Decorator Day Rate UK — What Painters and Decorators Should Charge Per Day in 2026

Painter and Decorator Day Rates by Region — UK 2026

Decorator day rates across the UK vary significantly by region, driven by local cost of living, the density of competition, and the relative split between domestic and commercial work available. The figures below reflect 2026 market conditions for a self-employed painter and decorator working on standard domestic interior and exterior work. Decorators with specialist skills — spray painting, Venetian plaster, heritage work — sit at or above the upper end of these ranges.

Rates reflect 2026 market conditions for self-employed decorators on standard domestic work. Exterior work, specialist finishes and commercial projects typically command 15–30% above these figures. Decorators with City & Guilds or NVQ Level 2/3 qualifications and formal apprenticeship backgrounds tend to sit at or above the midpoint of each range.

A London decorator charging £450/day is not necessarily a better craftsperson than a Yorkshire decorator charging £220. The difference reflects what the local market supports — the cost of living, the income of local homeowners, and the going rate among established local competitors. If you are working in London below £300/day, you are almost certainly undercharging for the cost of operating there.

Interior vs Exterior — Why Exterior Commands a 15–25% Premium

Many decorators charge the same day rate for interior and exterior work. That is a pricing mistake. Exterior work is materially more demanding and carries costs that interior work does not. Here is why the premium is justified:

• Weather risk and scheduling disruption: exterior painting cannot proceed in rain, frost, or temperatures below 5°C. That means lost days, rescheduling cost, and the need to carry additional work in your diary to absorb the gaps. The premium compensates for that unpredictability — you cannot charge a customer for a lost day, but your overheads continue regardless.
• Access equipment: exterior work on anything above ground floor typically requires scaffold, a tower, a ladder hierarchy, or cherry picker hire. Even if the customer arranges scaffold separately, your working conditions are slower, physically harder, and carry greater personal risk. Ladder work above 3 metres on public-facing elevations requires Working at Height compliance. That risk and restriction is worth money.
• Preparation time and surface complexity: exterior surfaces accumulate years of weathering, algae, chalking paint, failed caulk, and failing masonry. A proper exterior repaint on a Victorian semi requires pressure washing, biocide treatment, full sanding and scraping of loose paint, flexible filler on cracks, primer on bare timber, and at least two finish coats. Customers routinely underestimate how much of an exterior job is prep and how little is the actual painting.
• Material consumption: exterior surfaces are larger, more porous, and require specialist exterior-grade paints that cost significantly more per litre than standard emulsions. Material costs are higher per m² and the coverage is typically lower due to surface texture.

A decorator charging £200/day for interior work should be charging £230–£250/day minimum for exterior work on the same property. On larger exterior projects — full house externals, commercial facades — charge at the upper end of the premium range. The premium is not greed; it reflects the real additional cost and risk of the work.

Specialist Finishes — Spray Painting, Venetian Plaster, Coving and Premium Work Rates

Standard brush-and-roller decorating sits in one pricing tier. Specialist finishing skills sit in an entirely different one. If you have trained in these techniques, you should not be charging standard day rates for them.

Spray painting is the most significant specialist premium available to UK decorators right now. A spray-qualified decorator with an HVLP or airless rig can complete cabinet resprays, kitchen door finishes, and full room mist coats at a pace that brush-and-roller cannot match — and the finish quality on smooth substrates is superior. The cost of the equipment (£800–£3,000 for a quality HVLP rig; £3,000–£8,000 for airless) amortises quickly at specialist rates.

Coving and cornice work is slower than painting and requires different skills — accurate mitring, period-match sourcing, plaster repair skills where the existing profile is damaged. Do not price this at your standard day rate. It is closer to a plastering skill than a painting skill, and should be priced accordingly.

