Painting Cost Calculator UK: 2026 Prices in GBP
UK painters and decorators charge around £15 per square metre for interior walls in 2026, £250–350 per day, and £350–1,000 per room depending on size — figures from Checkatrade's Painting and Decorating Cost Breakdown 2026 (last updated September 2026; checked by us 2026-10). The prices include regular trade paint. One honest caveat up front: our interactive calculators price in US dollars, so this page is your GBP reference — the wall-area math below works anywhere.
Quick answer: UK painting costs 2026 (Checkatrade, verified 2026-10): interior walls £15/m² (range £10–20); ceilings £15/m² (£10–20); exterior £20/m² (£15–25); whole house by floor area £50/m² (£40–60). Rooms: small (8m² floor) £350; medium (18m²) £450; large (30m²) £1,000. Labour: ~£32/hour, £250–350/day (avg £300). Prices include regular trade paint; premium brands cost extra.
How much do painters and decorators charge in the UK in 2026?
Around £32 per hour or £250–350 per day, with £300 the national average day rate (Checkatrade 2026, verified 2026-10). Most room jobs are quoted as a fixed price rather than hourly — the per-m² and per-room figures below are what those quotes actually cluster around.
| Job (UK, 2026) | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interior walls — per m² | £10 | £15 | £20 |
| Ceilings — per m² | £10 | £15 | £20 |
| Exterior — per m² | £15 | £20 | £25 |
| Whole house — per m² of floor area | £40 | £50 | £60 |
| Wallpapering (labour only) — per m² | £12 | £14 | £16 |
| Woodwork — per m² | £12 | £15 | £18 |
How much does it cost to paint a room in the UK?
£350 for a small room (8m² floor area), £450 for a medium room (18m²), up to £1,000 for a large room (30m²) — average Checkatrade 2026 figures including regular trade paint, verified 2026-10. For reference, a 12×12 ft room (3.7×3.7 m) has about 31m² of wall — the medium-to-large bracket. ceilings, heavy prep and premium paint push toward the top of each range.
| Room size (floor area) | Average cost (incl. paint) | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Small room — 8m² | £350 | Light prep, one colour, walls only |
| Medium room — 18m² | £450 | Standard repaint, walls + woodwork touches |
| Large room — 30m² | £1,000 | Ceilings in, dark-to-light change, premium paint |
How much to paint a whole house in the UK?
Checkatrade's 2026 house figures: a 2-bedroom flat runs about £2,000 (range £1,500–2,500), a 5-bedroom house about £6,000 (range £5,500–7,500), and hallways, landing and stairs about £1,600 (£1,450–1,750). On a per-m² basis the whole-house rate is £50/m² of floor area (£40–60) — for a typical 80m² UK flat that's roughly £4,000 (£3,200–4,800).
How do UK painting prices compare to US prices?
Different markets, so compare bands rather than converting. The US market quotes professional interior work at $2–6 per square foot of wall — which is $21.5–64.6 per m² of wall (our 2026 US band, verified 2026-10) — against the UK's £10–20 per m². The US band reads higher in nominal terms, but US quotes more often include more prep and two coats as standard, while the UK figures above include regular trade paint. Treat them as two separate price systems and sanity-check with a local quote either way.
Can I use the PaintCalcs calculators for UK prices?
The GBP figures, no — our interactive calculators price in US dollars with US labor bands, and we'd rather tell you that than convert roughly. The wall-area math, though, is universal: measure 2 × (length + width) × height in metres, subtract doors and windows, and you have the m² you're buying. Multiply by £15 (the 2026 UK average) for a quote-check number, or run the dimensions through our interior calculator for the gallon count and the structure of a fair quote.
What PaintCalcs doesn't do
- Our interactive calculators price in US dollars — this page is a GBP reference guide, not a working UK calculator (yet).
- We don't source UK data ourselves: the figures here are Checkatrade's 2026 breakdown (updated September 2026), checked by us in 2026-10 — if their guide updates, re-verify before relying on it.
- We don't dispatch UK decorators or produce quotes in GBP.
- The 3-bed house figure is our interpolation from the published bands, flagged as such — not a sourced number.