This is the least settled figure of the six. MyBuilder alone publishes three different day rates for a painter and decorator on one page, £150 to £250, £127 to £271 and £150 to £300, and a fourth of £250 to £350 elsewhere on its own site. Taken together the guides span £127 to £350 a day.
Day rate
£127 to £350 a day
Hourly rate
£16 to £40 an hour
All figures are labour only, before materials. Whether VAT comes on top depends on whether the trade is VAT registered, so ask. The band is the widest span across the guides listed, not an average, and not a price anyone is committed to.
Preparation, filling, sanding, painting and wallpapering, usually the last trade in the room.
These are the published figures, copied as they stand rather than averaged into one number. Read down the column and you can see how far apart they sit.
Checkatrade, How much do tradespeople cost in the UK in 2026
Day: £250 to £350
Hour: £30 to £40
Last updated April 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
MyBuilder, How much does a painter and decorator cost 2026
Day: Three ranges on one page: £150 to £250 in the summary, £127 to £271 in the rate table, £150 to £300 in the questions at the foot
Hour: £16 to £38
A fourth figure, £250 to £350, appears for the same trade in the trade table on the MyBuilder builder day rate page.
No date on the page, 2026 in the title, checked 13 August 2026.
Superscript, What are tradesperson pay rates for 2026
Day: £150 to £220
Hour: £20 to £35
Published 16 February 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
These are three publishers, not three surveys of what people actually paid. Four ranges are identical in the Checkatrade and MyBuilder trade tables, and Superscript names Checkatrade as one of its own inputs. Where the guides agree, that agreement carries less weight than it looks like it does. The day rates overview sets out which ranges overlap and what each publisher says it used.
None of the three day rate guides above prints a London figure for this trade. A fourth guide does: MyJobQuote, the source behind the DIY savings page on this site, puts a painter and decorator in the capital at £250 to £350 a day against a lower rate elsewhere in the country. That London range is the same one Checkatrade prints as its national figure for the trade, £250 to £350, which is a fair measure of how little agreement there is here. Read it as one publisher splitting its own market, not as an uplift you can apply to any of the bands above.
Source: MyJobQuote, Painter and Decorator Cost Guide (Updated 20 July 2026), checked 13 August 2026.
No published London uplift survives its own source. MyBuilder claims 20 to 40% above the national average and then prints a regional table on the same page showing London at £233 against Manchester at £196, a gap of about 19%. That is why this site publishes no single London percentage.
Source: MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026 (No date on the page, 2026 in the title), checked 13 August 2026.
The full contradiction, with the regional table it rests on, is on the day rates overview. Regional differences across project types are set out in renovation costs by region.
On a day rate the risk that the job runs long sits with you; on a fixed price it sits with the trade. Ask for a fixed price wherever the scope can be written down, and keep the day rate for work where nobody can say what is behind the wall until it is open.
Ask for a price per room, with the preparation written out: how many coats, what gets filled and sanded, whether woodwork is included, who moves the furniture. A day rate on decorating is where quotes drift, because preparation is invisible in the final result and easy to leave out of both the price and the argument afterwards.
Whichever model you agree, put it in writing before the first morning. The contract checklist lists what a written agreement needs to cover, why quotes differ explains the gaps that make two prices for the same job look nothing alike, and the day rates overview sets out when each model is the honest one.
A day rate is labour and nothing else. Materials, VAT, waste, scaffolding, the other trades on site, the minimum charge on a short visit and a contingency for what nobody priced all sit on top of it, and together they routinely add more than the labour band itself.
Each of those is priced out, with its source, on the day rates overview. The buffer has a page of its own in renovation contingency, and skips are priced in skip hire cost.
A day rate on its own tells you very little, because the number that matters is days multiplied by rate, plus everything above. Price the whole job first, then use the day rate to sense check the labour line inside it.
Most projects need several of these on site, each on their own rate. The day rates overview puts all six side by side.
Rate guides are republished without notice, so every figure here carries the date it was checked. Where a guide contradicts itself, this page shows both numbers rather than picking the flattering one. A written quote from a local trade beats all of it.
Cost guides written about one job print their own trade rates for that job, taken from the guide that priced it, so a figure on a project page here can sit inside the band above or a little outside it. The band on this page is the widest span across three general rate guides; a project page reads the guide that priced that project, which sets its own rates on its own date. Where two pages differ, each says which guide it read and on what date. The rates behind a single job are worked out in DIY savings and in load-bearing wall removal cost.
How this site handles prices and sources is set out in how we price.
This is the least settled figure of the six trades on this site. MyBuilder alone publishes three different day rates on one page, £150 to £250, £127 to £271 and £150 to £300, and a fourth of £250 to £350 in the trade table on another of its pages. Checkatrade gives £250 to £350 and Superscript £150 to £220. Taken together the guides span £127 to £350 a day.
Preparation, which is most of the job and invisible in the finished result. Sound walls need a fill and a sand. Old gloss, damaged plaster or wallpaper to strip can double the hours before any topcoat goes on. Two quotes that look far apart are often pricing different amounts of preparation rather than different rates.
Ask for a price per room with the preparation written out: how many coats, what gets filled and sanded, whether woodwork is included, who moves the furniture, and who makes good afterwards. A day rate on decorating is where quotes drift, because the preparation that takes the time is the part nobody can see once the work is done.
None of the three day rate guides used for this page gives a London figure for the trade. MyJobQuote, the guide behind the DIY savings page on this site, does: it puts a painter and decorator in the capital at £250 to £350 a day against a lower rate elsewhere. That is one publisher splitting its own market, and its London range is the same one Checkatrade prints as a national figure, so treat it as an indication and price your own postcode with quotes.