What should a decorator’s quote actually include?

A decorating quote can look reassuringly professional on paper while still leaving out details that end up causing disagreement later, so it's worth knowing exactly what a properly detailed quote should cover before agreeing to any job, however small it seems.

At a minimum, a proper quote should clearly state labour costs, materials costs, preparation work, and clean-up at the end of the job, rather than a single bundled figure with no breakdown. It should specify exactly what work is being done — which rooms or surfaces, what type of work (painting, plastering, wallpapering, or a combination), the number of coats to be applied, and, where relevant, the specific paint brand and colour that's been agreed, rather than a vague reference to "standard paint." For plastering or wallpapering specifically, the quote should also make clear whether preparation work like minor repairs, filling cracks, or stripping old wallpaper is included in the price or will be charged separately if it turns out to be needed once work starts.

One distinction worth understanding clearly before agreeing anything: a quotation and an estimate are not the same thing, even though the words get used loosely in everyday conversation. A quotation is a fixed price for a defined scope of work — if the job matches what was described, the price shouldn't change once work is underway. An estimate is a rough indication of likely cost that can genuinely change once the decorator gets into the job and finds out more — for instance, discovering that a wall needs a full re-plaster rather than a simple skim once old wallpaper is stripped back. Neither approach is inherently wrong, but it matters enormously which one you've actually been given, since an estimate carries real risk of the final bill being different from the number first discussed. Asking directly "is this a fixed quotation, or an estimate that could change" is a simple, worthwhile question before signing off on any job.

Waste removal is another detail that's easy to overlook until it becomes a point of friction at the end of a job — offcuts of wallpaper, old paint tins, dust sheets, and stripped-off old wallpaper all need disposing of somehow, and it's worth confirming upfront whether this is included in the quoted price or will be an additional charge, and roughly what "clean and tidy on completion" actually means in practice for that specific decorator.

Beyond the scope of work itself, a properly detailed quote should also give a realistic timeline — roughly how many days the job will take, and, importantly, how long the homeowner needs to wait before a room can actually be used normally again, particularly relevant for plastering work with its own drying-time considerations before final coats of paint can go on. It's reasonable to expect a start date, at least an approximate finish date, and clarity on what happens if the job overruns for reasons within the decorator's control versus reasons outside it, such as discovering unexpected damp or damage once work has started.

Given how much genuine variation exists between decorators — in day rates, in what's included as standard, and in whether materials are supplied by the tradesperson or the homeowner — getting at least two or three comparable quotes for the same clearly described job is the most reliable way to judge whether a specific price is reasonable. It's worth providing exactly the same description of the work to each decorator being asked to quote, since a lower price that turns out to exclude preparation work, or assumes the homeowner supplies materials, isn't actually a genuine like-for-like comparison against a higher quote that includes everything. A written quote, even a fairly informal one sent by email or text, is always worth having over a purely verbal agreement, however trustworthy the decorator seems in person — it gives both sides something clear to refer back to if there's any disagreement once the job is under way.

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