the wall patterns.

• The wallpaper cost for a single room lies between £300 and £700.

• The removal process of wallpaper, along with heavier materials, will result in elevated costs.

Ceiling Painting

The process of ceiling painting takes longer than wall painting since you must work at an inconvenient height and prevent paint drips. The price for wallpaper installation depends on which room you choose, as well as its ceiling height.

• Standard prices for ceiling wallcovering services range between £70 to £150.

• Excessive ceiling height, along with intricate plaster decorations like cornices and ceiling roses, escalates the project costs.

Woodwork Painting (Doors, Skirting Boards, Window Frames)

Woodwork interior painting provides a neat appearance to rooms, which becomes more noticeable when combined with newly painted walls.

• The price for painting one door ranges between £40 and £80, and the price depends on whether it is in good condition and the chosen paint type and finish.

• Skirting Boards require a price range between £50 and £100 per room because of their damage complexity and design extent.

• Each window frame requires between £30 and £70 in budget for its completion.

• The price of bay windows and deteriorated older frames surpasses other types of window frames.

Full Interior House Repaint (Average 3-Bedroom Home)

Total house repainting expenses depend on both rooms and job complexity, together with the inclusion or exclusion of woodwork and ceiling areas.

Interior house repainting for an average three-bedroom home costs between £2000 and £6000, which includes labour expenses and necessary materials.

This typically covers:

All rooms (walls and ceilings)

• The cost of house repainting includes interior doors, window frames together with skirting boards.

• Standard emulsion for walls and ceilings, and gloss or satin for woodwork

• As a basic step, you will need to fill small holes before conducting sanding activities.

• Your project costs will increase when your home requires substantial property preparation or premium paint usage, or specialty finishes, which include spray painting and textured coatings.

Exterior Painting and Decorating Costs

Outdoor painting activities involve more complexity than inside decoration work due to limitations in accessibility, as well as weather factors and additional requirements for surface preparation for exterior surfaces. The price estimates for home exterior refresh and weather protection are the following.

External Walls

External wall painting leads the list of exterior decorative elements because it represents the most visible aspect, and it costs the most. Prices for exterior wall painting depend on property size as well as wall materials and the required preparation stage. The size and wall material, and repair requirements determine project costs.

Terraced House: Residents pay between £1,000 to £2,000 for terraced home property purchases. These properties usually have smaller dimensions and minimal surface area, which might require reduced scaffolding installation.

Semi-Detached House: The costs range from £1,500 to £2,500. Higher expenses will arise when the house has additional wall surfaces and unique entry methods based on other property access conditions.

Detached House: The painting and maintenance prices span from £2,000 to £3,500, but the price increases in cases of substantial house dimensions or intricate details. The total expense of labour and materials rises from scaffolding expenses and cleaning necessities, along with primary requirements and painting work.

The total time and costs needed for preparation will increase when surfaces display poor conditions, such as paint flakes or cracks. The application requires either a weather-resistant masonry paint or several coats to achieve full coverage of the surface.

Windows and Doors

• External timber windows, along with doors, require complete sanding and priming followed by several applications of protective paint to reach the desired durability.

• The expense for per window sanding and painting work spans a range from £40 to £80.

• The cost of window repairs increases with the size and number of panes in the windows.

• The cost to repaint standard doors, as well as any necessary old paint removal and primer application and weatherproof finish selection, ranges from £100 up to £200.

uPVC and Composite doors, along with windows, normally remain uncoated unless you want to modify their appearance through spraying.

Soffits, Fascias, and Guttering

• The correct upkeep of these elements strengthens roof defence and creates a better home exterior look. The appearance of these elements becomes dramatically more attractive after restoration through painting.

• The cost of soffits and fascia painting ranges from £300 to £1,000 based on the number of house sides undergoing maintenance, together with wear condition and the necessity of scaffolding installation.

