Teesside decorating FAQs

£150 to £400 for a standard bedroom, £300 to £600 for a lounge, £400 to £800 for hall, stairs and landing, £150 to £350 in labour to paper a room, from £200 for a set of woodwork, £600 to £1,200 to spray a kitchen and £500 to £1,500 for a house exterior.

Yes. The rooms get looked at, the price comes back in writing, and you decide in your own time. No charge and no pressure.

The preparation listed, the products and finishes named per surface, the number of coats, what protection is provided, the days on site, and what happens to waste at the end.

Usually. Set-up, protection and travel are paid once instead of repeatedly, and continuous work prices better than repeated single visits months apart.

Because it is most of the labour. Filling, sanding, caulking and stain blocking take longer than applying paint, and they are what decide whether the finish still looks right in three years.

Yes, a thinned mist coat first so the plaster absorbs it evenly, then two full coats. Paint applied straight onto fresh skim peels away in sheets later.

With a stain blocking primer, yes. Emulsion alone will let them bleed back through however many coats go on, so the blocker should be in the quote.

You can. A decorator buying on a trade account often gets a better product for the same money, so it is worth asking what the difference costs before deciding.

One to two days for a straightforward bedroom, longer where old plaster needs work or a strong colour is being covered. Hall, stairs and landing is typically two to three days.

Nearly always. Modern water-based paints are low odour and touch dry within a couple of hours, and the work runs room by room so you keep somewhere to sleep and cook.

Move small and fragile items yourself. Bulky furniture gets shifted to the middle of the room and sheeted, and floors are covered before any tin is opened.

Between spring and early autumn on this coast, with May to July the reliable window. Masonry paint needs dry surfaces and temperatures above roughly five degrees.

Matt on ceilings and most walls, a wipeable matt or silk in kitchens, bathrooms and busy hallways. The finishes guide compares them properly.

Oil-based gloss ambers with age, faster in rooms with little daylight. Water-based satin or gloss keeps its colour and is the usual replacement.

Only if it is sound, well stuck and not heavily textured. Lifting seams and embossed patterns telegraph through, so stripping first gives the better result.

For sound carcasses and working hinges, usually yes: £600 to £1,200 rather than thousands, a few days rather than weeks, and the worktops and appliances stay where they are.