How to Hire a Painter and Decorator
Hiring a painter and decorator in Newcastle is easier when you know what to check.
This page explains how to read and compare quotes, and what decorators charge by the day or room.
- How do I know a decorator is any good?
- What should a quote include?
- What do decorators charge by the day or room in Newcastle?
Call 0191 743 3614 today and put what you’ve just read to the test with a free quote.
Why Choose Tulip Decor
A few things worth knowing before you pick up the phone:
A Written Scope
Every quote lists the rooms, surfaces and prep before you see a number.
Insured On Every Job
Public liability cover, in place for every job we take on.
Local Newcastle Knowledge
One decorator covering Newcastle upon Tyne, from Jesmond to Ponteland.
Straight Answers Before You Book
We answer your questions up front.
How Do You Know a Decorator Is Any Good?
Most people hiring a decorator in Newcastle are doing it for the first time. Two things separate a good decorator from a risky one, and neither shows up on a website.
Before you hire, notice this
A decorator worth hiring answers your questions before you have to chase them. They explain the preparation before you have to ask twice. They put the scope in writing rather than promising a number over the phone. A decorator who works this way answers most of the questions below before you ask.
About the work
- What does the preparation include? What happens to anything that needs filling or stripping? The most useful question on the list. Preparation is the invisible half of the job, and it disappears first when someone cuts the price.
- How many coats, and what are they going over? Two coats over an existing similar colour is a different job from two coats of white over dark green. One covers, and one does not.
- Which products, by name and finish? Trade emulsion is not an answer. A brand, a product line and a sheen level is.
- Who is on site? Worth knowing whether the person quoting is the person painting, on any job you hire.
- How long, and which days? A start date without an end date is not a plan. A job that runs over is the most common source of friction.
About the money
- Is this a fixed price or a day rate, and what would change it? Both are normal. What matters is which one you are agreeing to, and what changes the price.
- What does the price exclude? Often the single most revealing question, because it asks somebody to volunteer bad news.
- Who supplies the paint, and do you get the trade discount? Covered in full further down this page.
- What deposit, and what is it for? A deposit that covers ordered materials is normal. A large deposit against nothing in particular is not.
- Does the price include VAT? A price that turns out to carry twenty per cent on top is surprising. It is also the most common reason two quotes stop being comparable.
About what happens afterwards
- How long does the job stay open for snags? Every job has a few. What matters is the window for fixing them without an argument.
- What guarantee do you get, and on what? A workmanship guarantee is different from a manufacturer’s guarantee on the paint.
Signs of a bad paint job
Runs, misses and brush marks still visible once the coats are dry are the clearest signs. So is paint on woodwork, floors or fittings that should have stayed masked. So is patchy coverage where the old colour still shows through. Filler lines showing through fresh paint point to a preparation problem, not a paint one.
It is also worth asking to see the public liability certificate. Read the dates on it, rather than just checking that it exists.
What Should a Quote Include?
When you have more than one quote in front of you, it is tempting to compare the totals first. Check whether they describe the same job before you compare the numbers. Two quotes are only comparable once they cover the same work, and they almost never do to begin with.
Decorating quotes follow no fixed standard. Some parts decide whether a finish lasts two years or ten. Those are the parts you cannot see once the furniture is back.
The quicker route is to line the quotes up on six points and see where they differ. One or two lines account for the whole gap in most cases. Once they are visible, the decision stops being a gamble.
| Line them up on | What you are looking for |
|---|---|
| Rooms and surfaces | Are ceilings in? Woodwork? Inside the built-in wardrobes? The garage? |
| Preparation | Described in detail, or the single word prep? |
| Coats and colours | How many, over what, and does a strong colour change need an extra one? |
| Materials | Named products, and who is buying them |
| Making good and exclusions | Filling, caulking, stain blocking, and a clear list of what the price leaves out |
| Time and terms | Working days, start and finish, deposit, stage payments, VAT |
Once those six read the same on both quotes, the prices mean something. Until then, the cheapest quote is often just the shortest one.
A price that comes in well under the others is worth a direct question, not a suspicion. Sometimes it is a smaller outfit with lower overheads, which is a good outcome. Sometimes it is one coat instead of two, or no preparation, and asking makes that clear in about a minute.
Quoting for a full property rather than one room in Newcastle? What that job involves is on our page about whole house decorating in Newcastle upon Tyne.
A full written quote should spell out more than a total. Here is what to look for, line by line.
The work
- Every room and every surface, listed. Walls, ceilings, woodwork, doors, radiators, the parts that are easy to assume
- The preparation, described in detail rather than just named as prep
- The number of coats, and what they are going over
- Products by name, with the finish for each surface
- Which furniture needs moving or covering before the start
The money
- One total, with VAT shown, stating whether it’s a fixed price or a day rate
- What the price includes, and what costs extra
- Deposit, stage payments and final payment, with what triggers each
- What happens to the price if something turns up once the work starts
The dates and the aftermath
- Start date, working days, and expected finish
- Access, keys, parking and working hours
- The snagging window and how it works
- Any guarantee, and what it covers
- Insurance details
None of that is unusual to ask for. A decorator who quotes this way has already written it out. One who has not will put it in writing when you ask.
Get My Free Quote
Get a written scope before you compare any prices.
What Do Decorators Charge by the Day or Room in Newcastle?
We do not publish one fixed Newcastle day rate. We quote every job after we have seen it, not from a rate card. That is why there is no local figure to give here yet.
What follows instead is a national market estimate, not our own figure. Treat it as context, not a number to hold us to.
