Decorator Day Rates in London: What Painters and Decorators Charge in 2026

Last updated: August 2026. Figures verified against Which?, BCIS (RICS), Gov.uk, Transport for London and Citizens Advice sources as of August 2026.

TL;DR: A sole-trader decorator in London typically charges £220 to £320 a day, labour only, for standard interior work in 2026. Established firms and two-person teams quote more, materials add roughly 15 to 30 per cent, and VAT registration can add 20 per cent to a larger firm's price.

Decorator pricing is one of the most confusing corners of the London trades market. Search results quote anything from £180 to £850 a day for what sounds like the same work, and very few of those figures come with a date or a method behind them. This guide sets out what the evidence actually supports, what a day rate does and does not include, and how to judge whether a quote is fair.

How much does a decorator charge per day in London?

A sole-trader painter and decorator working on a standard interior job in London typically charges between £220 and £320 a day for labour in 2026, with somewhere around £270 a reasonable working midpoint. That range is built from the most recent dated evidence available: a Which? pricing survey of vetted decorators published in May 2026, which notes that prices "are likely to be at the upper end of the scale if you live in London or the South East" [1], and BCIS (RICS) data showing UK painting and decorating trade prices rose 4.1 per cent in the year to the first quarter of 2026 [2].

Scenario (labour only, 2026)	Typical day rate	Notes
Sole trader, standard interior work, rest of UK	£150 - £220	National baseline for comparison
Sole trader, standard interior work, London	£220 - £320	Best-evidenced London range; around £270 midpoint
Established firm or two-person team, London	£320 - £450	Estimate: reflects VAT registration, insurance and overheads

Two honesty notes on that table. First, no official body publishes a decorator day-rate register, so these ranges are triangulated from job-level pricing data rather than read off a single source. Second, you will see much higher figures online, sometimes £600 a day or more for "premium" London decorators. No independent, dated source we could find supports those numbers for standard work. Specialist and heritage decorating, for example decorative finishes or work on listed buildings, is genuinely more expensive, but it is priced job by job; treat any flat "heritage day rate" you see online with caution and get itemised quotes instead.

Most decorators do not actually bill by the day for full jobs. The Which? survey prices complete rooms and whole properties, which reflects how the trade really quotes: a fixed price per room or per job, with day rates reserved for smaller or open-ended work [1].

How to spot a fair decorating quote

A fair quote is an itemised quote. Before comparing prices, check that each quote sets out:

• A written scope: which rooms, walls, ceilings, woodwork and any wallpapering are included.
• The pricing basis: day rate, fixed price or price per room, stated explicitly.
• Preparation: filling, sanding, caulking and any making good, specified rather than assumed. If walls need skimming first, that is a separate trade; see our guide to plastering costs in London.
• Coats and products: the number of coats and the paint brand or grade being priced.
• Materials: whether paint and sundries are included or billed on top.
• Protection and waste: dust-sheeting, masking and disposal of waste.
• Access costs: parking, and the ULEZ or Congestion Charge where they apply.
• VAT status: whether the price includes VAT, and if not, whether the decorator is VAT-registered.
• A payment schedule: deposit, stage payments if any, and the balance on completion. Never full payment upfront.

Day rate, hourly rate or fixed price: which should you be quoted?

A fixed price per room or per job is the norm for defined decorating work, and it usually serves you better. Pricing the whole job forces the decorator to look properly at the condition of the surfaces, the prep required, the number of coats and the drying time between them, instead of leaving you to carry the risk of the job overrunning. The Which? survey reflects this: it reports prices per room and per property, not per hour [1].

Day rates come into their own for small jobs, touch-up lists and work where the scope is genuinely unknown until it is opened up. If a decorator quotes a day rate for a multi-room redecoration, ask them to convert it into a fixed price with the day count and prep assumptions written down. For odd jobs that are more patch-and-paint than full redecoration, a good handyman may be the cheaper route; see our guide to handyman hourly rates in London.

