For homeowners getting a price

Painting cost calculator

A living room is £240 to £420 for the work.

Built from published rates. Rates reviewed October 2026.

Put your own room in, and it works the sum in front of you.

Free. No sign up.

It prices the painting.

It does not pretend to price the repairs.

£240 to £420labour, a living room

35 m²of wall one decorator paints in a day

2 coatsthe only job these rates cover

What this works out, and what it does not

The labour to paint walls and ceilings, 2 coats, on a job you can name.
Measured from the room, not guessed from a room count.
Not the filling, the stripping or the woodwork.
Prep has no published rate, and woodwork is priced per door.
Not the paint, which a decorator normally charges on top.

Price my own room

A fair price. Not the cheapest one.

What will painting this room cost?Labour only, 2 coats

What four common jobs cost

Labour only, at a fair local day rate, on rooms at everyday sizes.

Labour to paint the room

The time is what you are buying. The money follows it.

Labour cost for four common painting jobs
The job	Labour
Small bedroom, about a day	£160 to £280
Living room, about a day and a half	£240 to £420
Hall, stairs and landing, about a day and a half	£220 to £380
Three bedrooms together, about four days	£560 to £980

Rounded to the nearest ten pounds, because this is a worked out band and not a quote.

Worked out means calculated from published rates, not copied from a price list.

The band is £150 to £260 a day for the decorator’s time.

Where you live moves it.

This site works out 31 towns.

Quotable

Painting a living room of 52.56 m² in walls and ceiling takes about a day and a half at published rates, so labour runs £240 to £420 at a worked out £150 to £260 day rate (Rate Sorted, October 2026).

Where the rate comes fromThe same calculator a decorator uses to work out what to charge.

How the figure is worked out

Three steps, and you can check each one with a tape measure.

The surface, room by room

Sample room sizes. Yours will differ, and the method stays the same.

The wall and ceiling area measured for each sample job
The job	Wallsand ceiling
Small bedroom	35.46 m²
Living room	52.56 m²
Hall, stairs and landing	48.03 m²
Three bedrooms together	123.74 m²

Ceiling height is taken as 2.4 m, which is the ordinary British ceiling.

Measure the surfaceRight round the room times the height for the walls, length times width for the ceiling.
Turn it into hours0.2 hours per m² of wall, 0.25 per m² of ceiling, 2 coats.
Turn the hours into moneyDivide by the working day, then multiply by a fair local day rate.

One number here is ours, not a published rate.

We treat a working day as 7 productive hours on the brush.

Nobody publishes that figure. So we say it, rather than hide it.

See day rates by townFree, no login, and it shows where each town's rate comes from.

What no calculator can price

These four can move a real quote a long way, and none is in the figure above.

Preparation

Filling holes, sanding, stripping old wallpaper and repairing plaster.

A sound wall and a wall under layers of old wallpaper are not the same job.

Ask for the prep to be described in the quote. In words.

Woodwork

Doors, frames, skirting and windows.

Gloss needs long waiting between coats, so it eats days rather than hours.

Ask whether it is included or priced separately.

Paint and materials are the third. Access is the fourth. All four belong on the quote.

What to ask for instead of a total

The days on site, written down, and the day rate behind them.
What the preparation covers, described rather than assumed.
The paint listed on its own, with the brand and the number of tins.
A line saying what is not included. Disputes start there.

See a quote written properlyA worked example, with the days, the labour and the paint all listed separately.

A homeowner standing in the doorway of a red brick terraced house, talking to a decorator in white overalls who is carrying a rolled dust sheet. — The price is settled on the doorstep, before a brush is opened.

Fair rates for my town31 towns worked out, with the sources named beside each one.

Questions about painting costs

How much does it cost to paint a room?

Labour on a living room runs £240 to £420.

That is about a day and a half of work, walls and ceiling, 2 coats.

Paint, materials and any repairs are charged on top.

What is the painting rate per square metre in the UK?

Published rates put walls at 0.2 hours per m² and ceilings at 0.25.

One decorator covers about 35 m² of wall in a day at that rate.

Multiply the days by a fair day rate to get the labour cost.

How much to decorate a hall, stairs and landing?

The sample above is £220 to £380 in labour.

Stairs cost more in practice, because access is slower and a tower may be needed.

Ask for the stairs as their own line on the quote.

Is there a painting and decorating price list?

Not an honest one for a whole job.

Labour can be listed, and the four jobs above are exactly that.

Nobody publishes a rate for filling, sanding or stripping.

Woodwork is priced per door or per square metre, which a room count cannot supply.

So a single total for the whole job has guessed that part. Treat it with suspicion.

Every figure behind this page is set out in the methodology.

Getting the work done?

What does a fair decorating quote look like?

It names the days, the day rate, the preparation and the paint.

It says what is not included, and it does not arrive as one number with nothing behind it.

Compare two or three.

Days first, then price.

Fair day rate for a decorator’s time

£150 to £260

Materials are normally charged on top. Reviewed October 2026.

Decorator day rates by townThe rate for a decorator’s time where you live, across 31 towns.What a decorating quote should look likeA worked quote with the days, the labour and the materials all shown separately.How much should a decorator charge?The trade side of the same sum, and why a low quote is not always the cheap one.How the figures are worked outThe formula, the sources and the tax year behind every number here.Painter and decorator hourly rateWhat a decorator's time costs by the hour, and why nobody publishes one figure.The quote writerIf you are the decorator rather than the customer, it writes the quote for you.

Painting rates: 0.2 hours per m² of wall and 0.25 per m² of ceiling, 2 coats.Those two rates are published by Methvin, a firm that measures how long building work takes.Productive hours a day: 7. That one is ours, not a published figure.Labour band: worked out from a £200 national middle figure, not a published range.Room sizes are a stated sample. Yours will differ, and the method is the same.Rates reviewed October 2026

Check rates in my townFree, no login, and nothing is stored unless you ask for the PDF.

See what is in itThe £39 Rate Book helps you price jobs, plan tax and track unpaid invoices.

Reviewed on 5 September 2026.

These figures use the same sums as the free calculator. The two always agree.