Get More Decorating Work
Written by James Walker · Last reviewed 16 August 2026
James Walker has 2 degrees in construction (BSc (Hons) Building Surveying · MSc Environmental Design of Buildings) and an extensive background in issue resolution, resolving over £4 billion of consumer issues.
The short answer
- This is the most price-competitive domestic trade, and preparation is the invisible variable.
- A cheaper quote almost always means fewer coats or less prep.
- Specify both, in writing. It is the only way a customer can compare properly.
- Repeat domestic customers are the backbone, decorating recurs in a way most trades do not.
- Commercial and landlord work smooths the seasonal dips.
On this page
Why decorating quotes get turned down
Because the finished job looks the same on day one either way.
Preparation is most of the work and none of it is visible once painted. Two quotes differ by a third, and the difference is sanding, filling, priming, and a third coat, none of which the customer can see or evaluate.
They pick the lower one. It looks fine, and eighteen months later it is flaking off unsanded gloss.
What the customer is actually weighing
Price, tidiness, and whether you will be in their house for a week or three days.
Decorating is unusually intrusive, you are in occupied rooms, moving furniture, for days. How you handle that is a real part of the decision.
Where the work comes from
Repeat customers. Decorating recurs on a cycle in a way an extension does not. A customer well served comes back every few years and refers.
Landlords and agents, between tenancies, fast, repeatable, and it fills gaps.
Builders, for making good and finishing.
Commercial work, which is less seasonal than domestic.
What separates you from the quote below yours
Specify coats and preparation per surface. "Two coats over sanded and primed woodwork" against "painted" is the whole difference, and putting it in writing forces the comparison your competitor is avoiding.
Say what you do about wallpaper. What is beneath is unknown, and making good afterwards is a real cost. Addressing it prevents the mid-job dispute.
Cover and protect visibly. Customers judge decorators on tidiness more than on cutting-in.
Give a realistic duration and hold it. In an occupied house this matters as much as the finish.
Making the money conversation easy
Where you supply materials, a payment against the order is reasonable. Otherwise no deposit at all, and saying so is a straightforward advantage in a trade where customers are wary.
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Common questions
- Will this work for my kind of job?
- It suits planned work with clear stages best. Very short reactive jobs move too fast for staged payments.
- Does the customer have to agree?
- Yes. They approve each stage before it is released, which is the part that reassures them.
- Do I still take a deposit?
- Yes, as a capped kick-off with a stated reason for what it covers.
- How does it help me win work?
- It removes the objection you are currently losing quotes to without ever being told.