I'm looking for someone to wallpaper a bedroom for me, I've been quoted £250 and I think that is ridiculous. One guy quoted me £120 but fully booked until December.
Will depend on the wallpaper and the size of the room. If it's a small room and plain wallpaper it's going to cost less than a bigger room with pattened wallpaper, where the next piece has to be papered to match.
I work in the construction industry and decorators tend to charge anywhere from £150 - £200 per day labour, with materials on top I'd say what you've been qouted at £250 doesnt seem too unreasonable but depends on room size and quality of wallpaper.
The reason the blokes booked up until Christmas is because he's cheap. I'm a decorator, and I base my quotes around £150 per day, plus materials, sometimes more, sometimes a bit less if quiet. Did you get a written quote detailing which each was going to do within their price, Ie preparation? I'll be quite honest and say that I seldom entertain pricing jobs in Barnsley or even my own area. It's a waste of time.
Thing with decorating or a few building trades. you always get the ones who have no experience or little and think they can do it "chancers" or the ones wanting to top their benifits up. Near me they is a local Facebook page people often ask for decorator recommends, tradesmen get tagged and others offer their service. A few of I wouldn't let decorate my Xmas tree never mind house. Sometimes pay cheap pay twice.
One of problems with decorating is that it's so easy to go to the sheds and buy some cheap tools and call yourself a tradesman. I go out and do jobs where I think, "did I really need to do all that prep and put two coats on?", because the customer wasn't expecting that level of attention, and the previous decorator certainly didn't bother, but I have pride in my work and can't change my ways. I have a dustless sanding machine which cost me over £700 quid, and I try to keep abreast and offer all the latest products, but sadly, it's not warranted with some customers, they just want an in and out merchant. You can be too expensive but never too cheap for some people. A lot of it is education. Sometimes when I explain that I can't charge them less than I pay the lad that works for me, you can see the cogs finally turning, or when you explain that the previous "decorator" only charged them £50 a day, because he either already had a full time job, was on the dole or had a pension to supplement, plus he probably didn't drive so they had to pick him up, drop him off and bring all the gear! The people that are really rip off merchants are the cheap, unskilled ones, because you're effectively paying them to do something only slightly better than you could do yourself.
