UP NORF…. what have you guys paid to get the decorators in? I’m asking because my brother is starting a business and i’ve told him he is charging too little (£75 per day) His work is very good but unsure of what rates are excluding any supplies, for residential. Cheers guys !

Self-employed? I’d guess £120. At least. But your bro will get plenty of business and he can always put his rates up gradually.

At £75 a day he’ll not even be on minimum wage as self employed once unpaid holiday, sick and expenses are accounted for.

Yes, £120 a day minimum for 8 hours.
Even £120/day works at only ~£10/hour after the travelling/estimate or quote visits/ paperwork and visits to suppliers are taken into account.
Charging stupidly low prices puts you in a position where you do a job cheap, those people recommend you to their friends, who want you as you are cheap, they recommend you to their friends, and it goes on.You are always busy, but taking home £350 a week.
Eventually, you lose interest as you are not earning enough to make it worthwhile, and due to the customers you have, you cant get out of that rut.
I know as I’ve done it.

Thank you for input thus far. 😮

approx 25/hr, but at fixed price work my quotes tend to yield 1.5-2x that on an effective rate.
But, that’s working in million+ second homes with no homeowners resident (not uk/up norf).
At 75/day, I’d rather be working for someone else and skip the stress.
There’s no room for costing in errors, overuns from something missed in quotes, marketing and insurance.

Unless his days are only 3 hours long then that is way too low a rate.

Think I paid a decorator about that. I’m near Durham. He worked like a dog for two days doing my flat. Bargain 🙂

Oh, I supplied paint and had to wait about 3 months as he’s a busy bloke

Busy fool at £75 a day!!!!!!

Trying to remember. It was about £500 for a room (labour as I supplied the paint). Took him about 4 days so £125.

He didn’t do equal hours across all 4 days. Prep was done over long days but the final day was shorter.

I’d never pay a decorator by the day. I’d pay him to do the job with an estimate of how long he thought it would take. In general I’ve always paid people fixed price with an deadline rather than time and materials.

IME (as a chippy)half of what you charge as an hourly rate will disappear in unpaid holidays, sickness, fallow periods, looking at jobs, jobs taking longer, jobs finishing at 3.30 so you can’t start another one but haven’t worked a full shift, chasing around getting gear etc,etc,etc..
If you want to earn 25k a year you need to charge £25/hour.

Think we paid £90 a day last time. He brought all the whites too. Did two rooms over two days, great job too!
We need to get him back but with young kids we’re not sure there’s much point right now.

It’s hugely dependant on the quality of the work and the reputation. My old gaffer could charge what he liked and would always have work as he was a perfectionist and a highly skilled bloke. His order books were full of repeat customers.

Know another bloke whose van is covered in paint and I’ve heard stories of him walking paint through peoples houses. I wouldn’t let him near my house but I bet he charges more than £75 a day.

I’m up north btw, Yorkshire.

Not worth being self employed at £75 a day, as above £120 min.

I’m in Surrey and charge £150 a day.
Not sure if that’s good or not but I seem to be busy.
It’s expensive to live round here so I couldn’t really charge any less and make a worthwhile living out of it.

He should work out what he wants to make every year and divide it by the number of days that he wants to work. That’s his day rate.