Painting and Decorating Cost Per Square Metre
The quick answer
Short answer: most domestic decorating is priced by the room or by the job, not per square metre, because preparation and cutting in take longer than coverage does. Rate per square metre is genuinely useful on large open surfaces such as render, floors and commercial walls, where there is little detail to work around.
These are guide ranges based on our real project costs across Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds.
No pressure either way, but if you want a figure for your own property, get a free quote.
How to work out your own square metre figure
Measure each wall length and multiply by height, add them together, then subtract large openings such as patio doors. For a rough guide, a 4m by 4m room with 2.4m ceilings has around 38m2 of wall plus 16m2 of ceiling. Dividing a quoted room price by that total gives you a comparable rate between quotes.
When a square metre rate is the right way to price
Large uninterrupted areas suit metre rates: masonry and render, warehouse and retail walls, epoxy and floor coatings, and big ceilings. In those cases coverage really is the main cost, so a rate scales fairly.
It works badly on rooms full of detail. A small bathroom with tiling, a window reveal, an extractor and boxed pipework can cost more than a plain room twice its size. Pricing that by the metre would either overcharge you or leave the decorator cutting corners on preparation.
Comparing quotes fairly
Rather than forcing everything into a metre rate, compare quotes on scope: how many coats, whether woodwork is included, what filling and priming is specified, and which paint products are named. Two quotes with the same headline number can be very different jobs.
Common Questions
Why will you not just give me a rate per m2?
Because it would misprice most homes. Preparation, access and detail drive the hours far more than area does, so a flat metre rate would be unfair on detailed rooms and inaccurate on plain ones. For large open surfaces we are happy to quote that way.
How much paint does a square metre need?
As a working figure, one litre of emulsion covers roughly 10 to 12m2 per coat on prepared plaster, and less on bare or porous surfaces that drink the first coat. Two coats is standard.
Does a larger job cost less per square metre?
Usually, yes. Setup, protection and access are fixed costs, so they spread further across a bigger area.
Next step, whenever you are ready
Nothing here commits you to anything. If you want the detail on how the work is actually done, or a price for your own town, these are the useful next pages.