What a decorator's day rate includes, and what it does not

A day rate buys the decorator's labour for a working day: preparation, application and a tidy finish. It almost never includes materials. Paint, filler, caulk, tape, dust sheets and rubbish removal are charged on top, and as a rule of thumb materials add roughly 15 to 30 per cent to the cost of a typical decorating job. Scaffold-tower hire for stairwells or exteriors, and skip hire where old wallpaper is stripped, are also extras.

Paint quantities are worth sanity-checking on any materials bill. As a rule of thumb, standard emulsion covers roughly 12 square metres per litre per coat on smooth, primed walls, and noticeably less on bare plaster or textured surfaces. A decorator who specifies the paint brand, grade and litres on the quote is showing their working, which is exactly what you want.

What decorating jobs cost and how long they take

The most reliable dated figures for complete jobs come from the Which? Trusted Trader survey published in May 2026, based on pricing gathered from vetted decorators in November 2025. The ranges below include labour and materials but exclude wallpaper and VAT, and Which? notes London and the South East sit at the top of each range [1].

Job	Typical duration	Price range (UK-wide, 2026)
Small room (2.1m x 2.2m)	1 - 2 days	£200 - £900
Medium room (3.3m x 3m)	2 days	£250 - £1,100
Large room (6.1m x 5m)	2 - 3 days	£350 - £1,650
Hallway, landing and stairs	3 days	£400 - £1,600
Average 3-bed semi, exterior	3 - 4 days	£600 - £4,500

For a whole 2-bed London flat, summing the Which? room-level durations suggests roughly 7 to 10 working days for a full interior redecoration, depending on prep condition and drying time. Treat that as an estimate derived from the per-room data rather than a surveyed figure, and expect a decorator to confirm the day count after seeing the property.

Why London decorators charge more

London's premium over the national baseline is real and mostly explainable. UK painting and decorating prices as a whole rose 4.1 per cent in the year to the first quarter of 2026, ahead of the previous year's increase [2], and London stacks several extra costs on top of that national trend:

• Driving costs: the Ultra Low Emission Zone charges £12.50 a day for non-compliant vehicles across all London boroughs [3], and the central-London Congestion Charge rose 20 per cent to £18 a day from 2 January 2026, the first increase since 2020 [4]. A decorator who crosses central London daily with a non-compliant van can pay over £150 a week before lifting a brush.
• Parking: daily visitor parking near the job is a genuine line item in much of inner London, and decorators price it in.
• Older housing stock: London's Victorian and Edwardian properties typically need more preparation, from deeper filling to specialist priming, and prep time is the biggest hidden variable in any decorating quote.
• VAT: a decorator whose taxable turnover exceeds the £90,000 VAT registration threshold must charge 20 per cent VAT [5]. Larger London firms are far more likely to be over that threshold than sole traders, which is a legitimate, structural reason two quotes for the same job can be 20 per cent apart.

Rates also vary between trades, not just between regions. For context, see what plumbers charge per hour in London and what carpenters charge per day.

Deposits, cancellation rights and paying safely

Never pay for a decorating job in full before work starts. A modest deposit that covers materials is normal on larger jobs; a demand for most of the money upfront is not, and is a recognised warning sign.

Your cancellation rights are stronger than most people realise. When you agree a contract with a trader away from their premises, which includes a quote signed in your own home, the Consumer Contracts Regulations give you a minimum 14-day cooling-off period on services costing £42 or more. Citizens Advice puts it plainly: "14 days is the absolute minimum cooling-off period that a seller must give you" [6]. The period starts the day after the contract is made, and there are exceptions for genuinely urgent work you ask to start immediately. If you cancel after a contract has formed, any deposit the trader keeps must reflect their actual losses, such as materials already bought, not an arbitrary penalty [6].

On larger, multi-week decorating projects, agree a staged payment schedule tied to completed stages, keep everything in writing, and pay by a traceable method rather than cash.

