Skirting Board Painting Cost in the UK: 2026 Price Guide
Most UK decorators price skirting boards by the metre, and a typical figure for boards in decent condition is about £8 to £12 per metre, rising to roughly £15 to £20 per metre when they need restoring. For an average room that usually means somewhere between £110 and £280, depending on the run of board, its condition and where you live. The rest of this guide shows how those numbers are built, so you can judge a quote when it lands on your doormat.
TL;DR
Expect roughly £8 to £12 per metre for skirting in good condition and £15 to £20 per metre for boards that need restoring, according to one 2026 UK price list.
A typical room has 12 to 16 metres of skirting, so a single room often lands between £110 and £280 on those rates.
Preparation moves the price more than the paint does: light prep adds 10 to 20%, heavy prep can double the painting cost.
Location matters: London and the South East sit well above the rest of the country, and a Cornwall or South West quote will usually be nearer the regional rate.
Ask for an itemised written quote that separates prep, paint and finish.
Table of Contents
What skirting board painting costs in the UK
There is no single national price, because decorators quote in three different ways. Painters in the UK commonly show pricing as a day rate, a room price or a measured surface price, and skirting turns up in all three. In practice you will see these figures:
How it is quoted | Typical UK range | What it means |
Per metre, boards in decent condition | £8 to £12 per metre | Clean, previously painted boards needing a light rub-down and two coats |
Per metre, boards needing restoration | £15 to £20 per metre | Chipped, flaking or heavily filled boards |
Woodwork per room (skirting, doors, frames) | £80 to £200 | A bundled price from one 2025 cost guide |
Skirting added to a room repaint | £40 to £80 per room | Where only a few features are included, per another cost guide |
The per-metre figures come from a 2026 UK decorating price list that also notes VAT treatment varies, so check whether a quote includes it. A separate guide puts skirting and door-frame painting higher, at £15 to £25 per linear metre. That spread is normal. It reflects different regions, finishes and how much preparation sits behind the number.
Treat any range as a starting point. The only price that counts is one a decorator gives you after seeing the boards.
How painters work out the price
A decorator builds a skirting quote from a few simple pieces:
Measure the run. The total linear metres of board, door by door and wall by wall.
Judge the condition. Sound boards need a light sand. Damaged ones need filling, caulking and more sanding. Guides on pricing decorating jobs describe pricing as measured metres, plus prep time, multiplied by a day rate, plus materials.
Set the finish. Satin or gloss, one undercoat or two, primer on bare wood.
Add materials and protection. Paint, filler, sandpaper, masking tape and dust sheets.
Some decorators then convert all this into a per-metre or per-room figure. Others quote by the day. Both routes should arrive at a similar total for the same job.
Day rates
If your decorator quotes by time, the day rate matters. A 2026 industry guide puts qualified decorators at £150 to £220 per day in regional areas, and £275 to £350 in London and the South East. A separate rate table shows Greater London about 35% above the national average, while the North East, Wales and Northern Ireland sit 15%, 11% and 18% below it.
Skirting alone is rarely a full day. Most of a day goes on prep and on waiting between coats, which is why small woodwork jobs often carry a minimum charge.
What pushes the cost up or down
The total run of board
More metres means a bigger bill, but the cost per metre often falls on larger jobs because set-up time is shared. A full house costs less per metre than a single hallway.
Condition and preparation
This is the biggest variable. One 2026 pricing guide suggests light preparation adds 10 to 20% to the painting price, medium preparation 20 to 40%, and heavy preparation can double it. Typical prep on skirting covers:
caulking the top edge where it meets the wall
filling nail holes and open joints
sanding back flaking or glossy paint
spot-priming bare patches before the topcoats
The same source of 2026 trade pricing says skirting decoration involves at least two topcoats after that prep, which is why a rushed single coat looks thin within a year.
Board height and profile
Tall Victorian and Edwardian skirting with moulded profiles takes longer than a plain 70mm board. More surface and more edges to cut in means more time, and time is what you pay for. Modern MDF boards arrive pre-primed and are faster to finish.
New boards versus repainting
If boards are being replaced, painting is a separate line. Quotes should make clear whether decorating is included with the fitting, otherwise you may compare a supply-and-fit price with a supply, fit and paint price.
Where you live
The same source notes that London and the South East are at the top of the UK price ranges for skirting work. In Cornwall and the wider South West, day rates tend to fall in the regional band rather than the London one, though availability in summer can lift prices.
Working around furniture
Occupied rooms take longer. Moving a sofa, lifting carpet edges and masking floors are all minutes that add up. Empty rooms are quicker and cheaper.
Worked examples
These examples are our own arithmetic on the per-metre rates above. They are illustrations, not quotes.
A double bedroom, 4m by 3.5m. The perimeter is 15m. Take off about 1m for the door and you have 14m of board.