The True Cost of a Decorator's Day — Worked Example

Most decorators think of their day rate as largely profit. It is not. Here is a worked example for a self-employed decorator in the Midlands charging £220/day:

A £220/day decorator in the Midlands takes home roughly £84/day net after overheads and tax. Over a 48-week working year at 4.5 billable days per week, that is approximately £18,000 net — significantly below the national median wage. To hit £30,000 net, that decorator needs to be charging closer to £270–£290/day, not £220.

The consumables line is where decorators most commonly undercount. Masking tape, fillers, sandpapers, roller sleeves, strainer bags, brush cleaner, white spirit, dust sheets — on a medium-sized room repaint, these easily add up to £15–£30 of materials consumed that are never invoiced to the customer. They are either in the day rate or they are an invisible loss. Make them explicit in your pricing model.

Paint Materials Markup — How to Include It in Quotes Without Awkwardness

Decorators typically add 10–20% to paint and materials when supplying them on behalf of a customer. That markup reflects the real costs of sourcing, carrying in your van, managing excess stock, and dealing with returns. It is standard practice in every trade that supplies materials as part of the job.

The awkwardness comes when decorators either hide the markup (and customers discover it via a quick internet search) or fail to charge it at all (effectively providing a buying and delivery service for free). Neither approach serves you well. Here is how to handle it cleanly:

• State it upfront in your quote: include a line item such as "Paint and materials supplied at trade price plus 15% handling." Most customers accept this without question when it is stated clearly. The awkwardness comes from springing it on them at invoice stage.
• Use trade accounts: if you have a trade account with Dulux, Crown, Brewers, or your local merchant, your trade price is typically 20–40% below retail. Your markup goes on top of trade price, not retail — so the customer still pays less than they would buying it themselves at a DIY shed, and you still make a margin. Make this clear: "I supply paint at trade price plus 15% — this is typically still below what you'd pay at B&Q."
• Itemise materials separately from labour: a quote with a clear labour line and a clear materials line (at your marked-up price) is easier for customers to understand and harder to dispute than a single lump sum. It also makes it obvious what is covered if the scope changes.
• On premium paints, consider higher markup: if a customer is specifying Farrow & Ball, Little Greene or Mylands at £60–£90/2.5L tin, a 15% markup on a £400 paint order is £60 — a meaningful contribution to the job. Do not be shy about applying the full markup on high-spec materials orders.

If a customer wants to supply their own paint, that is their right — but make clear in writing that you do not warranty the finish performance of customer-supplied materials, and that if the paint fails to cover adequately and additional coats are required, those additional coats are charged at your day rate.

Quoting by Day Rate vs m² — When to Use Each

The two main pricing approaches for decorators are day rate (you charge per day on site regardless of output) and area-based pricing (you price by m² of wall, ceiling, or floor). Each suits different circumstances and customer types.

m² pricing gives customers a clearer, more comparable quote — they can check it against other quotes and understand exactly what they are paying for. It rewards your efficiency: if you develop a faster prep and painting workflow than average, your effective hourly rate goes up without charging the customer more. Standard m² rates for decorator labour only (excluding materials) in 2026:

Day rates suit work with uncertain scope: old properties where the condition behind surface finishes is unknown until you start, jobs where the customer changes specification mid-project, or multi-trade sites where your working time is not entirely under your control. Day rates also suit repeat commercial clients — facilities managers and property maintenance companies who trust you and want a straightforward daily charge for ongoing work.

For residential redecorations with a clear room list and agreed spec, m² pricing typically converts better. Customers feel they are being charged for what they are getting rather than for your time — and a clear m² quote is harder to negotiate down than a day rate, because the customer has no visibility of how long each m² takes you.

Prep Time Is the Key — Why Customers Always Underestimate It

The most common source of decorator pricing disputes is prep time. Customers believe decorating means painting. Decorators know that painting is often the fastest part of the job. The bulk of time — and the bulk of skill — goes into the preparation, and if you do not make this explicit in your quote, you will either absorb the cost or have an argument at the end of the job.

