This is quite a difficult question to answer unfortunately. However I can take you through the process I use when giving an estimate, which you can use as a guide. Please take into account prices vary depending on the area you live and the experience of your decorator.
For example, a good decorator who has been in business many years will generally be more expensive than someone who is just starting out on their own, and a London based decorator will generally be more expensive than a decorator in say Liverpool. However, on the Decorators Forum UK we are often asked, “how much does a decorator charge to wallpaper a room”, so I thought it was time we gave an official answer.
How Much Does a Decorator Charge to Wallpaper a Room?
A professional decorator will charge anywhere between £150 and £300 per day. This doesn’t mean they earn £78,000 per year by the way! Running any type of business comes with running costs. Keeping a van on the road, maintenance of tools, the different types of insurance, advertising and many more costs must come out of their day rate before they can take a wage. Plus, there’s a lot of running about, cleaning tools, quoting and organising which is generally done out of normal working hours. So, if your decorator is with you from say 8am – 4:30, the chances are he or she has gone on to work much later.
So, to go back to the original question, how much does a decorator charge to wallpaper an average room? Let’s say it’s a bedroom that is getting stripped, painted and papered, break it down into days of labour. This is the order I’d do things in. Bear in mind it is only an example and each room requires a different amount of work;
Day one – remove all the existing wallpaper and fill the walls.
Day two – Sand walls and seal. Prep and undercoat woodwork
Day three – Line walls, paint ceiling, topcoat on woodwork
Day four – Wallpaper (generally 6 rolls per day)
Day five – Wallpaper and snag
A decorator in my area (Liverpool) may charge £200 per day, meaning a five-day job would cost £1,000 in labour, plus the cost of materials, plus the removal of waste.
It’s worth noting that the above method is how most decorators work their rates out when wallpaper. However, some do things slightly differently. They may charge per roll, or even per square metre. It gives you an idea though.
How Much Does a Decorator Charge to Hang Specialist Wallpapers?
I have just given you an example for a bog-standard bedroom wallpapering job, but not all wallpapers are the same. Some wallcoverings cost a lot of money and require decorators with more of a specialist skillset to carry out the work. Wallpaper murals like you’d find from Unique Walls for example. There are other wide vinyls, cut and splice papers or even fabric papers which are beyond the average decorators’ skillset. For this type of job, you would need to employ a specialist wallpaper installer. As with any specialist, you should expect higher rates. In this case, anywhere from £200 – £600 per day is what you should expect to pay.
Want to Save Money on a Decorator?
Some people make the mistake of getting a few quotes for decorating work, then going with the cheapest. This is often the worst thing you can do! There are good decorators and there are bad decorators. If a tradesman is cheap, it is sometimes because they need to drop their price as they don’t receive any repeat business. It may be because they drop their standards in order to get through the work quicker and still generate an income. I’m not saying the cheapest is always the worst option, but you should look for other qualities a tradesman has too.
If you do want to save money, there are a couple of things you can do. Firstly, tell them you will clear the room of furniture before they start. You can also agree to remove any existing wallcovering prior to their start date, thus reducing their labour. Something else you could offer to do is remove any waste generated by the works (usually a few bags).
I hope that helps. If you want to know how much a decorator charges to paper one feature wall click here
Mike Cupit I 100% agree with you on this issue.
As a rule of thumb I look to charge £40 per roll when wallpapering including the supply of paste.
Your breakdown of the job looks pretty spot on to me.
Ok how much for 4 walls? Room one: 2 walls both different one boy one girl (wallpaper) room 2: 1 wall and living room 1 wall breast different to side walls
I’d charge €10m2 for the wallpaper alone, you say 6 rolls a days, that’s 12 rolls Thurs/Fri, 60m2, €600. The painting would be day rate @ €150. So that’s €1,050 (probably just €1,000).
That’s £850 ish
That’s exactly how I work my prices out. I break each part down to how long I expect it to take and then multiply by my own day rate
Plus a bit of dad tax
Am from the Wirral just out side Liverpool and if you changed that and took that long, you would not get any work. 3 days work,
Day 1
Strip, fill, 1st coat ceiling, prep walls and woodwork, undercoat woodwork.
Day 2 hang 6 lining paper, 2nd coat on ceiling and gloss woodwork,
Day 3
Hang wallpaper
Yes I agree average size room strip wallpaper prepare walls paint ceiling and repaper and paint all woodwork between £600 and£1000
spot on ,depending on overheads
You are not specifying here the type of wallpaper that could possibly be used for hanging and I find this article quite misleading. It takes years of experience for a wallpaper hanger to be able to become comfortable with hanging silk, grasscloth, linen, wide textile, fabric or any speciality wallcoverings that no one is mentioning here.
In London if you are charging less then £250/day for standard wallpaper, £350/day for speciality wallcoverings as Phillip Jeffries or something close I’m not sure if you’re doing it correctly as hanging these textile wallcoverings takes time, attention and superb vigilance. I charge £27 per m2 for textile and spend alot of time in correct preparation(every job is specific and needs different approach) as it is the key to a quality finish. From £15 to £22 per m2 for standard wallpaper including taxes, material and priming, depends on difficulty.
Correction. I now charge 65/m², this include sealing, lining, priming the lining as a substrate for any wallcovering/wallpaper
Sounds cheap to me
I think the same. £100-£200 a day you can make hanging wallpaper 5 days a week for a decorating company that charges £450/day for your work and employs 30 decorators. For one of job at least £250 a day is must for me so I can take time to create quality finish and be profitable otherwise it is no point for me to do the work
Yep I agree with you although would take me a bit longer cause my working day is shorter so I estimate how many days then take off a day.
This is spot on!
I find this pretty much identical to the way I price my jobs aswell mate
I hang 8-10 rolls a day comfortably so do I charge more as I’m experienced or lose a days work?
I price the same as you have quoted,up in angus, Scotland I would be getting £180/£200 per day
As for lee cooper doing it in 3 days , I don’t think I could give my customers a quality job doing it that quick so I wouldn’t even try it, my name is good about all the prep I do, but each to there own,
Brilliant website guys , great to read all the different feedback.
thank you mate
Looking how much some of you charge on here, I can’t afford it! Luckily I know a very experienced good decorator who doesn’t charge like a rhino!
Does he / she live in poverty? Running a business is quite expensive
😵💫 200 per day!
I’ll just watch a few YouTube tutorials and do it myself
Let us know how you get on
£200 PE, 9 HOURS AT £15 PER HOUR =£135 LABOUR ALONE, NOW LETS CONSIDER.. TRAVEL COST, VAN UPKEEP, TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT, SOME ACTUAL PROFIT, AND TAXES.. £15 AN HOUR IS APPROX £31 K A YEAR.. NOT EXACTLY COINING IT IN..
I Want a good decorator better still an excellent decorator. I have been over this district and have been so disappointed with people work hence the room now has to be wall papered. I am an OAP and love nice things to be perfect. I only have this one room at the moment, has I have some one who told me later he was not really a decorator. Now I am going to have it papered. I cannot waste my time and money one people who have not trade qualification -Sorry if this sounds harsh I am a bunny really but the above has made me so mad-Thank You.
The room is a open lounge/kitchen I would say one day should finish this work