House Painting Cost UK – 2026 Price Guide

Painting Cost at a Glance

Typical 2026 UK prices for interior and exterior painting jobs. Decorator day rates run £180-£280/day. Paint is usually 15-25% of a job's total — labour dominates, especially on older walls that need preparation. On VAT: most sole-trader decorators trade below the £90,000 VAT-registration threshold, so their labour is quoted with no VAT added, whereas larger decorating firms above that threshold add 20% VAT — enough to lift a £3,000 whole-house repaint by about £600, so always check whether a quote is VAT-inclusive before you compare. Trade paint prices have also climbed roughly 4-6% since 2024 on higher resin and pigment costs, so budget toward the top of the material ranges below. See our 2026 painter and decorator day-rate guide and the room-by-room cost breakdown for finer benchmarks.

Painting Cost by Project Type (UK 2026)

All figures include trade paint (Dulux Trade, Johnstone's Trade, Crown Trade), minor filling, light sanding, protection of carpets/furniture, and VAT. Wall preparation (full filling, sanding, priming old plaster) adds 20-40% depending on condition. Lining paper under paint adds £80-£150/room.

What's Included in a Painting Quote

A typical whole-house interior repaint breakdown. Preparation is where quality decorators earn their money — 60% of the perceived 'finish quality' comes from prep, not the paint itself.

Painting Cost by UK Region (Whole Interior Repaint, 3-bed Semi)

Painting has moderate regional variation — materials are nationally priced but decorator day rates move significantly. London decorators typically charge £250-£320/day vs £180-£220 in the Midlands.

House Painting Costs at a Glance: 2026 Visual Guide

Room-by-room pricing is where every painting quote starts. A small bedroom runs £150–£350, a hallway with stairs and landing £450–£950 because of the access and trim involved, while a whole 3-bed semi interior is £1,500–£3,500 over five to eight days. Exterior work costs more day-for-day thanks to weather risk and access — full exterior masonry on the same semi is £1,800–£4,500.

Around three-quarters of a professional quote is labour and preparation, not paint. At 2026 day rates of £180–£280, a whole-house interior repaint carries £1,100–£2,500 in decorator labour, while the materials — trade emulsion, woodwork paint, filler, primer and dust sheets — typically total a few hundred pounds. The diagram below maps each priced element onto the part of the room it covers.

Doing it yourself saves labour but not time. Materials for a 3-bed semi interior come to £600–£900, against £2,500–£4,200 for a professional finish — but the DIY route consumes 60–90 hours across three to six weekends. If you value your time at £20+/hour, the professional’s 5–8 day turnaround and longer-lasting finish usually works out better value per year.

House Painting Costs by Town

Each town page shows local decorators, town-specific cost ranges, recent project examples and nearby areas. Compare 3 free quotes from vetted local painters & decorators.

View all 519 UK towns →

How Much to Paint One Room in the UK in 2026? Per-Room Cost Table

The most-searched UK painting cost question in 2026 is "what does one room cost?" The answer depends on room size, paint quality, prep work and whether ceilings and woodwork are included. Below is the verified Q3 2026 per-room benchmark for standard 2-coat emulsion + minor prep + decorator labour.

Prices assume good-condition walls (no major filling or stripping), Dulux Trade or Crown Trade matt emulsion, 2 coats. Heavy prep adds £80-300 per room for filling and sanding; stripping old wallpaper is a further £150-£300 per room. London + South-East adds 20-30%. Premium paint brands (Farrow & Ball, Little Greene) add £40-90/room in paint cost.

Interior vs Exterior Painting: Cost, Lifespan and Weather Window in 2026

Exterior painting costs roughly 1.4× interior per m² because of access (ladders, scaffolding), surface prep (rust, render repair) and weatherproof paint cost. But exterior paint lasts longer when done correctly (8-12 years vs 4-7 years interior), so the cost-per-year-of-life is similar.

Verdict: Exterior is more expensive per m² but lasts roughly twice as long, so cost-per-year is comparable. Plan exterior work for late spring or early autumn to avoid summer rush (5-8 week lead time in peak season).

DIY Painting vs Hiring a Decorator: 2026 Cost & Time Comparison

For a typical 3-bed UK semi interior repaint, DIY costs roughly £600-900 in materials and consumes 60-90 hours of your time. A professional decorator does the same job for £2,500-4,200 in 5-8 days. The decision turns on your hourly value, the quality you'll accept, and whether prep work (filling, sanding, sealing) is in scope.

2026 verdict: If you value your time at £20+/hour, DIY isn't economic for whole-house painting. For one or two rooms (especially low-traffic bedrooms), DIY makes sense. For lounges, hallways, stairwells (high-visibility, complex prep) and the whole-house repaint, a professional decorator typically delivers better cost-per-year-of-finish than DIY.

How we produced these figures

The cost ranges on this page come from BestBuilders’ 2026 regional cost model: published national cost guides adjusted by a regional labour index and averaged across 519 UK towns, then reviewed against published trade pricing. They are indicative ranges for a typical specification, not quotes — access, finish level and the builder’s workload move real prices either way.

Regulatory points (planning, Building Regulations, grants and VAT) are checked against current UK government guidance. Last reviewed: August 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us via the form above.

How to compare three painting quotes line by line

Three decorators will rarely quote the same number, and the lowest total often hides a smaller job. Before you pick one, line the three quotes up next to each other and check they’re pricing the same work to the same finish. Most of the gap between them comes down to a handful of things, and once you can see those, you can compare like with like.

Start with what’s actually being painted. A quote for “walls and ceilings” is a different job from one that also takes in the woodwork and skirting, so check each decorator has named the same surfaces. Then look at coats. Two coats is standard on walls, but a big colour change or a patchy old surface can need three, and a price that quietly allows only one coat will look thin within a year. If one quote spells out two coats and another stays vague, ask for the number in writing.

Prep is where quotes really split. Filling holes, sanding back and sealing bare or stained patches is most of the labour on a repaint, and it’s the first thing a keen price drops. Ask each decorator what their figure assumes – light filling, or full making-good of cracked and uneven walls – because the same room can swing a long way on how much repair is in scope. If a wall needs skimming or lining paper, make sure every quote has allowed for it, or you’re not starting from the same point.

Paint spec is the next line to match. Trade paint and cheaper retail tins behave and cost differently, and a premium heritage brand is different again, so check whether the quote names the paint or just says “paint included”. If one price is built on a cheap retail tin and another on trade paint, the totals were never going to agree. It’s fair to ask all three to price the same brand and finish when you want a clean comparison.

Last, work out how each decorator has priced the job itself. Some quote a day rate and an estimate of days; others give a fixed price for the whole job, which puts the risk of an overrun on them rather than you. A day rate can come out cheaper when the work runs smoothly, but a fixed price is easier to hold someone to. Check the practical extras too – moving furniture, protecting floors and carpets, and clearing the waste away – and confirm whether any of them stand behind the finish afterwards. When all three quotes describe the same surfaces, the same coats, the same prep and the same paint, the price difference finally tells you something.

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