Decorating Timescales

[AJ1978G]

Hello,

I am new to the site and have a question regarding how long painting should take. I work as a handyman and carry out quite a lot of painting work. When quoting work I work out my price and then check online to see what the general suggested costs and timescales should be. Price wise I am usually in the right ballpark. However, the time scales shown on some sites do not make sense to me.

I looked at one site that suggested that it would take 4-6 hours to paint a medium sized room. I dont understand how that can be the case. Firstly there is the repairing, filling and caulking. Even if the prep work is minor, you still have to wait for it to go off. Usually overnight in the case of caulk. If I try and paint over it any sooner, the paint cracks badly.

Then there is the ceiling, coving and walls, plus the architrave, skirting and quite often the window sill too.

I know I am not as fast as people who do painting and decorating for a living full time (rather than as a handyan), but I can't see how anyone can get all of that work done in 4-6 hours.

Perhaps I am missing something. That is why I have decided to join here and put this post up. I would like to know realisticaly how long it should take to carry out the work listed below?

Prep walls and fill cracks (assuming minimal cracks and filling)
Paint Ceiling and coving - 2 Coats Dulux Paint
Paint walls - 2 Coats Dulux Paint
Paint architrave, skirting and window sill (Dulux Once - Once Coat)

Many Thanks

 

[Wayners]

New builds checkout Candleman on YouTube. He walks you around plots and will say how long and how much was paid.
That's new work though.


Not an easy question to answer.

Working in a private home is different to new builds or refurbishment.

I remember pricing a lounge dining room.
I had it at 8.5 days at £1600 all in. About £200 with paint plus filler and carpet protector.
Lost job to a rival that completed work in 4 days. Must of used one coat gloss on doors and skirting.
I planned to tape ceiling cracks but that could not have happened and probably just filled them.
There was 6 rolls of wallpaper along fireplace wall and that would of taken a good day.
I still don't know how it was done so fast and to what standard.
Some people are quicker than others and standards vary I guess.
It's a hard trade to make good money as everything is tight with lots of trades fighting for whatever work there is.

Some say you should just give a price and it takes however long to complete, while others say you need to price per day and get it done on time.




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