Decorator day rate calculator, London 2026, after tax
Typical: £249 a day. Work out yours below.
Tell us the take home pay you want.
We show you the day rate to charge in London.
Free. No sign up.
Hiring a decorator in London? See what a fair quote looks like.
A painter and decorator in London typically charges £249 a day.
To take home £35,500 a year after real costs you need £256 a day.
Both are labour only, from the rate model and the calculator's default assumptions.
Change the inputs and your own number takes over. Quote that one.
Quotable
According to the Office for National Statistics, local pay differs enough by area to move a day rate.
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings
Data from HM Land Registry's UK House Price Index sets the second local input, per the October 2026 review.
Reviewed on .
These figures use the same sums as the free calculator. The two always agree.
Where these figures come from
Rate estimates blend the national median decorator day rate from five UK directories.
Those five are Checkatrade, HaMuch, MyBuilder, CostEstimator, MyJobQuote.
To that we add official ONS regional earnings and local house price data.
Sources: ONS ASHE 2025, UK House Price Index April 2026.
Rates reviewed October 2026.
Where does London sit among the 31 modelled towns?
Each dot is one modelled town, stacked where towns share a rate.
London is the dearest of the 31, with 30 below it.
The shaded band is the local range decorators here quote inside.
Quotable
What is decorating work like in London?
London is the only place in this model that is its own region, not a town inside one.
It carries the highest modelled decorator rate in the country at £249 a day.
The band around it, £187 to £324, is the widest in cash terms anywhere on the site.
Guildford comes next at £235 and Sunderland sits lowest at £160.
What the top rate does not buy here is time.
A charging zone, a permit and a walk from the van all happen before any filling starts.
Why do tradespeople undercharge?
Pricing off the going rate.
Pricing off what everyone else charges feels safe.
But the going rate says what customers are used to paying, not what your business needs.
The calculator on this page starts from the take home you want and adds your real costs.
The number it gives is the one to quote.
The whole working is in the sum behind the day rate.
What do decorators in London ask about rates?
What do decorators charge in London in a day?
The model puts the capital top of its 31 towns, at £249 for a full day of labour.
Quotes either side of that land between £187 and £324.
On the calculator defaults your own business needs £256 before any of it is earnings.
Highest in the country and still short of the sum is the London position in one line.
Why does a London day rate buy less than it looks?
Because a bigger share of the day goes on everything except decorating.
Traffic between jobs, a permit, a lift booking and carrying materials up stairs all sit inside it.
None of that is paid for separately, so it comes out of the same eight hours.
Put those days in the non billable field and the figure the sum asks for climbs again.
Should I pass on the zone charges for my van?
Yes, in the rate.
They are a cost of turning up, so they belong in the rate rather than on the invoice.
The calculator has a van field, and this is exactly what it is there to hold.
A charge paid five days a week is an annual number, not a line on one quote.
What do decorators charge in other towns?
The homepage lists decorator day rates by town, all 31 of them.