Typical prep time allocation for a standard double bedroom redecoration:

• Stripping wallpaper: a papered room with one layer of lining paper and one layer of patterned paper typically takes a full day for an average room — more on older paper, less on recently applied modern wallpaper. Customers who have never stripped paper consistently underestimate this by 50%. If the room is double-papered (multiple historic layers), double the estimate.
• Wall repair and filling: after stripping, a Victorian or Edwardian plaster wall will have cracks, holes, and blown plaster sections that need cutting out and filling. Minor filling: 1–2 hours. Significant plaster repair: half a day to a full day depending on extent.
• Sanding: after filling dries, everything must be sanded smooth. A room with filled areas takes 1–2 hours of sanding before it is ready for primer. On bare plaster, sanding is light but essential before mist coat.
• Priming and mist coats: bare plaster needs a mist coat (diluted emulsion) before standard emulsion, or it soaks up the finish coat. This adds a half-day drying step that cannot be skipped without compromising the finish.
• Masking: a properly masked room takes 1–2 hours to prepare before a brush is loaded. Cutting in around ceilings, skirting boards, light switches, sockets, and window reveals is skilled, slow work that cannot be rushed without visible consequence.

The total prep time for a standard double bedroom — stripping, patching, sanding, priming, masking — is typically 1.5 to 2 full days. The actual emulsion painting is another day. Gloss on woodwork is another half-day. A proper single-room redecoration is rarely less than three full days' work, and a customer who is comparing your quote with a neighbour who quoted one day at a cheap rate is being misled about what the job actually requires.

Break prep out as a line item in your quotes: "Preparation — stripping, filling, sanding and priming: 1.5 days." It makes the scope visible, justifies your price, and means that if a customer wants to reduce cost by skipping prep, they are consciously choosing a worse outcome — not discovering later that you did less work than expected.

Domestic vs Commercial Painting — The 20–30% Premium and Why It Exists

Commercial painting contracts — offices, schools, care homes, retail units, housing association blocks — typically pay 20–30% more per day than equivalent domestic work, and for good reason. The premium reflects real additional costs and complexity that domestic redecorations simply do not involve.

• RAMS and documentation: every commercial site requires a written Method Statement and Risk Assessment before work begins. First-time RAMS for a new site type takes several hours to produce; templated RAMS for a familiar site type takes 30–60 minutes. Either way, it is non-billable time that does not exist on a domestic job. It must be in your commercial day rate.
• Working hours restrictions: an office cannot have painting done while staff are present — either because of noise, fumes, or access disruption. This forces decorating into out-of-hours windows: early mornings (start 6am), late evenings, or weekends. Unsociable hours command premium rates. A standard commercial out-of-hours rate should be at minimum 25% above your daytime rate.
• Disruption management: commercial clients — particularly schools and care homes — have zero tolerance for mess, fumes, or disruption to their operations. Low-odour paints are often mandatory (Dulux Trade Diamond, Crown Trade Cleanstay), which cost more than standard emulsions. Containment, hoarding, and phased working in occupied buildings is slower and more complex than working in an empty domestic property.
• Insurance requirements: many commercial contracts require £5m or £10m public liability insurance rather than the £1m or £2m standard on domestic work. If you need to upgrade your PLI to win commercial contracts, that cost goes into your commercial day rate.
• Payment terms: domestic customers typically pay on completion or in staged payments. Commercial clients often pay on 30 or 60-day invoicing terms. That working capital gap is a real cost and should be built into your commercial pricing — either as a higher day rate or as an explicit early-payment discount.

A decorator charging £220/day on domestic work should be quoting £270–£290/day minimum for commercial contracts, and higher still for out-of-hours work. Schools and care homes are often the best-paying commercial painting clients — their facilities budgets are fixed and released on a schedule, they tend to pay reliably, and the work is predictable. The premium is there to be claimed.

