How Long Does It Take to Redecorate a Whole House?

Painting itself is often the quick part. Most of the time goes on preparation: filling, sanding, stripping old wallpaper, filling gaps and priming. A house whose walls are in good condition goes much faster than one that needs significant repair. Older homes in Sutton Coldfield, with decades of paint on the woodwork and old plaster underneath, often need more preparation than newer ones. That's why timings are only reliable once the decorator has seen the property, or at least good photos of it.

More rooms and bigger rooms mean more time, but ceiling height, stairs and the amount of woodwork matter as much as floor area. A hallway, stairs and landing can take as long as several bedrooms, because of the height, the access needed and the amount of detail. Count every space, including cloakrooms, utility rooms and landings, when you plan.

Paint has to dry between coats, and some products need longer than others. Woodwork finishes in particular need time to harden, and new plaster has to dry before it takes paint properly. A job with three coats takes longer than one with two, and cold or damp weather slows drying. A decorator can often work on another room while paint dries, but it limits how much can be rushed.

An empty house is the quickest to decorate, because the decorator can work freely in every room at once. If you're living there, the work is usually planned room by room so you always have somewhere to eat, sleep and wash. That's perfectly workable, but it adds time, because furniture has to be moved, rooms have to be put back in use and the work can't always run in parallel.

On a full redecoration the usual order is preparation first, then ceilings, then walls, then woodwork, with floors protected throughout. Some decorators do woodwork first. Either way, a sensible order avoids drips on finished surfaces and gives each coat time to dry. If you're having new flooring, a kitchen or carpets fitted, the decorating should be coordinated with those trades. Decorating before new carpets go down saves a lot of protection and clearing up.

Wallpaper adds stripping, lining paper and drying time before hanging, and patterned papers need careful matching. Specialist finishes can need longer between stages. Exterior painting depends on the weather. It needs dry spells, so a long wet period can push dates back, and surfaces need time to dry before they're painted.

Without promising anything for your particular house: a single room with straightforward preparation is often a matter of days, while redecorating a whole house is usually a matter of weeks, and larger or older houses take longer. Treat any figure as an estimate until the work has been properly scoped, and ask what the estimate assumes.

The most common causes are:

• colours or finishes not being decided in time
• wallpaper or materials arriving late
• hidden problems, such as damp, loose plaster or old coatings that need dealing with
• rooms that aren't cleared or access that isn't arranged
• bad weather on exterior work
• changes to the scope once work has started

Decide your colours and finishes before the start date, and order any wallpaper in good time. Clear the rooms or agree who moves what, and make sure the decorator has access when they need it. Agree any changes in writing, so everyone knows how they affect the timetable and the price. If other trades are involved, share the dates between everyone. And ask for a realistic estimate with a start window, not a promise to the day. A little flexibility on your side usually saves more time than anything else.