Checkatrade’s UK-wide data puts a decorator’s day rate at £200 to £350. The wider regional range runs £140 to £430, depending on location and experience. Per hour, that works out at around £32.
A standard twelve-by-twelve room runs £350 to £800 all in. Preparation is what decides where in that range a job lands.
The same factors shape both: preparation, coats, and how many rooms you book in one visit. A day rate on its own is not the total for a job. The total depends on how many days the job takes.
Why the Day Rate Is a Starting Point, Not Your Bill
A day rate answers what one day costs. It does not answer what your job costs, because that depends on how many days the job takes.
Tulip Decor works on painting and decorating jobs across Newcastle upon Tyne. The day rate above is only a starting point until someone has looked at the room.
Tell us what needs doing. We will turn that into a written scope with a real number, not a guess based on a national average.
What Does Two Coats Mean, and What Counts as Proper Preparation?
Two coats sounds like a standard, and it is not one. It describes how many times a roller passes the wall. It says nothing about what the wall was like beforehand, or what is underneath.
What it is going over. Two coats of a pale colour over an existing pale colour covers easily. The same two coats over a dark or strong colour often will not, and the honest answer is three.
Whether a mist coat is being counted as one of them. New plaster on a wall or a ceiling needs a thinned first coat to seal it, and that is a primer, not a finish coat. A quote that says mist coat and two coats describes more work than one that says two coats on the same wall.
Whether the surface was prepared. Paint does not fix a wall, it copies it. Two coats over an unprepared surface produce a smooth, even, well-lit record of every flaw that was already there.
Preparation is the part that separates the quotes, and the part nobody sees. On a typical Newcastle home, the standard trade preparation is:
- Filling and sanding, then sanding back old runs and brush marks
- Caulking the gaps where wall meets woodwork
- Washing down anything greasy, such as kitchens and around light switches
- Spot-priming bare patches and any new filler
- Stain-blocking anything that will bleed through, such as water marks or knots
- Taking the dust off before opening the paint
That list makes up most of the hours, and none of it is visible in the finished room. That is why it is often the first thing to go when someone cuts the price to win a job.
Painting over paintwork that already exists. Sound paintwork in good condition just needs a light key and a fresh coat. Peeling or flaking paint has to come off first, or the new coat lifts with it. A chalky, powdery surface needs washing down and a stabilising primer before anything else goes on.
Get My Free Quote
Ask exactly what prep your quote actually includes.
Deposits, Paint, and What Happens If You Are Not Happy
Three practical questions come up on almost every job. What deposit is fair, and who buys the paint? What happens if you are not happy with the finish? None of them has one right answer, but each has a normal one.
Deposits
There is no legal standard and no industry rule, which is why the range in practice is so wide. What is consistent is the reason a deposit exists. Someone has to buy materials before the work starts. On a whole-house job, that can be a significant sum in paint alone.
- A materials deposit at the start, to cover what needs ordering before anyone arrives
- Stage payments on longer jobs, tied to visible progress rather than to a date on a calendar
- A balance on completion, paid after the walkthrough rather than before it. You agree the snag list while money is still outstanding
A few signs are worth a second look:
- A large deposit, asked for before anyone has specified or ordered anything
- Insisting on cash only
- No written quote
- Pressure to decide fast
None of those is proof of anything on its own. Together they are a pattern, and paying by card or bank transfer at least leaves a record either way.
Who buys the paint
Both arrangements are common, and neither is wrong. They carry different risks, and the only bad version is the one nobody agreed to in advance.
When the decorator supplies it, the right product turns up in the right quantity. Trade accounts often mean a better price than retail.
The question to ask is whether the price covers paint at cost, at trade, or with a margin on top. Any of the three can be reasonable. Not knowing which is not.
When you supply it, you control which brand and colour goes on your walls. You risk running short mid-job. You might also buy the wrong product for the surface, or weaken any guarantee on the finish. A decorator can only stand behind a system they chose themselves.
If you are not happy with the finish
Every decorating job has a snag list. That is normal, and not a sign anything has gone wrong. A professional job is not one with no snags. It is one where someone finds and fixes the snags before anybody signs it off.
The walkthrough is the mechanism. It happens in daylight, room by room, with both people present. Anything either of you is not happy with goes on a written list at the time. It does not wait for a text message a fortnight later.
Reasonable is worth defining, because it is where most disputes sit. A finished wall is flat and even in the light it lives in. It is also free of runs, misses, brush marks and paint on surfaces that are not the wall.
An old wall in a period Newcastle terrace will still read as an old wall. A decorator who explains that before you start is a better sign than one who promises perfection.
Why Painters and Decorators Cost What They Do
A decorating quote can look expensive until you see what is inside it. Four costs make up almost all the price, and none of them is profit sitting on top.
Labour hours. Painting itself is usually the fast part of the job. Most of the time on site goes on preparation and masking. The drying time between coats adds more hours, and none of that time is a roller moving.
Preparation. Filling, sanding and caulking take longer than painting does. None of it shows in the finished room. Skipping it is the easiest way to cut a quote, and the fastest way to a finish that fails early.
Materials. Paint is not the only cost. Filler, caulk, primer, masking tape and dust sheets all add up across a whole property.
Insurance. Public liability cover protects your home if something goes wrong. A decorator without it is cheaper for a reason, and that reason is the one that matters if a mistake happens.
Is it worth paying for a decorator rather than doing it yourself? Time is the honest answer. A trained decorator works faster. The finish holds up for years, not months, because they do the preparation right the first time.
The way to see whether a price is fair is to have someone look at the actual job. Call today for a written scope with a real number attached, rather than a guess from a day rate.
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