• The expenses for guttering, cleaning and painting services range from £150 to £500 based on property dimensions and contractor entry methods. The extra costs for repair work or replacement services can be provided by certain decorators, but at additional expense.

The maintenance expenses of paint-coated timber soffits and fascias surpass those of the current uPVC options.

Exterior Woodwork

Expert treatment is essential for exterior wood surfaces to protect against weather conditions, and pricing depends on the condition and dimensions of the surfaces.

• Each wood fence panel will cost between £30 to £60 according to painting versus staining methods.

• The complete protection for newly installed fences requires two coats for application.

• The price range for a single garage door repainting project falls within £100 to £200.

The process involves thorough cleaning followed by metal rust treatment, then application of priming materials and concluding with weather-proof coatings.

Additional Cost Considerations For Painting And Decorating

• The requirement of scaffolding for reaching high locations and multiple-storey buildings in residential homes will increase your cost between £500 and £1000 or higher.

• External construction requires favourable weather because working outside is limited by climatic conditions. Completion dates and scaffolds, and labour hire durations get delayed through either rain or extreme cold conditions.

• Devices used to access narrow paths alongside steep driveways or sloped gardens result in both longer work duration and higher expenses for labour services.

• High-quality exterior paint products, such as self-cleaning and anti-mould masonry paint, have higher initial costs but enable the use of fewer coats and provide extended durability.

Factors That Affect Painter and Decorator Costs

Multiple decisive elements will determine the total expenses involved in your painting and decorating work.

Surface Preparation

The required preparation work to repair damaged surfaces, such as peeling paint, damp patches, cracks, and holes, will create both time and expenditure.

Materials Used

Paint materials that are premium quality or eco-friendly, and designer wallpaper options, substantially drive up the materials budget.

Access and Safety

Working from elevated heights or risky environments due to high walls and challenging access requires additional labour expenses through scaffolding requirements.

Time of Year

Market demand for painting services reaches its peak during spring and summer, thus, this increases the rates that painters can charge customers.

Location

The costs of construction and maintenance in London and the South-East regions exceed those of other locations within the UK by 20% to 30%.

Experience and Reputation

Businesses that rate highly within the decorator industry typically request higher fees but provide dependable workmanship and professional service quality.

Regional Price Variations: Painters and Decorators Cost

The cost of painter and decorator labour depends on the location within the UK where the work takes place. Different regions across the UK exhibit these price ranges for painter and decorator services:

London & South East

• Hourly Rate: £30 to £50

• Daily Rate: £200 to £300

• Interior Room Painting: £400 to £700

Due to both elevated living expenses and enhanced market demand, together with restricted accessibility in city areas, painters and decorators raise their prices correspondingly.

South West

• Hourly Rate: £25 to £40

• Daily Rate: £150 to £250

• Interior Room Painting: £300 to £500

Residential areas near the coast typically maintain slightly higher prices than the rest of the British locations.

Midlands

• Hourly Rate: £25 to £35

• Daily Rate: £150 to £200

• Interior Room Painting: £300 to £500

The North West and North East regions provide costs that resemble competitive local tradesperson rates and maintain an adequate local tradesperson supply.

North West & North East

• Hourly Rate: £20 to £30

• Daily Rate: £140 to £200

• Interior Room Painting: £250 to £500

Often, among the most budget-friendly areas for decorating services especially those outside major cities.

Scotland

• Hourly Rate: £20 to £30

• Daily Rate: £140 to £200

• Interior Room Painting: £250 to £500

Decorators in rural territories typically set more affordable prices, yet charge extra expenses for distant areas.

Wales & Northern Ireland

• Hourly Rate: £20 to £35

• Daily Rate: £140 to £200

• Interior Room Painting: £250 to £500

Conclusion

Planning your interior and exterior painting investments becomes easier through understanding the current pricing structure of UK painters and decorators for all types of home painting projects. Job-specific pricing varies widely due to materials and location, but proper preparation and research enable the achievement of professional work at reasonable prices.