Decent condition at £8 to £12 per metre: about £112 to £168
Needing restoration at £15 to £20 per metre: about £210 to £280
A hallway and landing, 22m of board. These often have taller boards and more cutting around stairs.
Decent condition: about £176 to £264
Needing restoration: about £330 to £440
A three-bedroom house, around 70m of board in total.
Decent condition: about £560 to £840
Needing restoration: about £1,050 to £1,400
If you are repainting whole rooms, the walls will usually be the bigger line. A full interior repaint of an average three-bedroom house typically runs £1,100 to £3,500, and that figure generally excludes detailed woodwork like skirting. So make sure your quote says whether woodwork is in or out. Our guide to interior painting costs in the UK shows how the pieces fit together.
What a good skirting quote includes
A written quote should name each of these, so you can compare like with like:
labour for preparation and painting
filling, caulking and sanding
the paint type, colour and finish (satin, gloss or water-based)
number of coats
masking and floor protection
clearing up afterwards
whether VAT is included
A 2026 pricing guide for decorators says heavy preparation should be a separate line item, so you can see what you are paying for. Most decorators also include materials in their price, with a markup of 20 to 30% on trade cost.
Get three written quotes where you can and compare the itemised lines rather than only the total. Our guide on how to hire a painter and get a great result covers what to ask before anyone starts, and the industry standards every homeowner should know will help you spot a vague quote.
Skirting alongside other woodwork
Skirting is often quoted with doors, frames and architrave, since the same prep, primer and satin or gloss coats apply. Bundling usually makes sense: the decorator already has the tins open and the room masked. If you are pricing the whole set, see our guides to door painting costs and window frame painting costs. For a view of what shapes the total across a house, read what drives the cost of home painting.
Getting a fair price without cutting corners
Skirting is low on the wall, so it takes knocks from vacuum cleaners, shoes and pets. A cheap, thin finish chips quickly and you end up paying twice. A few habits keep the cost sensible:
Bundle the work. Do skirting at the same time as walls or doors, so set-up is paid for once.
Clear the room. Moving furniture yourself before the decorator arrives saves time on the clock.
Decide the finish early. Changing from satin to gloss after the quote costs extra.
Book outside peak weeks. Decorators in holiday areas such as Cornwall are busiest in summer, and the quieter months are easier to schedule.
Ask what happens if the boards turn out worse than expected. A good quote explains how extra prep will be priced before it happens.
We would rather explain a price than defend a vague one. If you want to see how a decorator treats the detail, our walkthrough on how to paint skirting boards step by step shows the sequence we follow on site, so you know what the prep lines in a quote represent.
Does painting skirting boards add value?
Not in a way you can bank. Fresh woodwork helps a home look finished and ready to view, and one 2026 refurbishment guide links it to a 4 to 6% boost in saleability, but it adds little direct value compared with larger renovations. The case for doing it is a cleaner finish and a home that photographs and shows better.
Book your skirting painting with us
We are a family-run painting and decorating business covering Cornwall and the wider South West, run by brothers Gus and Rhys. Skirting boards, doors, frames and full interiors sit within our domestic painting service, and we also take on kitchen resprays, bathroom paintwork and fine finishing. We measure properly, tell you what the prep will involve and give you a clear quote. We do not publish fixed prices, because every house has different boards.
To get a quote for your skirting, get in touch through our site with the number of rooms and a photo or two of the boards.
Our perspective
Skirting is the job people underestimate. The paint is the cheap part. The time goes into getting old gloss to take a new coat, filling the gaps where the board meets the wall and cutting a clean line against the floor. That is why we measure first and talk about condition before we talk about money. A board that has been painted five times in thirty years needs different work from a new MDF one, and the quote should say so in plain words. We build a price from the metres, the prep and the finish, then explain each line. Done properly, with a sound base and two good topcoats, skirting stays crisp for years. That is the better value for homeowners than the lowest figure on a page. Angus
How much does it cost to paint skirting boards in an average room?
For a room with around 14 metres of board, expect roughly £110 to £170 if the boards are in decent condition and £210 to £280 if they need restoring. These are calculations from per-metre rates, and a decorator’s own measured quote will be the real figure.
Is it cheaper to paint skirting at the same time as the walls?
Usually, yes. The decorator has already protected the floors and set up, so the extra cost is mostly labour and paint. Ask for woodwork as a separate line in the quote so you can see exactly what it adds.
How long does it take to paint skirting boards?
A standard room is often done in a few hours of hands-on work, but you need to allow for drying time between coats. Heavily damaged or tall boards can take a full day or more.
Should I replace or repaint tired skirting?
If the boards are straight and sound, repainting is almost always cheaper. Replacement makes sense where boards are rotten, badly damaged or you want a different height. Check that any fitting quote says whether painting is included.
Sources
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