How to check you are hiring a good decorator

Price tells you what a decorator charges; it does not tell you who they are. Before booking, look for:

• Trade-body membership: the Painting and Decorating Association (PDA) is the UK's largest trade body for the craft, and it vets members on experience, workmanship and customer service before admitting them, backs them with a code of practice, and offers a conciliation and arbitration service if a job goes wrong [7].
• Government-endorsed schemes: TrustMark is the only UK Government-endorsed quality scheme for work in and around the home, and registered firms are inspected against a code of practice [8].
• Insurance: ask for proof of public liability insurance before work starts.
• Recent, local references: photographs of finished work are useful; addresses and phone numbers of recent local customers are better.
• Qualifications: City & Guilds or NVQ qualifications in painting and decorating signal formal training, particularly for specialist finishes.

For the full pre-hire routine, from checking reviews to spotting quote red flags, read our guide on how to find a trusted tradesperson in London.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a decorator charge per day in London?

A sole-trader decorator in London typically charges £220 to £320 a day, labour only, for standard interior work in 2026. Established firms and two-person teams usually quote £320 to £450 a day. Materials are extra, and quotes for specialist or heritage work are priced job by job.

Is it cheaper to pay a decorator by the day or a fixed price?

A fixed price is usually better value for defined jobs such as a full room, because the decorator prices the prep, coats and drying time rather than an open-ended day count. Day rates suit small jobs, touch-ups and work where the scope is genuinely uncertain. Always get the basis of the quote in writing.

Does a decorator's day rate include paint and materials?

No, a day rate is almost always labour only. Paint, filler, caulk, dust sheets, waste disposal and any scaffold tower hire are charged on top, and materials typically add roughly 15 to 30 per cent to the cost of a decorating job. Ask for materials to be itemised separately on the quote.

How many days does it take to decorate a room?

Painting a small bedroom takes one to two days, a medium room around two days, and a large living room two to three days, based on a dated Which? survey of vetted decorators. A hallway, landing and stairs usually takes about three days, and wallpapering a room around three days.

Why do two decorating quotes for the same job differ so much?

VAT is the most common reason. A decorator whose turnover is under the £90,000 VAT registration threshold does not add VAT, while a larger firm adds 20 per cent for the identical job. Differences in prep, number of coats, paint quality and access costs such as parking explain most of the rest.

Should I pay a decorator a deposit before work starts?

A modest deposit to cover materials is normal on larger jobs, but never pay the full price upfront. If you agree the contract at home you usually have a 14-day cooling-off period on services costing £42 or more, and any retained deposit must reflect the trader's actual losses, not a penalty.

Find a trusted local decorator

A fair decorating quote in London starts from a labour rate of £220 to £320 a day for a sole trader, itemises prep, coats, materials and VAT, and never asks for full payment upfront. Get two or three itemised quotes, compare what each one actually includes, and check the decorator's trade-body membership and insurance before you book. Prices vary with the property and the season, so always get current quotes rather than relying on any single published figure.

Ready to get started? Find a trusted local decorator on Loacally and compare verified local tradespeople near you. And if you are a decorator weighing up where your next customers come from, you can apply to join Loacally as the platform opens across London.

Sources

1. How much do painters and decorators cost? -- Which?, published 1 May 2026 (survey of Which? Trusted Traders, November 2025 data), accessed 2026-08-06
2. Annual movement in painting and decorating prices -- BCIS (RICS), published 18 March 2026, accessed 2026-08-06
3. Ultra Low Emission Zone -- Transport for London, accessed 2026-08-06
4. Congestion Charge -- Transport for London, accessed 2026-08-06
5. VAT registration thresholds -- Gov.uk, accessed 2026-08-06
6. Cancelling building or decorating work -- Citizens Advice, accessed 2026-08-06
7. About the PDA -- Painting and Decorating Association, accessed 2026-08-06
8. Join TrustMark -- TrustMark, accessed 2026-08-06