day rate and expectations of work volume per day

I couldn't do 2 rooms in 2 days, walls, ceilings, woodwork, stripping, filling, painting and hanging wallpaper. Can I have his number as I need my kitchen doing?

Pay him.
 
Where are you roughly in the country? £100 is very very cheap, how is his work so far?
Unless he is an amateur or DIYer with free time and bored would do for such low pay.
You will be very lucky to find decorator below £150 a day, I am in UB9 area.
his work is as how I would do things myself. Before doing the decorating for myself he had installed and tiled a bathroom for a neighbour which is how I discovered him. He charged her the same £100 per day but she said he kept finding serious faults from the previous bathroom install
 
Imo pay him what it takes. Sounds like he's doing a thorough job. Slow and steady. Overall final figure will still be good by the sound of it.

Interesting the number of replies on here saying to never pay a day rate. How do you negotiate extras / problems found? If these are included for then you'll be paying a higher fixed-price anyway.
Similarly, I've had older, more experienced tradesmen say that they won't work to a fixed-price as too many unknowns and too much risk.

At the end of the day you have to go on gut-feeling, trust and what sits right with you.
 
It ain't rocket science, trader would ask pay per day because he can work slow and get his rates for as long as he wishes. How long is a string!

Get a fixed rate for the job and price extras separately. Simple.
 
Last edited:
Imo pay him what it takes. Sounds like he's doing a thorough job. Slow and steady. Overall final figure will still be good by the sound of it.

Interesting the number of replies on here saying to never pay a day rate. How do you negotiate extras / problems found? If these are included for then you'll be paying a higher fixed-price anyway.
Similarly, I've had older, more experienced tradesmen say that they won't work to a fixed-price as too many unknowns and too much risk.

At the end of the day you have to go on gut-feeling, trust and what sits right with you.
A good tradesman will give a fixed price and specify that any hidden problems will be fixed as extra, price to be arranged.
I would always stop and show the customer what the unexpected problem is and charge a fair price because obviously I'm already on site and have tools there.
 
I asked him to decorate 2 rooms, .
The task was to remove wall paper, emulsions ceilings and walls and paint all woodwork and door. He said it would take a couple of days so I hired him.

Day 1 he removed the wallpaper and the emulsion paint pulled off with it. He then spent the rest of the day removing the patchy paint with a hand scrapper and then applied a mist coat.
Would you rather he didn’t remove your patchy paint and make good before painting/papering? Did you expect him to repair your rotten walls for free?

Pay him and give him a bit extra for those 11 hour days he did.
 
Can you guys imagine if you're building an extension, builder says takes about 2 months and ask pay per day but actual work takes 3/4 months :LOL:
 
Back
Top