How Long Does It Take To Paint A Bedroom

How Long Does It Take To Paint A Bedroom

How long does it takes to paint a room? A great question with various answers. In todays article I'm going to use a previous example of an average sized bedroom 13ft x 14ft with a small bay window.

The house was built approximately 55 years ago and all plaster work was original. Renovations prior to painting consisted of a 3 column upright radiator, wooden flooring and MDF skirting and architrave fitted.

Job consisted of restoring plaster work, removing polystyrene coving and painting both walls and ceiling with Little Greene Intelligent Matt Emulsion. Woodwork was to be finished with Little Greene Intelligent Eggshell.

Preparing Old Walls For Painting

As I mentioned earlier the house was several decades old and the plaster was in poor condition, (pitted, scraped, scuffs, gouges) with plaster patches after a rewire.

Normally you could use a Hand Sander or Pole Sander to remove any roughness from the plaster prior to painting. Unfortunately In this example, extreme measures where required.

Earlier last year I purchased a Mirka Deros Orbital Sander and Mirka Dust Extractor for the purposes of restoring plaster and removing harmful dust particles.

Mirka manufacture the best orbital sanders, without it I would have been forced to either turn down the job. Or alternatively advice that the walls and ceiling where freshly skimmed.

At the very bottom of this post I have included a gallery of Before & After photos showing the condition of the room at start of the project and at the end.

Sanding Walls Before Painting

Total time sanding walls and ceiling = 12 hours

Shocked? I agree, 12 hours is a long time prepping a room before painting. Below I have detailed the process and time taken.

1) Sanded both walls and ceiling using 80 Grade Abranet Discs attached to Mirka Deros Sander
2) Filled walls and ceiling using Toupret Interior Filler
3) Continued sanding, still using 80 grade abranet disc
4) Second fill, again using Toupret Interior Filler
5) More sanding using a finer 120 Grade Abranet Disc
6) Base coated the walls with Macpherson Eclipse Matt Emulsion
7) Continue to fill once paint was dry
8) Waited 24 hours before final LIGHT sand with 120 grade abranet disc

I should mention that 12 hours did not include drying times for filler. It does however include, base coating walls and ceiling, caulking around the ceiling, skirting boards, architrave, window and edges of walls.

Painters TIP: When filling scrapes, dinges, and holes, use an LED Inspection Lamp or Daylight Work Lamp. Shine the light upwards against the wall and you will be amazed by how much light reveals. The technique is particularly effective as natural light fades.

How Long Does It Take To Paint A Room

Once the preparation process is finished your ready to start painting. As I was going to be painting using a designer paint brand (Little Greene) which is expensive. Base coating the walls and ceiling is recommended for several reasons.

1) Due to the extensive sanding process there where more than a dozen patches of exposed plaster. Not to mention the 2 kilos of Toupret Interior Filler now on the walls and ceiling. Base coating the walls and ceiling with Macpherson Eclipse Matt Emulsion helped to seal the patches of bare plaster and filler.

2) Exposed plaster must be mist coated before painting. When using an expensive brand of paint, coating the walls and ceiling first will seal the plaster, reduce paint absorption and increase paint coverage.

Order Of Painting A Room

Each painter has their preferred order when comes to painting a room. Below is how I paint a room and achieve a professional finish.

1) Paint the ceiling first, wait 2 – 4 hours then apply the second coat.

2) Woodwork is next, during the preparation process I had filled, sanded and undercoated skirting boards, window sill and architrave. I applied the first coat of Little Greene Intelligent Eggshell waited until dry (2 hours) then lightly sanded all woodwork with a 120 Grade Foam Sanding Block before applying the final coat of eggshell.

3) I waited 24 hours after painting woodwork then masked of skirting boards using Scotchblue Painter's Masking Tape. I use the 38mm width version and let the excess hang over the skirting boards acting as a paint shield.

4) Finally I painted the walls, waited 2 – 4 hours before applying the second, finish coat of paint.

Painters TIP: Freshly applied paint goes through a curing process, it very easy to damage paint work before it has a chance to harden (cure). For this reason it is a good idea to wait at least 24 hours before moving furniture back into the room.

How Long Does It Take To Paint A Room = 17.5 hours

From start to finish including all prep work, base coating walls and ceiling, final coats of eggshell and emulsion. The total amount of "Working Hours" calculated over 3 days was 17.5 hours.

Little Greene Intelligent Matt Emulsion Review

How Much Does It Cost To Paint A Room

Below is a complete breakdown of materials and labour costs

• Little Greene Intelligent Matt Emulsion 7.5 litres: £126
• Little Greene Intelligent Eggshell 1 litre: £31
• Toupret Interior Filler 2 kg: £15.94
• 1/4 Roll Scotchblue Masking Tape: £2.10
• Zinsser 123 Bullseye Primer: £5
• 5 Litres Macpherson Eclipse Matt Emulsion: 18.99
• 4 Abranet Sanding Discs: £3
• Labour at 17.5 hours over 3 days: £360

Cost To Paint A Room Professionally = £563.03

What if the room had of been re-skimmed (plastered) prior to painting, how much more would it have cost. For an average sized room 13ft x 14ft based on my location, Northern Ireland. Replastering a room would have cost between £350 – £500 including materials.

If we were to base the figure on the lower amount of £350 then add the cost of paint and labour. The total cost would have been £796 taking into account the reduction in toupret filler, abranet sanding discs and labour.

NOTE: Prices for labour have not accounted for drying times of (filler, primer, emulsion paints) . As a professional painter, jobs are booked on a per day basis taking into account drying times.

I charge £120 per day, pricing this job for a customer, I estimated 3 days labour at £360 not including materials.

Obviously if you were painting the room yourself you would save money on labour costs, but would need to hire a professional orbital sander and dust extraction system.

A full list of painting tools used can be found in an earlier article, "How To Paint A Room Like A professional".

Time To Paint A Room (gallery)

In case you're curious the colours are Little Greene (slaked lime) and for woodwork Little Green (shirting)

Clear Cut Painting delivers professional painting services across the North Down area to include (bangor, newtownards, holywood).

Disclaimer

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me (Andrew Firth). For questions about this blog, please contact andrew@clearcutpainting.co.uk

Some posts contain Amazon affiliate links. I may earn a small commission when those links are clicked on and a product is purchased. There is no additional costs to you.

The compensation received will NEVER influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely mine.

How Long Does It Take To Paint A Bedroom

Source: https://clearcutpainting.co.uk/how-long-does-it-take-to-paint-a-room/