Never Quote Off Photos — What to Check on a Site Survey

The single most expensive quoting mistake a decorator makes is pricing from photos, WhatsApp messages, or verbal descriptions without seeing the job. Photos show colour; they do not show surface condition, previous finish quality, the number of wallpaper layers, blown plaster, rising damp behind wallpaper, or the fact that the "quick freshening up" the customer describes is actually a full strip-and-repaint.

Always visit the site before issuing a quote. Here is what to check on a decorating site survey:

The asbestos point deserves particular emphasis. Artex (textured coating) applied to ceilings before 1985 may contain white asbestos. Sanding or grinding this creates airborne fibres that are a serious health risk. If you are asked to skim over, sand, or remove textured ceilings in a pre-1985 property, you need either an asbestos survey result from the customer confirming it is clear, or you price for the work to be done in a way that does not disturb the surface — skim coat over it rather than sand it. This is not optional box-ticking; it is your legal duty under COSHH and the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

Quoting off photos is how decorators end up underbidding jobs by 30–50%, then either absorbing the loss or having a dispute with the customer. The site visit takes 20–30 minutes. It is the most valuable 20 minutes you spend on any job.

Raising Your Rates — Annual Review Strategy and How to Communicate It

Decorators are, on average, more reluctant to raise their rates than tradespeople in other sectors. The work is competitive, the customer base is price-sensitive in the domestic market, and there is always a concern that a rate rise will trigger customers to look elsewhere. That concern is understandable — and it should not stop you from reviewing your rates every year.

The case for annual increases is simple: your costs rise every year. Van running costs, PLI premiums, tool replacement, fuel, and paint all cost more in 2026 than they did in 2024. If your rates stay flat while your costs rise, your real-terms income falls. Three years of frozen rates against annual cost inflation of 4–6% is the equivalent of a significant, self-inflicted pay cut.

Annual review strategy: choose a fixed point each year — 1st January or 1st April align with most customers' mental budgeting. Write to all ongoing clients 4–6 weeks in advance with a brief, professional note stating your new rates and the date they take effect. Do not over-explain or over-apologise. Keep it factual. A working template:

For landlords and property managers with multiple properties, follow the letter with a brief call or WhatsApp message. Personal contact matters more than the written notice itself. Most established customers accept a well-communicated 6–10% annual increase without complaint. The ones who leave over a modest rise were typically your most price-sensitive clients — and often not your most profitable or easiest work to deliver.

If you have not raised your rates since 2023, the correction needed to get back to real-terms parity will be uncomfortable — 15–20% or more — and may cost you clients. Annual small increases are far easier to absorb than a periodic large correction. Start the discipline now, even if the first year's increase is modest.

Track Which Enquiries Convert to Full Redecorations — Not Just Touch-Up Jobs

Not all decorating enquiries are equal, and understanding which ones convert to full-room or full-property redecorations versus small touch-up jobs changes how you allocate your marketing spend. A customer who found you via Google searching "decorator for full house redecoration near me" is a different prospect from someone who calls off your van asking for a single wall repainted to cover a scuff.

Trade2Base's call tracking lets you assign separate phone numbers to different marketing channels — your Google Business Profile, your website, your Checkatrade listing, your van signage, your Facebook page — and track which source generates enquiries, which convert to booked work, and which bring in jobs at your full rate versus jobs at your minimum. Over a few months, that data reveals patterns that are invisible without tracking.

For decorators specifically, this matters because the channels that generate full-property redecoration enquiries are often very different from those generating small touch-up calls. If your Google Business Profile is generating two full-redecoration enquiries per week at average job values of £1,200, and your Checkatrade listing is generating ten calls per week at average job values of £120 — Checkatrade looks busy and Google looks quiet. But the revenue per enquiry tells the opposite story. Without tracking, you are guessing where to focus your effort and your marketing budget. With it, you make decisions that compound into significantly better revenue every year.