Nobody wants decorators in the house longer than necessary. Here is what the schedule usually looks like, and what makes it stretch.
A single room
Walls and ceiling in an average bedroom: one to two days. Add woodwork — skirtings, a door, a window — and it becomes two to three, because paint has to dry between coats and woodwork is hand work.
Hallway, stairs and landing
Usually two to four days despite the small floor area. It is the hardest space in the house: working over a stairwell needs proper access, there is a lot of spindle and balustrade hand-painting, and everything has to stay usable while the work happens.
A full house repaint
For a three-bedroom home, allow one to two weeks for walls, ceilings and woodwork throughout, depending on the condition of the existing surfaces and how much filling is needed.
A kitchen respray
Two to three days. The kitchen stays usable for most of it — the doors are what leave, not the units.
What adds days
The usual culprits:
- New plaster that needs a full mist coat and drying time
- Heavy filling, cracked walls or old artex
- Stripping wallpaper — always slower than it looks
- Dark to light colour changes needing extra coats
- Woodwork that has never been prepared properly
- Damp that has to be traced and dealt with first
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Common questions
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