Home >Home Decorating > Estimates and prices << Interior Decorating >>>

Estimates, quotes and prices

The best way is to try and get at least three estimates from similar kinds of traders. A large company will obviously charge more(because of their overheads) than a sole trader, so price comparisons between them would be unfair.
Going for the cheapest is sometimes risky. A reputable company or a genuine tradesman will not ask for money in advance, even to cover the cost of materials.
For home decorating you may want to do most of it yourself. This may take as much as ten times longer than getting a professional to do it.
Tradesmen don't often like to be asked to give quotes for just the awkward parts of a project(e.g. the upper storey of a house outside, or to wallpaper a difficult stairwell) and will charge accordingly.
There are various options open to you when asking for an estimate.

• Ask for a price which includes All labour and materials.
• Ask for a price which is for labour only; naturally you must supply all the materials.
• Ask for the job to be done on a 'time and stuff' basis. This may seem the same as the first option but it can work out much cheaper if you keep a close eye on the workers. For this you need to agree the hourly or daily rate for all labour supplied. The tradespeople may supply all or part of the materials and you supply the rest.